Te Araroa Trail – Day 49

Friday, December 22, 2023
Distance/ Total: 39.2 km / 24.4 mi paddling

We were up and around by about 7:00 am this morning and Andi and I were the first ones on the river. About 2km from camp is one of the worst rapids in the river and it’s nicknamed 50/50 because that’s your chances of making it through without tipping over.

Being the first ones down today, Andi and I were also the first ones to get tipped out on 50/50. We pulled our canoe to shore, dumped out the water and waited for the rest of the group to come down so I could get some video.

The next 4 canoes who came down were tipped out and the 5th and 6th made it through upright. This was followed by 1 more that got tipped out. So today was a 25/75 for the canoes in our group.

We finally started back down the river and had a pretty uneventful day until about 5 km from our camp. Andi and I took a pretty fast rapid and it pushed us into a rock wall and tipped us out again. The day was getting very hot at this point and a little dip in the water felt pretty good. Once again we dumped and bailed out the canoe and continued down the river.

We arrived at Flying Fox campground about 3:30 and had to find our way around and over washed up logs to get to the shore. We hauled our gear up a steep trail to an old mission on the top of the bluff. It was a nice setting for a campsite and had hot showers, a kitchen and eating area, and Wi-Fi (not great, but ok).

We all gathered, dried out any wet gear, and enjoyed the evening visiting and sharing experiences.