Winter on the Taipo | A wet, wild & wonderful packrafting adventure

Misty, gloomy, and frigid. A classic West Coast packrafting adventure on the Taipo River in the depths of winter. Thank goodness for drysuits! Most packrafters hike in to Mid-Taipo Hut, but our plans got cut short. A missed flight and a few other mishaps had us settling for a condensed trip to Dillons Hut. Cheeky wekas and the pitter patter of rain on the hut roof woke us up the following day, making for a moody, eerie feeling on the water, testing more than just our gear. As we neared the takeout, the valley walls closed in to reveal a stunning gorge, with moss lined walls and fun rapids, a definite highlight of the trip. In typical West Coast fashion, the weather had other ideas, putting an end to our plans of paddling another river the following day. Stay tuned to find out where we headed next! Our trip stats: We parked our car just off SH73 and hiked to Dillon Hut which took us about 3hrs. The next morning, we walked upstream 20 minutes to put in. From there, it was 3hrs of class II+/III paddling to the bridge, accounting for time scouting and portaging. For reference, the Hokitika River was running at 80 cumecs.