West coast.
A car to car trip with a variety of paddling, from lake, to easy river to class III rapids to esturary!
Very scenic paddle.
Inspiration to explore
West coast.
A car to car trip with a variety of paddling, from lake, to easy river to class III rapids to esturary!
Very scenic paddle.
Short and scenic, with easy access and option to make it into an overnight trip with a stay at Lake Daniell.
A multi-day trip packed with exciting whitewater, dramatic landscapes and strenuous tramping, the Landsborough provides an unforgettable South Westland wilderness adventure for advanced packrafters.
A relatively straight-forward out and back weekend trip to a beautiful braided river beneath Mt Hooker. Best after rain, or during the spring melt. View Larger Topographic Map Logistics and (potential) shuttle There are a couple of ways to start and end the trip. No shuttle: Park your vehicles on the southern side of Clarke…
A fun loop trip in Lewis Pass, with a walk up beech forest valley and over a pass, a quick paddle across Lake Christabel and through grade 2 to 3 rapids (with some portaging). Thank you to Carey Lintott, Nicole Symon and Martin Peat for the information and photos. This keen group did the trip…
A long distance through trip that crosses the main divide from east to west. Most people would probably want to allow 4 or 5 days for the trip which is evenly split with 50km of trekking and 50km of paddling. Some off-track navigation is required and the class III Gentle Annie gorge has no easy…
Two really tough days of off-track travel through thick (and steep) South Westland scrub lead to the obvious put on for the Okuru River. The Okuru is a gorgeous river, mainly class I, with a few class II rapids and about 6 in the easy class III range. A satisfying trip for determined and experienced…
A short scenic float through a huge limestone gorge, this could be the last section of a trip on the Inland Packtrack, or a short out and back from Punakaiki. Thanks to Elias Love for the photos and info. View Larger Topographic Map Pororari River Track Its about 1hr up the track to the swingbridge…
The headwaters of this valley are home to some of the hard west coast heli-kayaking runs, but the section from Rapid Creek down is much more manageable for intermediate packrafters. Easily done in a day, but there’s a great wee hut there so why not spend the night? There’s more than a few ways to…
A day trip to a big west coast river, with a stunning backdrop. If you’ve got the skills you can head above this section for some serious boating.. Thanks to Elias Love for the photos and info for this trip page. View Larger Topographic Map Highway to first swingbridge The first kilometre or so of…
The Taipo below Julia Hut is already well known as a heli-kayaking run, with some detailed paddling information in the Whitewater NZ river guide book. Taipo means ”devil” or evil spirit in Maori. It is interesting because Maori used it thinking it was English and the early English settlers used it thinking it was Maori….
Unlike the section above Haast-Paringa Cattle Track, the lower Moeraki is a very gentle paddle. This trip involves travel through the river, a lake, a bush bash (or coastal walk at low tide)to a penguin colony, then back to the road via an excellent track. The coastal walk section is very subject to tide and…
West Coast rivers can be pretty intimidating. If you want a gentler option but still with a wilderness feel, fantastic views of the Southern Alps, rain forested gorges and waterfalls then the Mikonui just south of Ross is a great option. And Ross is a cool little town to hang out in. There are few…
One of a series of ‘teaser’ trip pages for those heading to the 2017 NZ Packrafting Meetup. Thanks to Hugh Canard for the information. I’m hopeful that the Meetup will result in a little more info plus a few photos so we can expand these pages. View Larger Topographic Map St James Walkway to Cannibal…
One of a series of ‘teaser’ trip pages for those heading to the 2017 NZ Packrafting Meetup. Thanks to Hugh Canard for the information. I’m hopeful that the Meetup will result in a little more info plus a few photos so we can expand these pages. View Larger Topographic Map Lewis River (III) from Deer…
One of a series of ‘teaser’ trip pages for those heading to the 2017 NZ Packrafting Meetup. Thanks to Hugh Canard for the information. I’m hopeful that the Meetup will result in a little more info plus a few photos so we can expand these pages. Featured image is By Michal Klajban (Hikingisgood.com) (Own work)…
One of a series of ‘teaser’ trip pages for those heading to the 2017 NZ Packrafting Meetup. Thanks to Hugh Canard for the information. I’m hopeful that the Meetup will result in a little more info plus a few photos so we can expand these pages. View Larger Topographic Map Boyle River (II+) from Boyle…
Another wild westcoast valley and river. This trip page is intended for inspiration only, and is collated by the editor of this site from many sources of information. These are cited in the text below. Featured image is credit to Dulkara Martig. View Larger Topographic Map Wanganui Valley Track to Hunters Hut About 5 hours…
Classic west coast packrafting, with the option of a side trip to the hot pools.