Pipiriki to Downes Hut

Day 55 (39 kms)

Today was the shortest day on the river, with just under 40 kms of paddling and no sight-seeing along the way. We purchased a cooked breakfast from the cafe at the camping grounds, which is a nice way to start any day. We again had an instant cappuccino coffee provided by Alex.

The scenery has started to change, with the farmland becoming obvious along the right bank. Still lots of goats, ducks and other birds, but clearly we are getting near farming land. We were also a little more careful where we got our water from. We certainly did not want to drink the river from the Whanganui river, so we found little streams coming from the native bush. We also filtered this water.

We had established a rhythm of paddling for 2 hours typically achieving 12 to 13 kms, and then taking a break. Our bums could only handle about 2 hours in the seat. We devised ways to keep our bums and legs happy. The most effective was the stand-up paddle position, where we would occasionally take turns and stand-up, while we paddled. This provided nice relief to the bottom. The kms flew by and it was not long before we found our final camping site.

The barrels were again hauled up the slippery hill. This camping site has a hut and the water tanks had water, so we choose to spend most of the night hanging around the hut, as did most of the others. We went through all of our food and basically ate everything we found (except the emergency food). We even had a can of peaches.

Alex is getting good at setting up and tearing down his tent. And once he got setup, he was quickly asleep, as was I.

And this is what lunch looked like
Alex and Canoe.
Downes Hut.