Date: 25th March
Location: Lower Kakapotahi
Group: Greg lee, Phil Palzer, Rata Lovell-Smith, Sara Dwyer, Dan Morgan, Jake Scharma and myself
Grade: 4
Flow: High
Duration: 3 hours
Incidents: 2 swims from Sara
I have wanted to go up the kakapotahi for a while now and after all the rain that just passed through it was the perfect opportunity to so we set off with a group of 7 we got to the put in and made our way down stream i wasn't felling to confident straight away and as we approached the George i wasn't sure i wanted to run the entry but with a bit of encouragement i decided i should give it a go sitting at the top of the rapid i was super nervous. i was third to go once it was my turn the nerves had gone and i made my way down i was stoked when i came out and that i wasn't getting worked in the hole. we met up with the 3 that walked it and carried on down some busy grade 3 boulder gardens. we came to a rapid that had a few drops and Sara dropped over one and all i saw was the nose of her boat go up in the air as she got looped Greg was in there quick as and got her back in her boat. further down Sara missed her roll and hit a rock and swam as we approached the next rapid Greg got her out and Phil and i grabbed her gear and managed to get it to an eddy just before the next rapid. from there we had only a few big rapids to go before it died down to Grade 2 so we stuck close together and carried on. It was an awesome day out and it has to be my favourite run so far. I cant wait for the next rain fall.
Thank you to Jake Scharma for the video.
