Kupe Christmas Party - Otaki
15th December 2001
Before I begin the trip report, a brief qualification. Apparently responsibility for writing the trip report falls to the person who swims on the river. I would like to state up-front that both the swims I took were quite legitimate and indeed selfless given that in each instance I was looking to offer assistance to someone else in trouble. The fact that I was unable to do so while pinned, upside down, without a paddle, hung-over, and generally making a hash of it, is beside the point.
The Kupe Christmas Party is an annual affair which typically includes some camping and frivolity on the Saturday night followed by a leisurely paddle on Sunday. The format this year didn’t vary, although, contrary to Kupe tradition, the level of organisation was high. People arrived around 6.00 pm and quickly set up camp. In the camping department special mention goes out to the following:
Pete and Nick for pushing the concept of ‘car-camping’ to its absolute maximum, limited only by the size of their car. This included a picnic table, a 2 person tent big enough for a family of 5, a neoprene ground sheet to supplement the tent’s ground sheet, pillows, duvet, sheets, double mattress, bamboo lanterns and a large assortment of various plastic carry-containers to transport and store all of this and goodness knows what else;
Tony and Chris for a very fine BBQ, attached with true kayaker rope macramé to a portable saw bench;
Steve and Janine for the cutest and best behaved 2-year-old I can recollect (in stark contrast to the qualities of his father); and
Colin for the most compact tent, a ground-sheet under a tree.
We were lucky enough to have fine weather and having set up camp a small contingent got on the river for a quick early-evening paddle. The section paddled was a little bumpy but lots of fun nonetheless on a warm summer evening.
One particular rapid had a good surf wave immediately followed by a large rock and protruding log. Those first to arrive discounted it as unsafe, given that a mistake on the wave could mean drama with the log, and paddled on. Sitting in the eddy below we waited for the rest of the party to reach the same conclusion. This proved to be an optimistic expectation. From below the rock we watch Clint paddle onto the wave and out of our view behind the rock. Evidently an error occurred somewhere at this point because the log started moving vigorously while Louis’s expression, looking on from the top of the rapid, changed to one of concern. Next Clint’s paddle floats past, quickly followed by an upside down Clint. Clint successfully hand-rolls and is nudged into an eddy, however, his paddle disappears. For the next 20 minutes we hunt for a paddle with a black shaft and black blades in dark water in low light. As we are about to give up it is washed free and floats past, allowing its retrieval. The evening’s trip
ends without further incident but Clint resolves to change the colour of his paddle and we resolve to give Clint a hiding when we get back to camp.
Arriving back at camp wet and hungry we find, to our disappointment, that everyone else has been drinking in preference to starting the BBQ. This typifies the remainder of the evening. While the BBQ is eventually started and a fine meal had, this pales in comparison to the quality and quantity of drinking that subsequently occurs. Highlights include:
Some fine wines and ales and a great BBQ;
Later in the evening a very tasty bottle of butterscotch snaps;
Even later in the evening another bottle of even tastier butterscotch snaps;
A chorus of traditional and not so traditional camp-fire songs, with Chris as principle and Nicola second principle;
An excellent game of WWF wrestling. Colin wins and Clint comes second. Jo and Mark sustain numerous bruises and assorted injuries;
A game of Frisbee with Louis using a large mosquito repellent candle as a headlamp (one hand holds the candle in place, the other attempts to throw/catch the frisbee);
Ruth wanders off and goes to sleep in the wet grass, wakes mildly hypothermic, rejoins the party and spends the next 2 hours shivering but otherwise in good spirits;
Dave, at approximately 3.00 am and once most people have gone to bed, starts his car, revs the engine, flashes the lights and toots the horn. He wisely decides not to drive;
A very clear night with lots of stars. For those still up, the end of the evening was spent perched on a tree trunk in the river watching for shooting stars. Dave, deciding this requires a level of dexterity beyond his means goes to sleep on the rocks with a beer resting on his stomach, unspilt;
The evening closes at approximately 3.30 am when the last of the revellers retire quietly to their tents and with consideration for those asleep. Yeah right.
The following day kicked of with a leisurely start, breakfast on the BBQ, coffee and a debrief of the previous evening’s activities. Again the weather was excellent and indeed the only reason most people got out of bed was that the tents got too hot in the sun.
Having packed up camp we were on the water by 11.30 am and 12 of us paddled the mighty Otaki. Paddling from the campsite to the middle get out made the trip a bit longer thus increasing the severity of the sunburn. Surprisingly, there we no major incidents other than a couple of swims, including a few from Chris, Louis’s flatmate.
Chris came along and enthusiastically, without fear or trepidation, paddled grade 2 having never been in a Kayak. Getting in at the car park his first piece of moving water was the Virgin rapid, which of course presented some challenges. In hindsight walking it would have been a good idea. Now that Chris’s paddling competency had been assessed Tony did a fine job of assisting him down the river, towing him in fact. Nevertheless, an enjoyable time was had.
At various stages during the trip some members of the party looked a little worse for wear, apparently suffering from the heat of the day and the physicality of a demanding and challenging grade 1½ / 2 river. Apparently lack of sleep and Butterscotch Snaps poisoning were not contributing factors.
The weekend’s activities closed with a coffee at Brown Sugar Café and the obligatory discussion about the river, who did what, how cool they were, how close they came to getting it completely wrong, some talk on gear and famous near misses. In all, a fine weekend and I’m very much looking forward to next year.
Mark Fraser
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