The Whanganui river is one of the longest rivers in New Zealand. Originating in Mt Tongariro, this river was for many years the main highway linking Aukland to Wellington.
There have been all sorts of craft using this river over time from simple Maori dugout canoes to the paddle steamer ships of the early 1900's. We opted for a rtather faster way of getting up the river. A V8 jetboat! After a bone shattering drive over gravel roads for mny kilometers we arrived in the tiny village of Pipiriki. This long with many of the other small towns were once thriving with tourists using the river highway but nowadays they are mainly populated by the hardy farmers and people making a fast buck off of us tourists.
It wasn't long before we were piled into the jetboat and barrelling upstream at breakneck speed. Our guide Ken was very informative, pointing out things of interest on the way as well as showing us the size of the rapids in the river. This second point was of particular interest to us as after we had been taken upstream by jetboat we were to be kayaking back down again. After about 50 minutes we had covered approximately 40kms and it was time to time to pull over for lunch. We got out of the boat and trekked through the bush towards the "Bridge to Nowhere" After 40 or so minutes of walking along an old road (which had been returned to nature now and was only a pathway) we arrived at this bridge. It was quite surreal to see a concrete arched bridge in the middle of the bush and it did truly go to nowhere.
The story behind the bridge was explained to us as follows. After WW1 when the troops returned the government was tasked to find jobs for the sudden increase in the working population. They decided that agriculture was the way to go and this meant clearing forest for pasture land. They started building a road in order to link these new farming areas with local villages and towns. At the same time as the start of the road construction 4 men started on the bridge to link the two road schemes when they met at the gorge. When the bridge was half completed the government pulled the plug on the road construction since it was getting washed away in floods annually and on completion of the bridge the whole road scheme was shelved. The opening ceremony for the bridge consisted of a car being driven over the bridge and approximately 6m into the bush on the other side. That was the only vehicle that ever crossed it. As the photos show the bridge was an amazing construction considering it was built by 4 men in 1.5years with all the concrete hand mixed and poured on site. Now you find me a polish builder who can work as efficiently as that! Incidentally the farmers gave up and left the area one by one as a national depression made the industry worthless. Now it's regenerated back to native forest and its difficult to even imagine the area being farmed.
On retuning to the jet boat we were treated to a half hour ride down river in the sun this time instead of rain. Six of the group including ourselves were then dropped off and introduced to our canoes which we would paddle the 10 km back to Pipiriki. We were all in pairs so the three canoes set out and we waved off the jet boat. The river is wide and mostly smooth going. The few rapids we had to make our way through were nothing too challenging and we had a map marking the best route to aim for through them. There were also some small side streams, and a couple of caves worth exploring so we took our time investigating the nooks and crannies. It was after emerging from one of these and heading towards our first rapid that we spotted one of the other canoes in front of us getting into a little trouble. The English couple in their fifties had hit a half submerged rock and capsized their canoe at the top of the rapids. We set out to catch up and lend a hand, picking up the floating belongings trailing from behind them as they went. Unfortunately they didn't make it to the bank before they were swept down the second set of rapids which they rode hanging on to their oars and upside down canoe. We managed to catch up to them at this point, grab a rope at the front of their boat and pull them to the bank. They were pretty worn out and wet but otherwise unharmed, and soon on their way without too much more excitement.
We didn't get wet ourselves, that is until the very last rapid were the waves decided to come over the side to soak our seats. We were rather relieved we hadn't gone for a swim and by the end we were ready for a hot chocolate and a reasonable short drive to our next campsite.