Not a bad way to spend the last day of 2011! 260 mm of rain in the Oparara region at the top of the Westcoast saw plently of interest with several coast boaters who had not manged to tick this run of the list of must do's on the Coast. With plently of rain several days earlier some of us started talking about the Oparara but due to several land slips on the road into the Oparara Basin we could not get in as planned. Little did we know that there was more rain to follow. So with the road cleared and the frontal system passed the crew of Brendon Roberston, Andy England, Eddy Murphy, Dylan Thompson, Jared Mitchael, Chris Osauskas and myself headed up. With this awesome crew you would have thought that someone might have paddled it! As it turns out Chris had about 6 years ago but had no real memory of it. The boys in Grey started early at 6 am!! and picked us up in Westport of the way through. I had to feel for Jared a bit as he turned back to pick one of us up and on his the way back to Westport he got picked up for speeding by an out of town cop. OUCH.
The top flat section leads your through the Moria Arch (P-H.Wilson)
The trip itself is amazing. I cant believe that I have been in Westport 5 years and never been o here to do it. Well in saying that I have not done the Kareama either. I have missed a few trips up there due to whatever reason but would not likely miss one again after now knowing what's in there. The scenery is spectacular. Old enchanted forests draping over crazy limestone scultures, while tea stained tannan water churnes its way through. The run its self starts out flat and leads into about 6 or so rapids which could all be run. Each one needs to be scouted for wood, in fact I would scout any thing you could not see all the way to the bottom of for this reason as we had 3 portages from memory due to logs in the river, however these rapids would have been runnable if the timber was not there. This first lot of rapids is broken with large pools between the drops which is nice and ever one was easily scouted, and portaged if needed. After this there is a fairly flat section but you seem to get lost in the scenery and before you know it its back on again. After you go through the 1 meter slot in the river its steepish boulder gardens with several rapids of note which feature in the photos below. I had some friends that were staying with us that were visiting the Oparara Archs that day and we were able to get them to run our vechicle out from the Oparaa Basin to the get out. This would have saved us at least an hour I recon at the end of the day.
The get in at the bridge in the Oparara Basin. (P - A.England)
Me on the first rapid of the day. We had to portage the bottom part notice Jared on the log for safety. (P - C.Osauskas)
Jared Charging the first hard rapid of the day in the top section. Only Dylan and Jared padddled this one. (P - A.England)
Side view of Jared on the same rapid in the same posistion. (P - H.Wilson)
And finally the run out. Dlyan just keeping an eye on things but all good he did not get held in here. (P - H.Wilson)
The Scenery was great througout the trip. (P - A.England)
Dylan on the same rapid above. (P - A.England)
Looking downstream from where I portatged on the left. I managed to jump in about half way down here and run the end part. (P - H.Wilson)
Boulder garden sections were great. (P - A.England)
Back into some good stuff here. We portataged this first part because it looked like there was some timber in it. May have gone with a bit more water. This section was best scouted on the right as you could walk right to bottom as you will see in the next few photos. (P - C.Osauskas)
Looking down from the left side. About a 4 meter seal launch back in. If you look close you can see me right down the bottom on the right side. (P - C.Osauskas)
Jared leaping in. (P - A.England)
This is the photo I got from the bottom where I was Posistioned in the previous photo. It was a sweet drop just dont go to slow and get a decent boof in as it could hold you in it. Crap quality photo as I only had the point and shoot here. (P - H.Wilson)
As I mentioned there was some wood in it. This was the bottom of a sweet looking rapid but could not run it because of this log! (P - A.Enlgand)
Final big drop of the day. I almost pulled out of this one but Dylan and Jared showed some good form and it looked straight forward. Its just the run out that is a bit worrying. As you would not want to get stuck on the left side of the buffer at the bottom. (P - C.Osauskas)
The run out of the same drop. (P - C.Osauskas)
Chris's turn. Photo taken from the other side. (P - A.Engand)
Bezel with some battle scars at the end of the day. (P - A.England)
It was new years so time for bears after the run. Total time was just over 4 hours. I think we had flow about right. Maybe needed just a wee bit more but not too much. (P - A.England)
