21_PIPIRIKI CANOE TRIP

So, today we will be paddling a canoe on the Whanganui River from Pipiriki, which will take 3 to 5 hours. We had seen the river as slow-flowing and very calm, but when we took a jet boat 13 km upstream, we were quite surprised to see that there are some rapids - the guide explains how we should handle them later in the canoe, makes some jokes, and gives us instructions on where we better shouldn't go, should we remember that? Well, we think it will be fine, and after dropping us off, he's gone again. Okay, let's go! We paddle through the national park, untouched nature on both sides, real jungle, how beautiful. We handle the first rapids quite well, thinking that it will surely be no problem for us overall. And then... we get caught… we were doing quite well, had taken on some water in the canoe (why not) when another massive wave came, and we were out, the canoe had flipped over, and now somehow we had to pull that heavy thing to shore, without letting go of the paddles! Not a big deal, let's scoop out the water first and then continue! After that, we navigated some rapids quite well, but at one point we got stuck sideways on a rock, and I saw something worse coming our way, but fortunately, we managed to free ourselves and continued from there, phew!

By the way, there were also many calm sections in between, we climbed up a hidden waterfall from the river, all in all, it was incredibly amazing!