Little Tree comes into her own on Waikato in winter

By COLIN MOORE

Grandma said when you come on something good, first thing to do is share it with whoever you can find; that way, the good spreads out where no telling it will go. Which is right."

So begins Forrest Carter's The Education of Little Tree, a poignant and beautiful tale of a young North American Indian boy that has been spreading out good since it was published in 1976.

When it came to choosing a name for the 5.3m woodstrip Canadian canoe that Chris Bradbeer and I would paddle for nearly 2300km down Australia's Murray River in November-December 1998, Little Tree, our family's favourite book, chose itself.

A Redbird design along traditional Indian lines, she was beautifully handcrafted by Nelson canoe and kayak builder John Dobbe from kahikatea - Dobbe says it is more flexible than cedar - with decorative strips of totara, and kauri gunwales.

Throughout our journey Little Tree spread good, drawing admiring looks and comments for her New Zealand native timbers and the workmanship of her builder. But since we stepped ashore at Goolwa in South Australia, where the Murray River flows into the Southern Ocean, Little Tree has not had her beautiful bottom wet unless you count it being used as a backdrop for a car advertisement.

Instead, she has been drawing admiring looks on display at the Auckland Canoe Centre in Sandringham Rd, waiting for the right occasion.

It finally came with a winter tour on the Waikato River with the Auckland Canoe Club, led by the canoe centre owner, Peter Sommerhalder. The club is thriving, with the booming popularity of recreational sea kayaking giving canoe sports the sort of fillip that the deeds of Ian Ferguson and Paul McDonald gave canoe racing.

The Waikato River tour began on a mid-July Sunday, from Karapiro to Hamilton. Two weeks later the group paddled on to Ngaruawahia.

Little Tree and I join them on a third Sunday for the final 25km leg from the Port Waikato Bridge at Tuakau to Hoods Landing near Waiuku. It is the first time I have been on the river except for rowing in regattas at Karapiro, Ngauruawahia and Mercer many years ago.

Paddling the 425km Waikato has been on my must-do list for years. I fancy following in the boyhood strokes of New Zealand explorer David Lewis, who kayaked from his boarding school in Wanganui to his home on Auckland's North Shore using traditional Maori canoe portages at Waiuku and Otahuhu.

Part of the attraction is the huge wealth of history that runs with New Zealand's longest river.

It was once a major river road and a valuable source of food. Its waters have carried Maori war canoes and British gunships, driven hydro-electric turbines, charged dairy factory boilers and cooled gas-fired power stations.

And the stretch near the river delta has an eccentric contemporary fascination. It is the New Zealand centre for the venerable British Seagull outboard that powered a flotilla to the Normandy landings in the Second World War and the dinghies of New Zealand recreational fishers in the 1950s and 60s.

Every Easter for the past 17 years the waters of the lower Waikato are churned by a collection of Seagulls nearing the end of a two-day race from Karapiro.

John Crighton, manager of the Sandspit Motor Camp at Waiuku, says they get entries from the United States and Britain. In the open class, souped-up Seagulls on 8m-long skiffs weighing just 30kg reach speeds up to 40 km/h.

It is a much slower and quieter flotilla that assembles at the Les Batkin Reserve on the river bank near Tuakau. There are 29 sea kayaks, some plastic, some glass fibre, and two of them doubles. And there is Little Tree.

Sea kayaks are wonderfully versatile recreational craft and are just as practical in a stillwater river such as the Waikato as they are in the sea.

But dare I say the open Canadian canoe is even better, although there are precious few rivers in New Zealand that really suit them.

A kayaker says that we look as if we are driving a 4WD vehicle, an image accentuated by the low sheerline of the Redbird design, and it is a good analogy to the kayakers with their backsides sitting below water level.

Little Tree is a fast touring canoe with a long waterline and fine entry. Keeping up with a pod of sea kayaks is no problem at all, and from our 4WD seat there is a grand view of the flax and willow-lined banks.

The river passes around Kaiwaka No 2 Island and Whatamakiri Island in a large elbow, and we stop for lunch at the Elbow waterski club. Some hardy types pulled by sleek and powerful boats are skiing on this wide stretch of river.

"You lot wouldn't want to be here in the summer," remarks one speedboat owner in reference to the popularity of the spot with waterskiers. Amen to that. One boat has four large speakers mounted over the cockpit. Aquatic boom boxes.

"Its great fun skiing to music," says the young bloke with his head under the engine cowl. "Except its not doing anything today because the battery is flat."

And amen to that too.

After the Elbow the river begins to narrow and split as the Aka Aka stream feeds into it. A Seagull enthusiasts' newsletter calls it the Aka Aka bayou and it evokes images of Huckleberry Finn. Big Jim could well be hiding in one of these tiny, willow- and flax-infested islands.

Colin Harrington runs StressFree Adventures, an outdoor education company based in Waiuku. He has come along as a volunteer guide and tells us to keep together. If we take a wrong turn we might well get lost or spend a lot of time trying to find our way back to the main channel.

Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer would surely have a ball here because squatting in the riverbank and island thickets are a collection of mai mais, motley shacks and some relatively substantial baches, all in various states of repair or disrepair.

Most are fronted by a floating pontoon or crude jetty so the owners can tie up outside their river hideaways.

This is real Kiwi bach country, a place where old timber and corrugated iron, tarpaper and netting are recycled into a holiday home. It's a spot where the river and the world pass by the front door and people make their own entertainment.

Road signs and hoardings washed down with the floods are nailed up outside with delightful irreverence.

The floating pontoons have another purpose and some are getting a quick makeover, the shack behind them a tidy-up. The pontoons are used as the platform from which to hang a whitebait net out into the river and tomorrow is the start of the whitebait season.

Down on the Aka Aka bayou many of the pontoons will have sprouted tarpaulin shelters to keep whitebaiters out of the rain and wind while they wait patiently for the delicacy to arrive.

Harrington recalls the days when you could buy a 1kg jar of fresh whitebait at Port Waikato for $1.

There is little environmental purity in the shacks and landings and likely for some the river is a convenient waste drain at the door. Yet the ambience seems somewhat appropriate and the suspicion that a decent 50-year flood would eliminate many of them, reassuring.

Harrington guides us up a side channel hidden behind Motukakaho Island. It is not much larger than a drain, its banks thick with watercress, and opens into a wider reach that leads to Hoods Landing.

Sue Sommerhalder is waiting for us with the canoe trailers, hot soup and a sausage sizzle. Under the jetty is an eel head and skin about 1.5m long, and the scallop shells that were probably used to lure it to a waiting line.

At the Otaua Tavern just up the road the locals, whose boat club organises the Seagull races, are playing pool, some singing along with the country music on the jukebox. Photographs on the tavern wall proudly display the catch from various fishing trips.

As grandma said, when you come on something good, first thing to do is share it with whoever you can find. They understand that down on the Aka Aka bayou.

* Auckland Canoe Centre, ph (09) 815 2073, e-mail Auckland Canoe Centre, or visit their website.

Stress Free Adventures, ph (09) 235 9529, e-mail Stress Free, or visit their website.

Seagull Outboard racing, John Crighton, ph (09) 235 9913.

* colinmoore@xtra.co.nz