STRENUOUS TRIP

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1933, Page 6

STRENUOUS TRIP

DOWN WAIMAKARIRI IN CANOE

GUIDES DESCRIES EXPERIENCES.

CHRISTCHURCH, ' March 1. Guide Ascar Coberger, of Arthur Pass, and Guide Felix Harley, of Fox Glacier, arrived at the Waiinakariri River construction camp at 1.35 this afternoon, completing the navigation of the river in a frail canoe. The men left Cora Lynn at 1 p.m. on Monday. That day they travelled twenty miles and spent the night on the river bank just above the entrance to the gorge. Yesterday they safely negotiated the moat treacherous part of the river, and arrived at Courtenay about 7 p.m.. The men left Courtenay, where they spent the night, at 7.30 o’clock this morning. The river was in Hood ,and to make things worse for them, a strong head wind made paddling hard work. It was difficult to keep to the main stream, for the deceptive currents often took the canoe into stretches of dead water, which at first gave no indication that they were “blind.”

This meant that the paddlers had either to back on their course to reach the main stream again, or else carry the canoe, across shingle banks'. Coberger and Harley did not disembark at the construction , camp, but they pulled into the bank in order to have a few words with a “Star” reporter. 6! ,„

“Give me a cigarette, for goodness’ sake,” were Coberger’s. first- .words. Harley reached into the bottom of the canoe and fished out a rather dainplooking cigarette, which was accepted thankfully. " “What sort of a trip did you have?” the men were asked. BATTLING- AGAINST WIND.

“Pretty good, but the wind was -against 'us most of the time, arid then wo kept getting off the main stream and being held up that way,” said Coberger. • “At times we were travelling at

twenty miles an hour, I should sav, while at other were were paddling hard to make headway, against- the wind, even with the current in our favour. Nothing' unusual happened, -but it was a strenuous; trip, with plenty of hazards.” The two men appeared fresh and bright after their long journey. Today they; covered,'the thirty miles of river between Courtenay and the Construction Camp in six hours and a half, making an average spe-ed of about five' miles an hour. This, they considered, is excellent, owing t 0 the many breaks in the continuity of the trip. ’ ,- v : .

The river -atriWliilie’s' Bridge was four feet above its normal level this . morning, and this rise was common right up • the stream. 'Caberger and Harley were glad that the river was .slngKtly.. jii flood,: as it meant that ina iiy o!f ' ’ th'e Sated ah d : . shingle h a riles would: have impeded "them with aii ordinary - flow, were covered with water.

From the Cfo-fistr motion Can'll, Ooberger and Harley made for Ivairaki, wlici'e it is their intention to-ispend the night. They are not certain of their plans for the rest of the trip, but it is possible that the men may tako- their canoe out t 0 sea and thus to Brighton, Sumner or even Lyttelton.

The canoe is a light-, oollarxsible craft, propelled By two double-bladed paddles. It has only four or five inches o-f freeboard, but is very bouyaut and can easily ride the surges of the river’s current. Cioheirger said that the canoe was just the thing to take them down the river! It is rather like the kayak used bv the Esquimaux. PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS.

The dangerous waters of the Waimakariri have been, navigated in boats or canoes five times. The first "attempt was made in November, 1889, bv Messrs G. E. Ma-nnering and M. J.

Dixon ,who made the trip in Rob Roy canoes. In 1890, with three* companions, Mr'Mannering made another successful. trip down the gorge. Messrs

H. V. Schreiber and H. M. Ch-rystall navigated the stream in 1923, and on another occasion Messrs D. end G. Hobbs came down the river in a boat they luid made themselves.. A tragic attempt to navigate the was that) made on August 1, 1026, when Messrs G.' N. Carrington and J. S. Shannon were drowned, and Mr W. W. Brassiugton ,the third man of the party,'reached shore only after a long struggle. ‘ The men -attempted to make the trip on a raft.