Whanganui Day 2

Day 29- March 6^th

We had a quick breakfast, packed up, and left. It rained a little, but it wasn’t a downpour like the day before. Around 1:00 we were planning to go on a hike to the bridge to nowhere. The Bridge to Nowhere was a bridge built on a separate stream about 70 years before. But after they built the bridge, the road that they had been building to it washed out and they gave up. So now there is just the bridge, with nothing on either side.

As we were approaching the pullout for the hike, we could see some other canoes there from a guided trip that had left earlier than us. My dad and sister were in front, so they paddled straight towards the rock pullout. But when their bow hit, the current was so strong that it pulled the back end of the boat around and flipped them over. They were now too far from the shore for the other group to help, so my mom and I paddled quickly towards them. We managed to grab onto their boat, which was floating just under the water, and pulled my sister in. My dad was still in the water trying to bail out the boat. Normally there would have been a beach we could have landed on, but the rain had caused the river to rise and submerge them all.

The boat was too far under water for us to bail it, and we tried to paddle to shore but the current was too strong…so then we figured out that we could pull it up on our canoe and flip it over. It took us two tries, but we finally got it upright and out of the water. One of the barrels was stuck underneath it and we had to pull it out from underneath. It took us a while to bail it, but we got all the water out right as an eddy pulled us into the shore. It had taken us about a half hour and two kilometers downstream before to right it.

Thankfully, all we had lost was a bailer and a Ziplock on candy. Everything else that had fallen out we had managed to grab. My dad and sister were now shivering uncontrollably, so we pulled the canoes up on a patch of mud and got warm clothes on them. We then canoed to Tieke Kiangi, a Maori camp that also had a DOC campground and a hut. The day before there had been a wedding here, so the last group of wedding visitors was leaving right as we arrived.

We went up to the hut and built a fire to warm up and dry out. Later that day more people showed up. The guided trip that had been at the bridge to nowhere when we passed arrived and were glad to see that we were okay. Another unguided trip also showed up after that. That night we asked both of them for advice on the rapids so we wouldn’t flip over again. They were very friendly and helpful.