SHOOTING THE FALLS

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 43, 5 November 1952, Page 6

SHOOTING THE FALLS

VARSiTY STUDENTS' PROJECT According to a report in the New Zealand Herald, a -party of Auckland University students, members of the New Zealand Canoeing Association, will spend a week-end exploring the upper reaches of the Waikato River early in December, when their examinations are over. They intend to send a rubber dinghy over the Huka Falls, but none is willing to ride in it. The purpose is to see whether a dinghy will ride out the surge below the falls or whether it will be caught under the great mass of tumbling water. .. "We just want to see what chanees •a man wrould have who got carried over the falls in a dinghy, " said Mr James Mason, president of the association. One mernber of the association who has spent some time studying , the flow of the water over the Aratiatia Rapids believes that a eanoe could be taken through safeIt is hoped that the party, which it is expected will number between 20 and 30, will have with them at least one collapsible canoe of a type not previously built in New Zealand, out used extensively overseas. It is 4ft. 6in. long and has a tailored skin held securely by a number of dowels, bowed to fit into it. One is almost eompleted. The canoeists will tbavel downriver from Lake Taupo to the level water below the Aratiatia Rapids, making ,a portage round the Huka Falls and the rapids: They will then travel in cars and trucks to Aratiatia and Maraetai to explore the hydro-eleetric schemes and ihe cave paintings.