Wanganui Journey
Well we left Wanganui City ( at the river mouth) and headed upstream along a winding road which was basically carved out of the huge clay banks of the meandering Wanganui River.
We arrived after 64km at Pipiriki. From there the road and river take seperate routes. The next road access is 88km upstream. Sounds like a good place to park up and get on the river.
We paid the old guy at the carpark 5 dollars to park in his garden ( quite entreprenuerial really) and got our jetboat 30km up river to the old landing.
The landing existed to serve an area of bush which was leased to returning WWI veterans to use for farming. The trees were felled and gradually more and more veterans and their families came and set up home. The deforestation, however led to severe erosion and revealed only relatively poor soil. The inaccessibilty of the region and the poor environment led to the gradual decline in population but not before the building of a bridge to span a deep gorge and enable car access from the main highway to the river. The bridge was atoo late though and soon the area was un-inhabited.
The bridge remains in perfect condition and is now known as the Bridge to Nowhere and is a strange site indeed. It comes from Nowhere, it goes nowhere and is in the middle of nowhere.
We then paddled on down in our Canadian canoe 10km to the Bridge to Nowhere Lodge. A good sized B&B come backpackers still 21km upstream from any road.
The owners were great, Joe the man of the house lived in the bush as a youth for 3 years at one point. We shared a beer with a few middle aged american from Chicago and hit our pit at 11pm.
Next morning we boared the trusty canoe again and headed on down to Pipiriki again. The river is a slow moving but vast body of water with steep bush clad banks.
There are some fast parts and sure enough we took a swim at one point. Having navigated our way down the worst rapid of the journey our joy was interrupted by a log as it tipped us up and, almost in slow motion, dumped us into the river. It was nice and warm though and we held on and managed to keep everything in the boat before we scrambled ashore and hastily bailed her out and set off again before anyone else came by.
We made it back with no more swimming.
We're up in Taupo now and off to do the Tongariro Crossing tomorrow. Thos who went today tell us it was sleeting and frost was forming on their bags. Should be fun.
I'll tell you about that later then.
Should be a few photos up today too.
We arrived after 64km at Pipiriki. From there the road and river take seperate routes. The next road access is 88km upstream. Sounds like a good place to park up and get on the river.
We paid the old guy at the carpark 5 dollars to park in his garden ( quite entreprenuerial really) and got our jetboat 30km up river to the old landing.
The landing existed to serve an area of bush which was leased to returning WWI veterans to use for farming. The trees were felled and gradually more and more veterans and their families came and set up home. The deforestation, however led to severe erosion and revealed only relatively poor soil. The inaccessibilty of the region and the poor environment led to the gradual decline in population but not before the building of a bridge to span a deep gorge and enable car access from the main highway to the river. The bridge was atoo late though and soon the area was un-inhabited.
The bridge remains in perfect condition and is now known as the Bridge to Nowhere and is a strange site indeed. It comes from Nowhere, it goes nowhere and is in the middle of nowhere.
We then paddled on down in our Canadian canoe 10km to the Bridge to Nowhere Lodge. A good sized B&B come backpackers still 21km upstream from any road.
The owners were great, Joe the man of the house lived in the bush as a youth for 3 years at one point. We shared a beer with a few middle aged american from Chicago and hit our pit at 11pm.
Next morning we boared the trusty canoe again and headed on down to Pipiriki again. The river is a slow moving but vast body of water with steep bush clad banks.
There are some fast parts and sure enough we took a swim at one point. Having navigated our way down the worst rapid of the journey our joy was interrupted by a log as it tipped us up and, almost in slow motion, dumped us into the river. It was nice and warm though and we held on and managed to keep everything in the boat before we scrambled ashore and hastily bailed her out and set off again before anyone else came by.
We made it back with no more swimming.
We're up in Taupo now and off to do the Tongariro Crossing tomorrow. Thos who went today tell us it was sleeting and frost was forming on their bags. Should be fun.
I'll tell you about that later then.
Should be a few photos up today too.
posted by PeterZ at 8:39 PM
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