The crystal clear Aorere cuts through the epic rock gorge at Salisbury falls, which is Takaka’s biggest and busiest swimming hole. The gorge itself runs for a few km each side of the tourist area and is an easy and spectacular trip, suitable for confident beginners. This is a short and sweet car-shuttle run, which has been popular with kayakers since forever..
Thanks to Martin Wilson for the photos and info.
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Car shuttle
Leave a car (or bike) at James Rd bridge and head up the Aorere Valley road until it crosses 15 mile creek. Get in here at the little bridge.
On the river
The river is wide and at low flows, there are occaisonally two channels to pick from.
Beware of the limestone overhangs, the water could drag you and trap you into a low ceiling cave! Wave at the tourist sat the swimming area and stop off for a dip in the warmer waters of the Salisbury Creek waterfall. Keep heading downstream, sometimes paddling long still sections of clear green water.
You can get out on the upstream or downstream side of the James Rd bridge. The run as marked is roughly 12km about 2-3 hrs.
The trip could be extended 8km by heading on downriver to the Devils Boots and getting out at Rockville.
Have a look at what the kayakers say on the Riverguide.co.nz entry for this section.
Gauge
Aorere at Salisbury (which is a stage height in mm near the put-in)
- 500mm is reported as near the lowest reasonable level to bother paddling: expect to scrape a bit on the shoals.
- 650mm is an easy low-flow for confident beginners.
- >650mm.. Tell us what you find…
There is another gauge lower down: Aorere at Devils boots (which is in cumecs, and a ways downstream)
Ran the Aorere from Fossil Creek (just below Brown Hut) today at ~35m³ at Devils Boot / 970mm Salisbury Bridge. Long run, some 18-ish km by the looks. Big river feel above the gorge but mostly read and run grade 2/2+. In the gorge, which is absolutelystunning, be wary of the headwalls where many a time the rapid runs into them at 90 degrees. Some rapids require manoeuvring and there is at least a couple that push into the 3- territory. They are fairly straightforward if you know what you’re doing, though. Worth scoping the gorge rapids, also because there are many undercuts from where the limestone starts (below the old bungee bridge). Past the gorge there are some more fun bedrock features, all read and run and grade 2/2+.
From what the description above says for lower flows, I would say at 35 cumecs / ~1m stage it is not a beginner run and requires some manoeuvring skills and being comfortablein bigger water.