We are always delighted to hear about and share information on interesting rowing tours around the world. In 2013, Allison Stafford-Bush contacted me about a recent event in New Zealand (http://hoeakaha.cer33.com/) that she thought would be of interest. It absolutely is, thank you Allison. Now, in 2019, the event will be running again. While I will be in New Zealand to research our new tour on the South Island for later in the year, I unfortunately will not be able to participate this year. Here is a summary of the 2013 event:
The event is called Hoea Kaha – which translates from Maori as “paddle strongly”. The event was 4 days of rowing – about 170 kms in all.
The river that we row on is the main river in the North Island of New Zealand (Waikato) which has a strong cultural meaning to the local Maori people. There is a saying that on every bend of the river, there is a taniwha (a mythical creature). The story goes that each taniwha is the manifestation of a great chief from the area who has died. The river is beautiful – deep and green, narrow and swirling in parts, wide and rimmed by forest or farmland, or bounded by housing in the cities that we pass through.
The event is more than just the rowing – it is a total cultural experience. On the first day at the lunch break our rowers took the opportunity to wander through the most impressive geyser experience in New Zealand (Orakei Korako), on the 2nd day, the row finishes at lunch time on the world rowing course at Lake Karapiro, and on the 3rd evening, we were hosted on a local marae by one of the Waikato tribes.
This year we had 8 crews – all coxed quads- but could take this number up to 10. This keeps the numbers manageable in terms of portage, and keeps it intimate enough for participants to get to know everyone.
We had 3 crews from France and 3 guys from Germany as our guests in this inaugural event, and they all thought it was an amazing event!
If you look on the website you will see the towns that we travel through by river. This year, because of extreme drought conditions, we didn’t row the last afternoon session because the river had developed all sorts of sandbars, and we did not want to damage the boats. As an alternative, we set the crews up for 1 k sprint racing. This was a perfect ending to the event, and I think that we would create a similar finale for the next event.
Photo courtesy Mike Harrison.
Photo courtesy Mike Harrison.
Photo courtesy Mike Harrison.
Photo courtesy Mike Harrison.
Photo courtesy Mike Harrison.
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