Wanganui river - Day 3

By day 3 Mikey and I had our morning routine down. Oats with banana and NUTELLA in the morning alongside a hot cup of coffee. Clean up camp, pack the barrels, take a poop, and we are on our way. We were expecting some showers to hit us by day 4, and it was no surprise that it came early. The showers didn't change our moods, but they did change the look of the valley. It was almost as though we were on a whole new river entirely. 

We followed the canyon walls until noon when we reached Tieke Kianga hut. When we entered the hut we were greeted by a Maori lady named Whywhy - who was there looking after the marae. She offered us some food and coffee, which we gladly excepted, and told us about some recent visitors who stayed over night. Mikey and I have heard of the Christian school group who were on the river, and after hearing Whywhy's stories we were in no way hoping to run into them.

After lunch we pushed forward to Pipriki. The rain continued to fall, but there was no wind. This section of the river had few rapids, which meant we needed to do all the work. I found my rhythm and was soon lost in the mesmerizing valley. We spotted a sign for Pipiriki and started to get excited. There were two rapids right after each other before the landing, and as we entered the first rapid a jet boat came roaring in and stopped behind us. It was a couple of the doc workers that we saw yesterday. We gave the jetboat a chance to pass but they didn't take it. As we shot into the second rapid we heard them come full speed right beside us. It was a clear attempt to flip us, but we held steady.

As we docked our canoe the rain started to pick up, and it was soon coming down quite hard. There was no clear campsite so we took a walk up the road. We spotted a house, and figured whoever was there may have some information. We gave a knock on the door and an older man named Bob answered. He brought us into his patio and began telling us stories. As much as I love stories I soon became quite annoyed by the fact that our gear was getting poured on outside, and we were sitting there soaking wet. After an hour of sitting with Bob he offered his truck to help us bring up our barrels. After driving around Pipiriki for another 15 minutes we eventually made it down to our gear. After loading up the truck Bob then offered us accommodation for the night in his patio. We simply couldn't say no, so we brought everything back to the house and started hanging our clothes up the dry. Bob was a genuinely nice man, but a few things that he said startled me. He was very passionate about Maori culture and made it quite clear that he supported Maori cannibalism. So much so that he told us how to tell when a man is cooked. This made both Mikey and I slightly nervous at the time, especially after he made a passing comment about eating tourists. We did our best to put the thoughts aside when Bob made a big feast for the three of us. Just mashed potatoes with a stir fry. We had a great night and Bob truly did teach us a lot. He let us both take a hot shower and started up a fire so we could dry our clothes faster. I felt quite bad that at one point I was sure he was going to poison our food and eat us. By the end of the night we were all warm with laughter.