With the rain forecasted to continue overnight, we had all gone to bed looking forward to some fun rivers to paddle. Due to the expected size of said rain we were unsure as to what rivers would be on, and if we had done enough to earn an invite to paddle these rivers with Blair and Phil. All we knew was that we could expect a txt in the morning and so we had better make sure we had our shit sorted. 
 

Rain did arrive with the morning txt from Blair, it just wasn’t enough. Early on Sunday night it had stopped raining so our rivers had only got another 10mm over the 12 hours that we had been off the water...not enough to get us into some of the more remote rivers unfortunately. Dave, Twiggy, Matt, Phill, Chris, Ben and I all meet at Blair’s around 10. After checking out the video from yesterday we all made our way up to Mc Clarens falls and settled on a Ngamuwahine, Mangakaranga, and Wairoa River trio. Ngamuwhahine truned out to be just a little warm up for the rest of the day, with only one serious rapid that was no major...upon reaching it Blair decided to play one of his little games and wait for us to figure out the rapid. Not wanting to waste any time I charged on in, with Blair yelling the comment “that’s not the line that I would normally take,” just as I hit the edge. Landing on a dirty big rock I saw why. The rest of the group hit up the left and Chris decided to make his own line once again, losing some skin for his troubles haha.
  Manga’s was low compared with yesterday so we all charged in full of confidence. Reaching the Abyss rapid I knew I couldn’t walk it...for far too long it had held its mental power over me, so I just had to paddle it no matter what the consequences! Chris ran it first making an absolute mare...not the greatest confidence booster but a good demonstration that you need to hit your lines and if you don’t, it won’t really hurt you too much haha. Fortunately it all went to plan. I hit the centre tongue of water right on line, boofed sweet, landed flat, and managed to stay upright until the end...Wow I will never forget that piece of water for my entire life and what a rush!!!!! Not wanting to be left walking it, Dave also hit it up, pulling it off perfectly. Dave’s demonstration must have been too much for Matt, so he man’d up and did it as well.  Yeahaa!

Check out Chris's run down Abyss that I posted on my facbook group at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4387363&id=511921938#!/group.php?gid=108354555864215

  We finished Manga’s, walked Mc Clarens, and jumped onto Wairoa. The flow was approximately a foot above normal, not a big deal we all thought but Phil warned us that everything will be different and the river didn’t disappoint. Mothers Nightmare was, as usual, a dirty rapid. Being higher most of us took hard left for the rapid and the drop. I managed to cheese grate my helmet by rolling half way down, reminding me why I wear a helmet...for the second time this year!  At Top waterfall we took a new line running right, and then Rollercoaster was the same as usual. That pretty much finished up the big stuff for the day. We got out at the usual place at around 2, making it a 4 hour paddle from top to bottom. A first time doing all 3 rivers, so a mint trip all round.

Once again thanks to Blair and Phil for looking out for us, and good stuff to the rest of the boys.
        
Paddle hard, Tim.