WANGANUI RIVER
WITH CANOE MATE NITA
Here's a link to photos from my past weekend: http://picasaweb.google.com/JustusPB/WanganuiNationalPark#
Spent the night in an old train station before heading to the Wanganui River. Jet boated up river to a trailhead to hike to the Bridge to Nowhere, with no roads on either side. It was built in 1935 for the farmers in the area, but soon after, most of the farmers had already left due to lack of income, so the bridge became overrun by the jungle around it. After lunching on the bridge, we got into canoes and headed downstream for 4 hours to the lodge where we were spending the night. On the way we stopped off at all the side streams, waterfalls and caves. Lots of things to check out and plenty to explore. Perfect weather for it. At the lodge, we cooked up some dinner, had s'mores out back and relaxed.
Day two, we awoke to mist surrounding the river, which soon burned off with the sun. Then it was back in the canoes and a 5 hour trip back to our cars. More waterfalls to swim under in super cold water. I lasted the longest in the water, and after was cold as hell, but well worth it. Along the way we spotted a goat on the side of the cliff, all wet and stuck. There was no where for it to go to get back up, so we got it into one of the canoes and took it 200m down river to a flat area to let it off. Saving the day as always. Towards the end we ran into 2 large caves, one on top of a waterfall, and the other one with knee deep mud all the way through. Pretty good stuff to squish around in. That wrapped up the weekend and then we drove the 3 hours back to Wellington, to get ready for the work week.
No comments:
Post a Comment