Just before Christmas Patrick and I did a five day canoe trip down the Whanganui river. It's NZ's longest navigable river and our trip was just over 90k. Our party consisted of Patrick and me in one canoe, a mother and daughter from the bay of islands in the second canoe and a german teacher on sabbatical and our guide from Gloucester in the third.
The stretch of river we were on flows through the middle of the Whanganui national park, the only way in is by boat or helicopter. It was true New Zealand 'rainforest' with the emphasis on the rain. We had two days of it and this meant the river rose three and a half metres, I suppose we were lucky we didn't have more. It was only a grade 1 to 2 river, meaning the 'paddling' and rapids were gentle, but the increased volume of water was still scary. We had three nights in tents and one in 'the bridge to nowhere lodge' (sort of), the long drops were testament to the famous kiwi spirit, or something like that.
Green was the predominent colour on the trip, although the brown of the mud coloured river in spate deserves a metion, tree ferns (pongas) were the predominent plant, duck the predominent bird, possums the top mammal, but its the sandfly that is the winner of both the predominent insect and the overall prize, it really does leave an impression on you...
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