Whanganui Journey


We set off at 10:45 am. For the first few minutes, though, we were thankfully in the placid waters of a tributary of the Whanganui river, because neither Heather nor I had properly paddled a canoe before. Despite the fact that I am a keen kayaker (and have owned my own sea-kayak since 1999), paddling a canoe – powering it forward and steering it skilfully on a correct course – is something we both had to learn on the job. Hopefully, though, we were only being thrown into the deep end in a metaphorical manner.