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“It’s nothing to some,<br />
everything to others.<br />
It’s a deadly tourist<br />
attraction and yet, an<br />
easy ego boost. It can be<br />
the pinnacle of kayaking<br />
for some and an overhyped<br />
playground for others.<br />
It can be dangerous and<br />
fun at the same time. It<br />
can create its own aura,<br />
myths and legends and<br />
perhaps it shouldn't.<br />
When you're in there,<br />
you're surrounded by<br />
tourists and cheering<br />
friends yet completely<br />
alone. You realise how<br />
small you are within<br />
the power of nature, and<br />
yet, when you clear the<br />
last drop, you feel like<br />
you've just tamed the<br />
beast, desperate to risk<br />
it all again.”<br />
Taranaki based kayaker, Jonny Kennedy<br />
So what’s it like to run Huka at high flow? One person who knows<br />
all too well is Greg Oke who, along with Nick Kerkham, made the<br />
first descent back in 1981. I managed to catch up with Greg who<br />
admits that even now, retelling the story some forty years later still<br />
brings back the shakes. Such is the power of Huka Falls.<br />
How did that first descent come about? Turns out that in<br />
December of that year the guys had come up from Palmy to<br />
spend a weekend playing at Fulljames/Nga Awa Purua Rapids.<br />
Unfortunately their plans had been scuppered by an issue at the<br />
control gates which were left wide open and couldn’t be shut for<br />
some reason. As a result, flow was in the high 200s and Nga Awa<br />
Purua was completely blown out.<br />
Committed to the drop<br />
Heading home from the weekend and with Nick feeling “antsy and<br />
bored” they stopped in to have a look at Huka, something they’d<br />
done countless times before without ever seriously considering<br />
doing the run. Only this time was different as Nick looked at Greg<br />
and said, “Should we do it?”
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