Otaki River 21st April 2002 Paddlers: Pete & Nicki Mitchell, John Western, Rob Turnbull, Kathie Stobbs, Rex Massey-Molloy, Brian Molloy, Jarrod Colbourne, Sally Taylor, Dr Paul 'Crazyman' After a seemingly long time without a club trip, Kupe finally managed to organise a trip to the mighty Otaki. The guage indicated that the river was low, but that wasn't going to stop 10 excited paddlers. We got off to the usual delayed start, courtesy of yours truly, who couldn't find his keys to the Club Rooms. However, a quick call to Laura (which resulting in getting her out of bed - it was about 9 o'clock so she should have been up anyway) soon solved the problem, and we were on our way again - just 15 mins late. Once at the River we spent a bit of time at the get-in practicing ferry gliding and other techniques. Rex was having problems with his bandit, as he discovered that the deck he'd taken from the Club Rooms didn't fit too well. Fortunately we had some spares with us, and three decks later we headed towards the first rapid. The River itself was extremely low, and as a result we decided it best for the group to walk the first rapid. Nic and myself paddled down and played pinball for a while, eventually getting through after a lot of pulling ourselves over the rocks. Joining the main Otaki required more boat pulling. Rob kindly got out and assisted everyone by moving rocks to create a narrow shute and then pulled the stranded paddlers over the remaining rocks. It was fair to say that I'd never seen the river this low. We continued down without any mishaps until we encountered a nasty eddy-line, where the river re-joined the main flow very strongly from the left. Everyone ran the wave-train shute of the main flow perfectly, but on hitting the flow rejoining from the left, both Sally and Rex did some unplanned fish spotting. However they were soon re-united with their boats and gear and on our way again. The rest of the trip was uneventful. Most excitement came from watching Brian driving off road in his Freelander, both at the get-out, and apparently on the motorway by Tawa, where having hit a traffic jam, Brian took off overland to find a shortcut. Congrats to Sally for surviving her a chilly day on the river in such good spirits - we hope she comes back for more! Thanks to everyone for coming along and making the trip fun, despite the low flow, and thanks to Rob, John and Nicki for their assistance in leading groups down the river. Pete