PRANZ Canterbury regional meet - 12th /13th April 2025

Join the PRANZ community for an autumn packrafting celebration at Lake Taylor for 2 days of boating on the Hurunui River. Sections for all levels from lake paddling to grade 3 of Māori Gully.

Meeting at 1100 Saturday at the Jollie Brook Carpark - Lake Sumner Road, at confluence with Seaward River, by the swing bridge. From there we will divide into groups. There will be a peer led rescue refresher workshop that will focus on sharing skills for self rescue and buddy rescue on Saturday for those that are keen. If not keen on the rescue refresher then all local river runs are available.

Overnight at Lake Taylor DOC Campground - YOU NEED TO BOOK YOUR SITE - Camping is on unpowered sites and costs $10/per night. All 15 site were available as at 17/3. If we get fully booked then we will need to double up on some of the sites - to avoid this if you are going with others then please book them onto your site where possible.

Sunday will be a day for putting into practice some of the rescue skills we refreshed the day before. We will divide into groups and run different sections of the Hurunui depending on skills and river flow.

Most of the runs here are roadside with short approaches, however, some people may want to shoot up to the source of the Hurunui at lake Sumner on the Sunday, this is around a 3.5hour walk and you will need all your packrafting gear in a suitable pack for carrying.

Packrafters might also not be aware that there is currently a proposal to put a weir at the outlet of Lake Sumner. The purpose of this would be to regulate flows for the irrigators. Let's have a discussion about the project and advocacy for the rivers. You can read the proposal here.

Remember to bring the following:

All packrafting gear; including whitewater appropriate helmet, whitewater PFD and all of your paddling gear. Check it twice!

Camping gear and food - There are no facilities nearby so you'll need to be self sufficient.

Additional cash for shuttle drivers

To give you an idea about what to expect, check out this quick video from last years meet! and read up on the runs at packraftingtrips.nz

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