Hi there, I´m a real newbie, looking for some advice from the experienced kayakers here:
My husband and I are quite new to kayaking and kayak fishing and we would like to do the whanganui river journey this Dec or Jan as we read it seems to be quite an appropriate river for beginners.
However, it seems that most people are doing the journey with rented canoes, sometimes kayaks and we are not really sure if our kayaks and level of experience is good for the entire journey to do it on our own. We are prepared to get wet of course, but I´d just like to make sure we are not planning something silly that turns out to be not feasible or dangerous.
So I´d appreciate your thoughts...
Our equipment: 2 single sit on tops (Cobra navigator) without rudder. We have A-hedges, so I guess there should be enough storage room for the trip)
Our experience:
We bought our Cobra Navigators about 1.5 years ago and haven´t been exposed to Kayaking before. With these kayaks we only paddled on our own so far and only on slow rivers without any rapids (e.g. lower Taieri), on lakes (e.g. Lake Dunstan, Lake Mahinerangi), and a bit on the sea (Aramoana spit, Murderers beach, Long Beach), close to the shore in calmer conditions. We practiced re-entering our kayaks on a calm lake, but not in flowing water or on the sea.
We have also done a guided 2days sea-kayaking trip in doubtful sound and an unguided 3day sea kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman from Tata Bay to Marahau, both with a hired double sea kayak. Abel Tasman one was also under very calm conditions, but we had a good safety briefing incl. wet exit practice.
Based on our Kayaks (and the described level of experience I wonder if you are able to rate which sections of the Whanganui journey you would recommend or not recommend to us. I read that you read some more experience for the first day, a bit less for the second and not really any for the last 3, but not sure what "some experience" means and how it works out with our own kayaks.
I also wonder if you have additional tips for arranging transfer from the end to the starting point for people who are not booking a whole package with canoes. I especially wonder if it makes sense to leave our kayaks at Pipiriki, take a jetty or shuttle back to our starting point and then pick the kayaks up later with our own car.
And last but not least: if you also have some fishing tips for the journey that will be much appreciated :-D
Cheers