I'm [out of] a boat

I think "Without a Paddle" is a seriously underrated movie. Mark and I went and saw this movie back in highschool and have loved it ever since. The premise is that three childhood friends go canoeing in the wilderness, tip their canoe, lose their stuff and have to find a way out. Its a great movie to watch, didn't quite think I'd have to live through it.

We got to the put in for the river after a night in the tent where it poured rain non stop. Two guys dropped us off at the put in, one recommended waiting 2 hours for the river level to go down, the other saying we would be fine to go right now. There was a rapid just upstream of the put in and we were assured that was the biggest one would we would see. We decided to wait an hour and a half

A few minutes into the paddle the waves and rapids we were seeing were 5 or 6 times the size of the one at the put in. We were hitting everything perfectly but the boulders, calm pools and areas to take out that were promised in the river guide were not there. We came through one particularily big set and were very happy to have made it when something hit our boat (there were large submerged boulders as well as full trees floating down the river, so we're not sure what it was). We capsized and although I was able to hold onto the canoe for a while I wasn't able to swim it to shore as it was loaded with all our gear and the river ust kept rushing us through more and more whitewater where it was supposed to be calm. We abandoned the canoe and paddles and hauled ass to shore where we were just across the river from the campsite that was supposed to take us 5 hours of hard paddling to get to...2 hours after put in, paddling lazily (except for the whitewater) and including a 5-10 minute swim. On the side of the river we came out on there was nothing so after drying our stuff out in the sun for a bit we hiked up through the backcountry hills for a while until we came upon some farm land. We went through a few pastures, startling goats and sheep and cows until we finally came to a road. After walking along the road for a few minutes a car pulled over and asked if we needed a ride (we were wearing our lifejackets, carrying our soaking wet clothes and covered in mud).

We took the ride into town to the i-site where Mel at the Tamaranui I-site made us coffee, brought us cookies and called Helene over at the Holiday Park. Helene and Phil run the holiday park and they agreed to put us up for a couple nights if need be despite the fact that we had no wallets, passports or clothes other then what we were wearing. We got the Holiday Park and Helene handed us a key to a cabin, sleeping bags, towels, soap and two cold beers.

We were treated to some more cold beers and dinner the first night and on the second day Helene called the local police who called the Wanganui police who had found the canoe (what usually would be a 7 day journey took our canoe without paddles less then 24 hours) and all our stuff was still strapped in. We received our stuff yesterday afternoon (presented in police evidence bags) and dried it out while digging into our food supply for the five day trip.

Today we left the holiday park, which was a little sad because we met some very amazing people there who we would not have gotten through the ordeal without. We hitched up to Hamilton, halfway getting a ride from a farmer named Grant who brought us first to his house, gave us a beer and made us bacon and eggs (this hospitality was not presented as an option) and then toured us aron dthe neighbouring towns before dropping us just south of Hamilton. One more ride from a guy from Nova Scotia and a bus and we are now in Raglan.

The hostel we are staying at is amazing. There is a free hot tub, sauna, hammocks, skim boards and kayaks to use. The hostel overlooks the river right before it meets the ocean and has the cheapest surf rentals in town. We are staying here for three nights (at least) and the plan is to spend the next three days enjoying the sun, surfing (or attempting to) and resting assured that our passports, wallets and clothes are back safely in the room.