Upper Perth River, "Stunning scenery, cold alpine water, totally absorbing" Guidebook - NZ Whitewater

JJ Shepherd, Barney, Two scotsman, John? and myself managed to swing two clear blue bird days in the mighty Perth earlier this summer.
With a medium level we flew with James Scott upriver, dropped our overnight gear at Scone Hut including a good stash of food and an even better stash of wine!




We then lifted upwards again breifly to fly roughly 3km further up the Perth valley.
As with most West Coast heli landings we touched down on a small gravel bar, unloaded and then waited for the rest of the crew to return with our slingload of boats.







The chopper returned and we quickly unwrapped the boats, before sending our pilot on his way.
Its such a great feeling, sitting on a remote riverbank, your surrounded by huge eroding peaks and glaciers lying in the Garden of Eden. The air temp is fresh, you have just waved goodbye to the thing that put you there without breaking a sweat. You think about the distance between you and the car, the whitewater ahead, the cold alpine water.
Big days on the coast are fantastic!



We did have one minor setback, 6 paddlers and 7 paddles at put in!
Somehow we had loaded an extra bent shaft. The remedy, paddle 200m of class 4-5 then eddy out, walk up the river bank and take your turn at getting the paddle down river left to Scone Hut!

There was no hurry to get down to the hut, (not that the Upper Perth is going to let you do that anyway!)Lots of scouting was required, and the photo ops were plentiful, we arrived at Scone Hut unscathed in 3.5-4hrs


Day two - the regular Perth run took 5 hours. The hard stuff immediately below Scone Hut is some of the best boat scoutable class 4-5 in the country. Its classic, continous, steep technical moves one after the other.


Photos in order are
James Scott West Coast Taxi service
Pinballs, JJ drops in.
JJ at Scone Hut
Scotsman #1 sticks his boof in the Upper 3km

Source to sea completed on the Buller River, 177km in 10 1/2 hrs!

Rain finally arrived in its true fashion for the West Coast this last week.
Ben a.k.a "action jackson" and myself took the oportuntity to make the most of a big flow, completing a full source to sea of the Buller river 177km, in ten and a half hours.
We pushed off from Lake Rotoiti near the settlement of St Arnaud, high in the Nelson Lakes National Park at 7.20 am. With heavy fog restricting our vision downstream this made the inital 10km of class three whitewater more challenging.
We had waited patiently for the river to swell to its highest level of the summer before attepting to break the fastest source to sea time. The trip was originally set by two reputable folk of the whitewater community in 15hrs, whilst our descent was equally about the scenery and quality of huge volume whitewater we also had our minds set on smashing the previous time and setting a new standard!
Ariki Falls proved to the crux of the journey, the 500m length of class four turbulent water demanded focused eyes, our intended lines were made (just). Any "out of boat" experience would have had serious consequences.



We pushed throught the final 80km riding the backside of the flooded bubble. Whilst this last leg was mostly class one we still managed to travel at a rate of 15 km per hour and arrived on the coast 20 minutes before dark to huge surf and one last challenge to finish the trip.
Ben boldly dropped in on a huge set and took a beating but managed to gain control and land ashore, I attempted to time my line in a make it clean, it was not to be.
The nose of my kayak plunged into the bottom of a huge wave and soon I felt myself flying over the falls headed for punishment! I rolled somehow still in my kayak and dragged my tired body ashore.


Total time - 10. 24 min
Length - (we think 177km)
Flow 2143 cumecs peak flow at sea gauge
The time to beat has been set!