River explorer does it again
George Cook in the upper catchment of the Whanganui River.
He may bear the name of a famous explorer, but Peter Cook (55) is fairly laid back about his own expeditions.
In 2022 he paddle-boarded the length of the Waikato River – with requisite detours to traipse around dams and other unnavigable obstacles – now over 10 days he has done the same for the Whanganui.
He is already engaged in planning for the South Island’s Clarence River as a third and then the Mohaka.
There may be some support on these however because, as his and 22-year-old son George’s knees can testify, in the relationship between rapids and Stand-Up Paddleboard (SUP) things can wear a little thin.
“We’ll be rafting the bottom bits (of the Mohaka) because some of them are Grade 3, 4, 5 which isn’t really ideal for a SUP.
“Some rapids are great, and it gives me the same buzz I got from doing whitewater in a kayak on Grade 2 water, whereas now you kayak Grade 2 water, and it gets a bit boring but supping it means all of a sudden it’s a cool challenge again.”
An additional challenge Peter set himself for the Whanganui was to travel the river’s course from its origins in Tongariro National Park to the sea.
This involved a couple of days tramping, down near-dry gullies on the mountain.
“(Then) we found a little puddle which wasn’t even flowing, then the puddles got bigger and even then, for another five kilometres there was no flowing river… the next day it slowly built up from little tributaries and it started to look like a river, or stream, to start with.”
Eventually the pair got to a point where they could start paddle-boarding, picking up their inflatables – pre-stashed under a bridge on State Highway 47.
And while he said he seemed to enjoy being exhausted and the physical demands “in a weird way”, this, the logistics, is the other aspect Peter savours.
George Cook takes a nap on an inflatible paddleboard.
“I enjoy the whole planning side of it as well, it gets my brain ticking over, ‘what can I do next?’ And a bit of the unknown is nice as well. Going down the Whanganui we had no idea what was coming up and that adds to the adventure for sure.”
After six days, including a couple involving a lot of kneeling, sitting or being tossed into the rapids, the pair could switch at Whakahoro from inflatables to race boards – again dropped off in advance.
“Nicer to paddle but there were still reasonable rapids from there on and obviously they are tippier… but you don’t notice the gear on it so much and it’s faster. With my weight on the inflatable, it flexes quite a bit.”
Though the softness of the inflatables was helpful when they were camping.
“We could use them as sleeping mats, let out most of the air and they were quite comfortable. We had to be minimalist on the inflatables, so that worked a treat.”
Peter is also minimalist about any comparison to a latter-day John Hanning Speke who sought to track the Nile to its mythical single source.
“It’s nice doing stuff that other people aren’t doing. I’ve heard people have paddle boarded from the commercial start (Taumarunui or Whakahoro) but I guess we’re the first to do the full length.
Peter Cook crosses SH47 on his journey along the length of the Whanganui River.
“It’s kind of nice but if I found out someone else had done it, it wouldn’t worry me. The adventure is still the same. I’m not out to bag firsts, especially because it’s kind of a fringe thing. A lot of people go ‘well that’s just crazy’. If someone crawls the length of New Zealand and claims it as a first you’re not really impressed, are you? You just go ‘nutcase’.”
Though he was glad George was nutty enough to join him.
“I do quite a few solo trips but it’s better with someone else and the first bit (on the river) wasn’t so dangerous having someone else there. It wouldn’t be the place to be solo, the rapids. That would have been crazy.”