Although i’m living in North Dakota now, i spent the last year and a half living down in Te Anau, on the south island. Packrafting became my passion - and i agree the NZ is pretty much the ideal place for it, with so many rivers inaccessible except by either helicopter or long hikes. River pack-rafted included - Ashley (near chch), hurunui (also near Chch), Greenstone (including the gorge!!!), Kawarau (parts),the arthur (as part of a one-day ‘advenutre’ over Dore pass and through the milford track), Wairaurahiri, the Lochy, the hollyford (falls creek run), the iris burn, and the borland burn. these last two runs demonstrate the sheer adventure potential of the boats and, at least with the iris burn, were likely first descents. This is the land of unexplored class II and III creeks - and if you’re brave enough, probably beyond. But a word for visiting PRers - don’t be cocky! I’d done class IV in the sierra and canada before moving to NZ - many of the class III river’s kicked my butt as much or more…
I’ll try to get some photos on sometime, but can’t promise anything. In the meantime, if you live in NZ, you can read about a couple of the adventures - the october 2006 NZ wilderness has an article about the wairaurahiri trip and the NZ adventure february 2007 mag has an article about the lochy trip (quite an epic).
Cheers
Andy