A New Zealand Packraft Film Explores River Running in the 70s
8-minute read
Filmmaker, Aqua Bound partner and New Zealander Deane Parker recently produced another packrafting film. It was selected by the UK’s prestigious Kendal Mountain Film Festival in 2024, as well as the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival.
The unique angle Deane chose to key in on for his film Following Footsteps of River Runners was to highlight a river run from 49 years earlier on the same river (New Zealand’s Karamea) that he and some friends planned to tackle.
For the earlier trip (in the 1970s), the guys involved made their own rafts from tractor inner tubes and made their own paddles from plywood and saplings. Not exactly the ultralite, high-tech gear we’re used to today!
As part of the Karamea River adventure Deane and his team embarked on, they decided to re-enact a section of the river using vintage 70s PFDs and clothing as well as similar homemade rafts and paddles.
Deane tells his story below:
About the Making of Following Footsteps
by Deane Parker
In the past, the Karamea River had a notorious reputation for being one of the hardest rivers in New Zealand. Subsequently, almost every watershed in the country has been explored, while the Karamea, being at the end of the road as far north as you can drive on the West Coast of the South Island, became less frequented.
But in its heyday in the 90s, it was rafted and kayaked regularly, enabled by a reliable helicopter operator in the little village, which meant it was possible to bump a ride deep into Kahurangi National Park.
The river has a long, winding catchment in an area with high rainfall. The river rises and falls quickly. In my commercial rafting days, there was nothing more like to put the willies up you than lying in a tent above the 1-kilometre rapid of Roaring Lion with the sound of rain. Having been caught in Roaring Lion on the rise a few times, it is a foreboding and intimidating place to be.
Deane and Muel on Scarecase Rapid on the Karamea River (photo courtesy of Megan Dimozantos)
The idea to packraft the river came on the back of a phase I was in—leaving the bike behind and enjoying the freedom of packrafting whitewater without the awkwardness of bikerafting. And it truly felt like freedom, a sub-5 kg high-performance inflatable boat capable of competently running Class 4. I mean, I knew it but hadn’t sunk my teeth into familiarising myself.
My good friend Jimmy was the spark. He initially suggested it, and I scoffed. But given some take-up time and more coaxing from my old mate, I started to get inspired by a self-supported journey hiking into the headwaters, which I had not run before, over two days and then four days to paddle the river.
Around now, I remembered the account of some fellas that had done the same route in the 70s with tyre tube rafts. I had read their book decades ago. I scanned my bookshelf, and there it was: Wild Rivers by John MacKay. The book is an account of multiple river journeys in homemade tyre tube rafts. Not cruisy rivers but hard-core runs even by today’s standards. Along with chapters on the Karamea, they had also run the Motu, Clarence and Buller.
John MacKay (right) and two buddies ran the Karamea decades ago with homemade rafts and paddles (photo courtesy of John MacKay)
The efforts to carry the parts to make the rafts into the river were impressive. Essentially, the lads would each carry two tractor inner tubes, a couple of paddle blades knocked out from a sheet of plywood, and a heap of twine. Once at a suitable spot, they would harvest saplings to become the paddle and to lash the tubes together with the string.
The tubes were heavy and cumbersome to hike with—but not as much as trying to navigate through rocky rapids on the Upper Karamea.
(photo courtesy of John MacKay)
Having reread the Karamea story, I was becoming inspired. I thought the story would be part of the Karamea’s fearsome reputation of modern-day river runners until…
I had a conversation with Sir Hugh Carnard (for services to paddle sports) about our intentions to embark on the trip and the beta I had gathered from Wild Rivers. He revealed that John Mackay was still kicking. And not only that, he was planning to join the upcoming PRANZ (Packrafting Association of NZ) annual meet-up.
I was now salivating at the idea of meeting John and capturing his thoughts and experiences in an interview as the basis for the story. I reached out and asked John if he would help with the project. In hindsight now, I realise John and I had some similar traits, one of those being a sucker for a good yarn.
