It was an early start for me this morning. We all planned to meet at the white water centre car park at 9am. I left Wellington at 7.30 with an hour and a half drive in front of me. There wasn't much traffic on the road, and after a stop at New World in Levin, I arrived in Shannon at 9am.

I was quite surprised to find he car park deserted when I arrived. I walked along the river to see what it had in store for me later. It was a pretty chilly 5 degrees, and I was hoping it would warm up by the time we got on the river.

When I got back to the car park from my walk along the river, another 2 kayakers had arrived. Over the next 2 hours everyone else arrived.

My first run down the river was with Christina, Scott and Jo. Jo paddled down to the bridge from the get in, to show us where the eddies were. Scott went next, but 7 metres from the get in, he went over. After attempting a roll, which failed, I saw his boat disappear around the bend under the bridge. Jo and Christina went after him, and I paddled down the river with Dean and Amber.

I made it all the way down the river without going over. Yay!!! I did have one scary moment on the last bend before the get out. The eddie to the left of the second to last drop has a very strong current, and has a tendency to suck the back of boats under if you enter the eddies too late. This happened to me, but I was able to do a high brace support stroke and right myself.

After another 3 runs, it was time for lunch. The sun was out, and so was the bbq.

After lunch I managed to fit in another couple of runs before it was time to head back to Wellington. I had an awesome day, which really built up my confidence on a grade 3 river.

Checkout some more photos from this trip at http://photos.pominnz.com