Hokitika Gorge

There are times that even though you know post night shift you are going to be tired and struggle, you head out for the adventure anyway! 22nd-24th of June this year, Emily Wilson and Alisa Rollinson were floating around on the West Coast, so obviously it was time for a packrafting adventure.

It started off mellow enough with another wander into Rapid Creek Hut, reminiscing about the Miserable Ridge Trip from early this year. (Slightly less miserable this time!) However, put some adventure racers together and we soon start behaving like racers instead of trampers and the rules are slightly different... So the next morning we set off for a massive mission up the Noisy Basin access route, over 1686, along Misty Ridge to Mt Browne and back to the hut. However, the day light in June is not what it was and the early snow had set in. So we found ourselves at point 1686 right on sunset, which was ok, we could have continued in the dark, only that early snow made our route impassible. Thus we turned around at the worst possible point and endured a very long march back to the hut. Where upon we woke someone up at 1am, thankfully he wasn't too worried about the fact all our stuff was still there because he could see we were packrafters and therefore must know what we are doing - possibly quite flawed logical. As a packrafter I have absolutely no idea what I am doing! Haha!

So the next day we going up and packrafted out, the Hokitika Gorge is stunning and from rapid creek hut to there, we only portaged one rapid.

Ailsa heading in up the Hokitika in the evening light

Ailsa. - I think my portrait photography has improved a lit recently. Or maybe I'm just a bit less slow, so I can actually keep up to take pictures!

The comforts of Rapid Creek Hut

Fun times on the track

Up on the tops, knowing time was going to be super tight for getting the loop done.

Sun starting to set, there would have been some fairly dodgy snow and rock scrambling/siddling to get around to that ridge and we just didn't have the daylight to find a good route, nor the crampons...

Rapid Creek Hut the next morning, we opted for a later start aiming to have the sun on us for our paddle out.

Ladybug ready to go

I took the waterproof camera case on this trip, so be prepared for lots of weird looking river selfies. Still working on packrafting photography! Also I look extra weird here because one of the nurses held me down and did my eyebrows on night shift! She did a great job, but I don't think I'll be doing that again in a hurry - eyebrows are very sensitive.

Group shot with the double Ailsa and Emily were in. I'm doing something weird with my legs and Emily has her eyes closed! Great team effort!

Sunshine!

Here we go, a string of strange river selfies for your enjoyment!

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