I made a plan with the team to stage a reenactment on the back of the PRANZ meet-up. We attempted to source tractor inner tubes, which wasn’t easy. Like cars, tractors are predominantly tubeless these days. It took multiple calls and visits to tyre repair shops.
Modern packrafts and ultralite paddles make the run a different story (photo courtesy of Megan Dimozantos)
We managed to acquire six tubes. Jimmy and Muel rendezvoused in Murchison on the banks of the Buller river, and I brought John up from the packrafting meet. Whilst inflating the tubes to build the rafts, one of the tubes popped. No worries, we’ll work with two rafts. BANG! Another explodes, and I’m scratching my head as to how these tubes lasted for weeks on a rocky river!
They must have been built stronger back then, surely. But as it reads, they got plenty of punctures and ran out of repair materials before the end of the trip.
I had asked Jimmy to cut out paddle blades in a similar shape to the ones in John’s photos, but I hadn’t stipulated thickness. Doh! He turned up with cut-outs from a sheet of 25 mm plywood. Each blade weighed a few kilograms—way too heavy. Just what we needed to make sure it was extra challenging.
We had chosen one of the classic Buller rapids to attempt to paddle. Osullies Rapid is named after the O’Sullivans Bridge, which is at the intersection of State Highway 6 to the West Coast and State Highway 65 over Lewis Pass to Christchurch. Osullies is a test piece for aspiring paddlers in the upper Buller Gorge. 400 m long, not difficult, and the first Class 3 rapids for many, including my kids.
It starts off with a ramp beside a stout hole and then a boulder-garden-style middle section that culminates in a narrowing of the channel and a wave train into a big swirling, boily pool. It’s right beside the road with good access, which we had chosen to enable easy filming by affiliate Dylan Gerschwitz.
Deane’s mate Jared on Ferris Creek Rapid (photo courtesy of Megan Dimozantos)
We decided the three of us would do laps until we had a feel for the old school rafts and Dylan had enough footage. The trepidation of launching was a similar feeling to the first time I’d run a Class 3 rapid—heart beating in my chest and feeling like I was at the river's mercy. Maybe if we’d used 7mm ply for the paddle blades, we could have actually gained some momentum, but the control was negligible.
It was like trying to navigate a small oil rig down a rapid with a brick for a paddle blade.
Having said that, we’re all still here. And even though Jimmy got close, we didn’t even fall off the contraptions. John sat on the bank and probably giggled the whole way through at our hair-brained scheme to recreate his exploits from five decades ago. Especially after having come from the PRANZ meet where I lent him an Alpacka self-bailing Gnarwhal and getting to experience the inflatable technology of today.
It was an amazing experience to meet John and absorb some of his heritage and legacy for river running. Subsequently, that’s how the name of the film came about, as we literally “followed the footsteps of river runners.”
At no time during the expedition did I think, “Gee, I wish I had an inner tube raft here.” Maybe because we struck very low water. In the book, John talks about (in the upper river) leaving their packs at the huts and rafting down, then walking back to get their packs.
This was possible on the upper river, followed by the track and newly-built Forest Service huts. That’s why we spent fewer days on this section than they did, whereas below Roaring Lion, the river is bigger in all respects. They did the same distances/times as we did, which is astonishing. I guess hunger is a driving factor we didn’t have to contend with.
Navigating the bony upper river (photo courtesy of Megan Dimozantos)
Four of the five of us used Aqua Bound 4-piece Whisky paddles on this trip. We had no breakages. They’re ultra lightweight for hiking, and they’re solid and dependable on the rocky river conditions.
Watch the Film
You can watch the film Following Footsteps of River Runners on Deane’s YouTube channel. Meet Deane’s team, meet John Mackay and enjoy this 17-minute story.
Learn more about Deane’s packrafting and bikerafting films on his website, deaneparker.nz.
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us at 715-755-3405 or sales@aquabound.com
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