Karamea Magic - Packrafting in Paradise

May 8
7 min read

Well it's a highlight of the New Zealand paddling scene's arsenal, but why is this river soooooo good? It might be the truly remote wilderness of Kahurangi National Park or the quality of the whitewater nestled between limestone behemoths. It might be the imposing scenery crowned by the Garibaldi Ridge imperiously looming through the clouds or it might be the fickle weather that keeps you on your toes and sends a peaceful float into a raging torrent in a matter of hours. Maybe it's the banks teeming with whio/blue duck, a rarely sighted treasure on most other waterways but abundant in the upper reaches of the Karamea. It's hard to put your finger on what exactly makes this journey so special, but special it is and we were fortunate enough to get to explore it earlier in April with visiting Tennessee packrafters Clay and Keelin.

Can we go earlier?? This was Clay and Keelin's request after changing around their biking plans trying to maximise their adventure options during a relatively short trip to the West Coast of NZ. We had a look at the forecast...it looked decidedly damp and there was a BIG rain bomb headed for Kahurangi towards the end of the proposed dates. Well we can go earlier, but we either have to go hard and fast to not get caught out by the big rain or commit to sitting and waiting it out hopefully warm and dry in a hut somewhere above the notorious gorge section. Hard and fast said the committed Type 2 fun addicts, so hard and fast it was. We planned for a 5-day trip but packed plenty of food in case that rain came early and we did end up having to wait it out.

After setting shuttle and a quick stop at Vinnies (world-class pies) to grab a trail lunch we headed to the Western end of the Wangapeka track to begin the hike. Given our reduced timeframe we were aiming for the Wanganui Gorge Emergency Shelter bypassing the far more comfortable Belltown Mananui. This section of track has suffered somewhat from nature's abuse and there is a lot of up-and-down, rough track and traversing slips meaning the resulting elevation effort far exceeds what you might expect if you just counted the topo lines! It was slow going at times and the lightning storm added to the light of our headtorches during the final trudge up to the shelter. Any port in a storm! As a 2-bunk shelter with no heating it's not the most glamorous of abodes but we were happy to get the packs off and a quick camp set-up of tarp + tent then dinner meant we could get to bed relatively early knowing we had another big day tomorrow to stay on track.

Day 2 started with the ascent up to Wanganui Saddle where we were treated to a rare break in the clouds and some beautiful views amongst the tarns and an impressive waterfall at the head of the Taipo. The descent is relatively steep down to Stag Flat, but what really gets the mind is the trudge down the Taipo valley. I'm sure I was not alone in peeking into the river wondering if it was navigable yet by packraft. The rain fell steadily and the conversation started to drop. Clay shot off ahead with his fishing rod and dreams of the legendary Karamea trout then sacrificed the best part of his remaining daylight fishing hours by doing us all a solid and getting the fire going at Trevor Carter hut so we could arrive to a warm space and dry our sodden thermals (rain jackets can only be expected to handle so much!) When you cross the river just above Trevor Carter you really get your first impressions of the majesty of this place, and the geography of the river around Saxon Falls and the 'lost valley' provides inspiration to return and explore these upper-reaches further.

The best thing about Trevor Carter despite the cosiness of the accommodation was knowing that we had successfully completed the hiking portion of the trip (well except for Roaring Lion, but that's not quite the same). Getting into drysuits and inflating our boats on the 3rd morning had me very relieved for a day off the legs and mostly sitting on my bum going with gravity. The whitewater eases you in for a short while before promptly dropping off the face of the Earth in two large earthquake-boulder-piles that require some teamwork to efficiently portage and re-gain the luxury of being seated. Portaging on the Karamea can involve as much creativity and problem-solving as running the rapids and these two boulder chokes between Trevor Carter and Thor Huts were great practice for what would come downstream. After the wearisome portages the river just got better and better. Some entertaining whitewater interspersed with gentle moving sections that gave you time to appreciate your surroundings. We were making good time and trucked past Thor, Venus and Crow huts. Approaching Karamea Bend we discussed pushing on to Roaring Lion to give ourselves more time to negotiate the stacked section between there and Grey Hut the next day. It was decided to carry on and so we blasted on downstream before completing one of those weird procedures unique to this trip - paddle/portaging up the Roaring Lion river to the hut. On arrival we were blown away to meet the same group of hunter/fisher/gentlemen that Troy and I had met at the same hut on a personal trip 3 years prior. A fortuitous meeting as it gave us a break from dehydrated dinners as we were treated to some delicious home-made Sri Lankan curry...it also gave Clay a fellow fishing enthusiast to talk to! Well-fed and chuffed with the day's progress we headed to bed to the sound of light rain on the hut roof which throughout the night got harder and harder...

We woke up to a bucket that had been empty the night before collecting drips now overflowing and a lot more water in the Roaring Lion than the day before. High flows on the Karamea were confirmed by text message but the forecast was for the rain to die down and the river to drop. Knowing that we had a 1-2hr portage around Roaring Lion rapids to start the day we decided to head off hoping that levels would drop whilst we navigated around the rapids. Always an impressive sight the Roaring Lion cascade at high flows is an incredibly intimidating piece of whitewater. We started the portage by trying to make progress at river level. Paddling small sneak channels when we could and passing or lining boats around the un-runnable stuff. The large bankside boulders make downstream progress slow and wearisome and the point mid-rapid where at lower flows you could ferry across and gain easier ground on river right was just not an option for us at these flows. Eventually we rolled up the boats and hiked the last bits of the portage up in the bush above the river finally descending back at the end of the steepest section of our 5-day mission. The relief of having completed the portage was somewhat overshadowed by the anxiety triggered by the fact that the river hadn't dropped as we'd hoped and there could be a good deal more portaging in store for us before the day was out. Also, given the time of year darkness comes in early and the need to make efficient downstream progress was high on our minds. With some trepidation and after refuelling with some lunch we launched our boats and paddled (not very far) downriver before hopping out again to scout. The afternoon progressed through a combination of portages and sneaky sneak routes but we were making good time and eating up the k's and the worry of hitting Grey Hut before darkness began to abate and enjoyment of the technical challenge of navigating the Karamea at high flows began to kick in. We were able to paddle more than I initially expected given the flows and we were working well as a group having developed a running order and group management style that was both safe and efficient. Arriving at Grey hut with about 1.5hrs of daylight to spare and quite tuckered out after 4 big days was quite a relief. We managed to top up the woodpile with some soggy dead wood that hopefully will dry out for future visitors then huddled around the open fireplace to discuss the highlights of the day.

Waking up on Day 5 having not been kept up all night by rain led to some optimism that was heightened by peeking outside at the river level that had dropped significantly over night. It was on! Entering the gorge the first big rapid, Growler, had a big pourover to avoid and required some good cross-current driving. Portaging RR also worked well. After the cascading Kakapo enters river left the gradient increases again with Holy Sh*t. Recent floods have caused a number of creeks in this lower gorge to blow out and have made some significant changes to the rapids, which at our flows were not generally for the better. Reverting to our tried and techniques of scout/sneak/portage we made good progress through the gorge then enjoyed the float out to Karamea bridge. A well-deserved feed at Vinnies Cafe rounded off the adventure nicely and we were relieved to be out and re-affirmed in our decision making as the promised rain bomb was beginning. The next day the river rose substantially, significantly higher even than our second paddling day, demonstrating just how quickly this river can change from a tranquil, scenic float to a flooded beast!