Nice vid of the Kaituna (Awesome Gorge)

[banzer]

Found this recent footage of the Kaituna regular run, followed by the appropriately-named Awesome Gorge starting about halfway through. Looks really nice... (though I thought there was supposed to be a waterfall at the end of it?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtNEfwyDyLo

[Mark R]

Awesome G is followed by Gnarly G - apparently this is heinous, with a walled in uninspectable 30 footer, and major tree hazards. Few descents. Think Tim Trew has been in there???

[DaveBland]

Thit wis rilly priddy.

[chrisps]

Makes me even more jealous of the Kiwis!!

I think that would be quite a dangerous gorge though; you would spend all your time looking at the amazing scenery and not at the rapids :P

[moreofaswimmer]

He certainly made that boof of okere falls look easy. I regularly messed that up (probably more pilot uselessness than the difficulty of the move).

What a beautiful river it is though. Wonderful to see footage of awesome gorge. As people have mentioned, its not the most accesable run in terms of scouting. Was the infamous tree blockage in that gorge or the next one? I couldnt see it.

Any other UK paddlers desperately miss NZ?

[banzer]

Any other UK paddlers desperately miss NZ?

Yes, the ten-year-plan is to move out with the wife and kid(s) for a year and persuade my old boss to take a year off!

[justin-g]

Nope... Good place for a holiday. Bugger living there.

[SwamP]

I haven't thought of NZ once with fond memories, not once....until The Big Blue Tree went hucking there....now all the memories have come back...noooooooooooooooooo I wanna go back noooooooooooooooow!!!

:(

[tomcrow99]

Good god I miss that place.

Whilst unemployed there for a while my daily routine was to drop the GF at work at Tauranga Hospital then drive out to Sunspots, chat with DC then paddle the Tuna with whoever was around.

I did the top to bottom trip with Tim and a crack group of locals, god knows how I got an invite. There was only one major wood portage and the big fall seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye, the lower gorge is seriously deep and narrow though.

Chances of ever going back? Slim to none I suspect. :-(