Just returned to AK from a trip to New Zealand. Had a great time touring the country and checked out a few rivers with the packrafts. Thanks to Forrest for his previous post and ideas on places to go. Everything you’ve heard about New Zealand packraft potential is true. It is some of the best terrain imaginable for these boats: easy access with trails, lots of huts, and heaps of rivers. The whitewater boating is already world renowned, but most people use helicopters to get their heavy boats up the rivers. Some drainages are heli-free, leaving the creeks to packrafters only.
We did the Poulter river along the same route as Forrest. We found the hike to be ok, and the river was a nice straightforward run. Watch out for the electric fence across the river at head height when you start to see farm fields. We recommend taking a look at other options to hike in here. There are lots of huts in the valley, and many different potential variations possible. We were able to put-in at the Casey hut, a nice 14 bunk cabin. Another option: over the last couple years mountain biking has been allowed up this valley for a trial period. It could make for a great bike-rafting trip. The Poulter was rain swollen making it a quick float. Only one section of rapids was questionable with some large obvious boulders creating some obstacles and holes. Otherwise it was a nice uneventful float.
The Copland river was next. We had no information about it besides one photo from another Alaskan friend. This hike and float was incredible. The trail goes up from the West Coast on the south island through lush rainforest up to high alpine zones. It feels like a bizarre combination of Kauai and Alaska, with a beautiful turquoise river down the middle of the valley. We only hiked as far as the Welcome Flat hut (accomdation for 31 people), soaked in the hot springs and hiked and floated out the following day. The river has a steep canyon section between Architect creek and Welcome Flat that is solid class V or harder. It might be worth a look by an experienced and well prepared group. From our put-in at Architect creek below the canyon we encountered a bouldery, pool-drop character creek. We portaged 3 different rapids sections that looked class 3+. Without proper river clothing and rescue gear we didn’t feel like risking a swim in the harder sections. Scouting and portaging was very easy along the sides. There were no sweepers encountered. We floated about 10 km of river back to the car. This region gets enormous amounts of precip, and the river levels have large and frequent changes. Highly recommended trip for anyone headed down there. We finished off the day with a hike to a beach with penguins. The pictures should sum it up pretty well. Google Earth also has high resolution for this area. It’s good enough to pick out individual rapids.
http://picasaweb.google.com/alaskabackcountry/newzealand
We did another out and back float on the Rees river outside of Glenorchy. We hiked up to a hut above treeline and came back the next day. The creek was a bit too small between the hut and the swing bridge near the Park border. Below that we made good time floating back to the car in the shallow and mellow creek. The valley sights are beautiful with high snowy peaks above the cow pastures. After this float we realized that Forrest had probably floated the road section of the Rees, which looked a bit more exciting than what we did.
Also looked at the Hollyford river from the road. The road section looks quite nice, with a bit of class 4. From the trailhead it mellows out enough to accommodate jet boats. Could make for a really good trip.
If you’re looking for a really unique packraft trip check out the Waitomo caves on the North Island. Commercial tour companies do guided trips through some spectacular limestone cave systems with rivers running through. They call it “Black Water Rafting.” Not sure what is legal without a guide, but if you know where to go… The tours use tire innertubes, so a packraft would work ok, might even be a bit too big. Lots of glowworms and eels in the pitch black caves.
-Kevin