Today I kayaked 15km of the 257km Wairau River. This river is mainly braided and over a mile wide in places. Its offers kayakers choices at every turn with smaller flows winding across its huge width of shingle and sand river bed. Choosing the wrong route could mean having to get out and walk to deeper water (which I had to do once), but we found that if you stick to the larger braids the is plenty of water. The Maori name aptly means 'many waters'. Theres not much in the way of rapids but the Wairau made a nice change this afternoon.
The bridge where we started. You can only see about the first third of the bridges length here. As a child we used to try and hold our breath when we drove across it.
I stopped on the way home, to see some old friends who have just moved to the South Island. They live in a house bus and are working on an Orchard in the Wairau area, picking apricots, and packing Cherries. They were working today because there is a real staff shortage for seasonal work like this this year! We had a chat and a catch-up among the apricot trees. Welcome to the mainland 'Ample Karma'!
7:00:24 PM 
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