Control gates to Bottom Hole. Safe flows - all gates at 200 to 500.

The Kaituna river offers numerous features that seem to have been especially designed with the white water paddler in mind.

The top 400m section of the river has a slalom course. There are easy currents and eddies for the beginner, friendly waves and nothing too intimidating. The chute rapid is the first main rapid. It has fast currents but no rocks and lots of recovery space. It is a good rapid for absolute beginners to paddle down under supervision, adding some challenge and sense of achievement at the end of a first half day lesson.

This top river section also has “the top hole”. This is a unique shallow hole that is ideal for learning the basics of surfing and spinning. The instructor can stand in the water and hold your boat as you learn the dynamics of a hole.

You can get the feel of using the water for support and to manoeuvre, spinning and controlling your boat confidently whilst the instructor’s hand on your boat avoids any upside down mishap. These skills learnt so securely in the top hole will give you good boat control for your general paddling. They are also the fundamental skills for freestyle paddling.

The middle river section has the famous waterfalls of the Kaituna river. The first two waterfalls are the powerhouse and the weir. These comprise the remains of the fourth hydroelectric power station ever built in New Zealand.

The two metre and then one metre drops are technically quite easy but the strong left to right cross current in between can catch people out. Paddlers need to be able to ferry glide out against this current and then once about ten metres from the weir turn and paddle off the right side of the weir in the direction the water is going.

More established paddlers can opt to run the old tail race to the power station. This is very fast and shallow and then you can rail slide along the old rusty rails before dropping three metres into the pool below the weir.

A few hundred metres further down the river is the well known seven metre waterfall, Tutea Falls. This is normally run flying off the right hand side, landing flat in the white water below and surfing out. The place to boof is a little way down the falls and out of sight, which makes it tempting to boof too early.

Not boofing or boofing too early can send paddlers down the boil line straight to the bottom of the river. For this reason, those not confident with a boof are better to take the middle line. You just need a few paddle strokes to catch up with the speed of the water and then drift over the falls leaning slightly back. If you get the leaning back just right it is possible to get a completely dry run.

If you don’t get it right you’re going with the main flow of the water and extremely unlikely to get stuck. So, in fact although Tutea falls are big they only require simple manoeuvres to paddle them.

The lower river section offers seven rapids. After each rapid there is a calm section for recovery. Typically the water is deep with no rocks to hit. This lower river section is a good place to progress once you have gained some skills in the top section. You can walk in along the track and put in below Tutea falls.

The last rapid in the lower section, immediately before the take out, is imaginatively known as “the bottom hole”. Its name does not do it justice as it is in fact internationally renowned as a top kayaking location. It is a very smooth basin and forms a very retentive hole. It is one of the most controllable and easiest places in the world to learn to cartwheel, loop (aerial somersault) and master more difficult freestyle moves.