PRANZ packrafting festival, Murchison New Zealand
I attended the
PRANZ
packrafting meetup in Murchison 11-16 Jan and had some trips later. It was a
great few weeks of rafting with like minded people from various places in NZ
and the world. PRANZ is an active, very well organised packrafting association
in New Zealand. They are welcoming and have great trips and rivers to packraft
on.
Murchison is situated in an ideal location for a packraft meetup. It has
many rivers of various grades feeding in to it. There is a great, very
reasonably priced caravan and camping park located on the Buller river too.
Andy and I rolled up
early in the day of the meetup. We found a few of us paddlers that were also
itchy to get out, so we started on the very shallow
Matiri river. This was a lovely river flowing through a gorge. It was fairly warm
today, so a few immersions were required, especially since I was in a dry
suit. This river would be sensational with 100-200mm more water level and
quite perilous with a lot more.
Our first day was a precursor for many to come. Great paddle excursions for
all levels, nobody got hurt, and events day and night to keep us all happy
and occupied. I was happy also to team up with Andy, whom I met in the
Idaho, USA meetup; it made it much easier and meaningful to have a travel buddy to mitigate
costs and share experiences with after the meetup.
The PRANZ packrafting meetup continues to be a lot of fun, I attended it in
2020 at Queenstown. The event was good then and has matured well in its
organisation and attendance. There was a wide variety of skills and rivers
to meet those levels. Workshops and movies in the afternoon and fantastic
catering.
I was blown away with the quality of the catering. Totally unexpected, a big
thanks to the organisers for employing the caterers and to the caterers who
worked to keep us all happy. The caterers run a non-for-profit operation
helping out needy people in Reefton, a town a bit further south from
Murchison. We felt privileged that they were able to provide for us morning
and night over the meetup period.
Murchison is such a beautiful location and we had great weather to boot. All the rivers running through the
area are stunning. Whether I paddled on the big waters in say Granity or the
quieter reaches of the Buller I was happy. This allowed for good
socialisation with members of all skills. There were plenty of quality paddlers too, to enjoy the more exhilarating technical
waters.
The water is so clean and clear it was a real pleasure just to float when
time out to rest was needed. (A caveat on clean though: there is a pesky
algae that only lives in clean water known as
didymo aka rock snot, present here. We had to be careful to sterilize our gear before leaving
the area and especially so to avoid bring it back to Australia.)
Post meetup, a group of us paddled the Grey river. This trip was an
overnighter, adding that level of adventure and peace only afforded by
camping out. (Even the sandflies weren't much of an issue.)
This river was a delight. Many rapids along the way ranging from class II to
III coupled with stunning scenery kept us interested along the whole route.
The flow rate was on the lower side, enabling all of the party to
comfortably negotiate it without any issue.
After the meetup, Andy and I were hankering to paddle some more. We were
also interested in avoiding the big rains predicted. Looking at the rainfall
patterns, we felt that the rivers up the northern part of the South Island
were the go. In consultation with others in the PRANZ group we were able to
stay in Picton and paddle the Pelorus Pelorus and Wakamarina rivers.
The maritime festival was on at Picton. A day off the rafts and some fun in town was the order. It was nice to socialise and regather our energies before another couple of days of rafting.
The maritime festival was on at Picton. A day off the rafts and some fun in town was the order. It was nice to socialise and regather our energies before another couple of days of rafting.
In return for the hospitality provided, we had a a repair workshop to fix a
few bits and bobs for Julie, our host.
It was raining in the mountains and we were watching the water levels on
Pelorus with excitement. The rivers rose quickly as we watched the flow
charts and unfortunately started draining almost as fast. Fortunately we
caught enough to have fun on. Huge, bargain tasty meals at the the
Canvastown pub easily refuelled our depleted energy resources at the end of
the day. The following day we paddled the Wakamarina rivers, which was as
beautiful in many of its sections as the Pelorus.
A big thanks goes out the organisers, the effort that went into this event shows in spades. Also to the attendees at the PRANZ meetup, for being so friendly and their co-operative spirt, as well as my car pooling buddy Andy for being a great travel buddy. I had such a good time and those memories will endure.
On another note, the river notes available for packrafters are top notch see https://www.packraftingtrips.nz. The information available for weather, water quality and so on are also accessible and well presented see for example https://hydro.marlborough.govt.nz/environmental.
On another note, the river notes available for packrafters are top notch see https://www.packraftingtrips.nz. The information available for weather, water quality and so on are also accessible and well presented see for example https://hydro.marlborough.govt.nz/environmental.
For an interactive map and a lot more photos, see:
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