Our 3 Day 90km Canoe/Kayak Trip

Yesterday afternoon we got back from our Canoe Safari down the Wanganui River. We put in at Whakahoro on Wednesday morning at about 10am, and were picked up at 2pm on Friday at Pipiriki.
On the first day we had a little tutorial from Simon about how to steer the canoe, jumped in and had lots of little arguments about who's fault it was we ended up pointing up river quite often. We stopped for lunch at Mangapapa and after carrying the chilly bins (cool box) up a rather steep track, made some lovely sandwiches. We were on the trip with a father and daughter from Wellington, an American lady with her two young girls, a German backpacker called Linus and a Canadian 'guide', although the American lady thought Robyn and I were the guides, due to our workload during the trip. After a quick lunch it was back in our canoe for a trip to John Coull Hut, which is sort of like a really basic hostel with a small kitchen and Maori bunks (lots of matresses lined up on one bunk). Robyn and I slept in a tent outside to avoid the noise/children!
Day two started with Robyn and I preparing breakfast for the trip, and Linus and I traded places so he was steering the canoe with Robyn and I took the kayak. This worked out really well for all involved, he didn't get wet-bum, Robyn didn't get blamed for spinning the canoe, and I was much more comfortable in my little yellow sea kayak. I think we had more of a chat going down the river when I was cruising next to the boat. Lunch was at Mangapurua, which is also the start of a 40min walk up to the Bridge to Nowhere. The bridge was built after WW1 when the land around the Wanganui River was assigned to discharged servicemen. This was the last land assignment of it's kind in NZ, as it was a total failure, resulting in all the men being removed from their land by 1942. Back in the boats, we paddled down to Tieke to stay at Bridge to Nowhere lodge, where we shared a dorm room with Linus, and Joe the owner kept a variety of animals, we saw an Emu, minature horses, a peacock, a rabbit, a cat and a few dogs. We cooked up some steak, salad and pasta and collapsed into bed.
On day three we had roughly 22km to paddle down to Pipiriki to meet Simon for our pickup. There were a few rapids, although not very big, but good fun all the same. I got a good soaking being in a kayak, which Robyn found very funny. We arrived at Pipiriki 5 minutes before Simon, meaning no lunch, and he and I loaded the boats onto the trailer and we set off for Ohakune, about 40 mins away. On hearing I had missed lunch, Simon's partner Tracie made me a lovely toasty!
Yesterday evening we cooked up all the leftovers from the trip and had a good old chat with Simon and Tracie about what it was all like. Overall it was a fantastic trip, a highlight of our time in NZ so far.