Hurunui River

Sunday 29 November

Members of the Whitewater Canoe Club went up on Saturday and set up a slalom course at the Jollie Brook rapid near the swingbridge in what looked like the beginnings of a gale westerly. Sunday up the river was warm, breezy and brilliant, but Christchurch experienced a cold easterly something with lowering cloud. People with no imagination and those who wanted to watch the All Blacks vs France match stayed away, but around 9am on Sunday Fish and Game, Forest & Bird, Dambusters, and DoC started arriving and setting up tents and displays. St John’s Ambulance and even the local policeman turned up. DoC did a Didymo demo, and there were some nature walks arranged for later in the day.

Russel Norman, co-leader of the Greens, and Brendon Burns, Christchurch Central electorate MP for Labour turned up and gave supportive short speeches to the crowd of around 150.

The slalom got under way and around 30 competitors did two runs down the 8 gate course. There were plenty of 50s (penalty for missing a gate), but the place winners were a mixture of young and old. Crafty course layout meant that the “easy” gates were the ones most paddlers missed. Slalom is fun, educational and humbling, and has a safety benefit as a result.

UK and Irish paddlers showed their euro slalom backgrounds by taking out the top places, even in playboats and creekers. Debbie Bloxham won the Women’s slalom. It’s been years since a slalom has been run in Canterbury outside of the Tekapo artificial WW course, so it was great to see some of the colour and fun of a slalom up on the Hurunui again.

F&B ran a sausage sizzle to raise funds and the WWCC has donated all the slalom entry fees to Dambusters. Fish & Game ran a fly fishing tutorial (or at least they tried to in the wind) and took MP Brendon Burns on a tour to show the relationships of the Hurunui lakes and river branches that are the subject of so much passion amongst the urban and the rural people that want to retain the natural values of the Hurunui River.

The day ended with a mass paddle down the Hurunui, including much gleeful viewing of the carnage at Devil’s Fang Falls , a gift of the volatile and flashy South Branch to the river running community. This newly created Grade 3-4 rapid is the hardest drop on the whole river and is right by the road at Dozy Stream. A big bunch of helmet-less Kiwi adventurers braved a private raft run, adding colour and diversity to the flotilla.

Russel Norman bravely teamed up with Polly Miller, president of Whitewater NZ in a double kayak, entering the slalom, and then taking on the rapids, culminating in a spectacular capsize and subsequent swim in Devil’s Fang Falls.

“Just as well the Greens have co-leaders. You should always carry a spare.” was overheard from one spectator observing the ‘garage sale’ from up on the river bank.