About the river reader
Wicked view aye….. And checking it out from his lounge, coffee in one hand and binoculars in the other, keeping us up-dated with the ebbs and flows of the river, is the Fat Dad. It doesn’t getter better than this. Why is he called Fat Dad? We tried a few others, Fat seemed to work, and Dad, well after all, he his my dad so there you go. You can call him that.
He’s lived here all his life, with the river running by down the back of the farm. He bulldozed the track down the river face so many moons ago, to what is now River Valley Lodge and the take-out for the class 5 white water run. It also is a great starting point for a muti day class 2/3 run.
He’s seen it all, from the first hairy fiberglass kayakers, then the rafters, and now all the modern river rippers. He’s been there for them all, loving meeting new and interesting people and shearing his piece of paradise. He’s been a farmer, musician, artist, rafter, kayaker (short time), adventurer, hunter, keen fisherman, lodge builder, host and many many more, but these days prefers to kick back perched above the river and watch the show. After all, it’s a full time job being a philosopher these days……
Point is, he is the old man of this river. No one knows it better, so it awesome having him directly up-dating the river gauge on our front page. He connected to the net right there, so you can totally trust his word and judgment on the local river forecasts and plan accordingly.
What the levels mean
We’re using the original river gauge levels. Everything from 0 to 10 is good to go but the river changes hugely over this range. At 0 it’s very low volume, steep and technical. Once it gets over 1, the good playing starts to kick in. At 7, the rafters stay home as it’s starting to get big holes and very continuous. At 10 it’s cranking. Still not truly flooded and plenty of eddies, but pushy and big. A lot of kayakers like to stay home at these levels too. I’ve run the river plenty of times below 0 and above 10, and had great days, but then I do know the river well and we recommend running it on the gauge.
As well as the level, you get a ‘cumeg’ reading as well. This is also very accurate information. Doesn’t mean much to some people but here is a good basic conversion to cfs…
Level 8 = 70 cumegs = 2000 cfs
Level 4 = 35 cumegs = 1000 cfs
But the best info you get is the river outlook. Based on local experience, combining weather systems and flows in sister catchments, lifts in the level can often be predicted to the hour. If floods are forecast, you can pretty much count on it. Best come back another day……