Don't worry, the fall will probably kill you

I took the plans on holiday. They enjoyed it, but since they stayed in their cardboard tube for most of the time, failed to enjoy the delights of Piha, Hawke’s Bay and Taupo. It was my intention to see if I could make a start on manufacturing some of the internal components of the boat, such as the drinks cabinet… such optimistic aims were rather at odds with the business of entertaining and corralling my two boys, so I returned rather sheepishly, having contributed no advance to the project. It was a relief to find that Joe’s activity hardly put my inactivity to shame.

However, our work last week was hugely positive: we created a very effective jig that enables us to deal with the scarphing and thus the assembly of the planks in minutes rather than days; and we set to shaping the hog, stem and stern so that we are at last ready to fix the first (“Garboard” ) planks – the ones that will form the very bottom of the boat at the keel.

I did manage some reconnaissance during my travels. I rather wish I hadn’t as it has become clear that parts of our journey will be pretty arduous. Once we have crossed Lake Taupo, the Waikato ‘proper’ starts, but within a few hundred metres, we encounter sluice gates which will necessitate a portage (lugging the boat overland) across State Highway 1. A few kilometres further on and we will have a much longer portage over more difficult terrain to get around the Huka Falls (mentioned in an earlier piece). Back to it for a short distance and then we encounter the Aratiatia Dam, which is big and scary: the main stream runs through a tunnel to pass through the turbines, but every couple of hours in the afternoon, they let a huge surge of water through the old, natural, channel, which is basically a series of waterfalls and pools. It’s an impressive sight, so don’t miss it if you are passing through, but it means we will have another very long portage, over a fair sized hill. Think Shackleton and South Georgia.

Once we’ve done that lot, there are some serious rapids, no doubt complicated by the nice folk who run the Jet Boat thrills. I suspect that these obstacles will mean that our second day will be a slow one.



I also managed to scope a couple of the other dams further down. One or two are fairly easy: the landings above are clear and close to roads and there are good places to embark once more. The Karapiro Dam, however, will be a big obstacle and we have yet to get any idea how to deal with some of the others which are massive and without obvious access points.


Exciting challenges – I can’t wait. Just need a boat…


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