The Styx

Apparently one of the must-do's of New Zealand. Brillaint river - although the hike in was pretty tough (took almost two hours).
The river was very much a creek; very tight and technical. Like the Arahura, it was not drop and pool but instead, very continuous (just horizon line after horizon line!). This meant some serious must-make moves and must-make eddy hopping.
The first section was very demanding; grade 4+ and 5 .... very steep. The water was suprisingly pushy, catching me off-guard and bringing Tanner and I close to getting very early pins. Things went well in this section until about halfway down where i took a beating in a particularly technical rapid:- I was knocked off-course and flipped about halfway down. Not nice. The water was very shallow meaning a mouthful of rock; after what seemed an eternaty of being 'cheese-greated' along the riverbed I was able to roll-up (thankfully in time to make the slot-drop and avoiding a potentially aweful pinning). Shortly after this, Tanner had some bad downtime at the bottom of a big drop - but it spat him out with only a couple of scrapes to report.
After the first few km's the gradient lessened - meaning the river eased to a grade 4, then three and finally grade 2. Allowing us to admire the stunning scenery that surrounded us.
It was an amazing trip - and other than a few bruises here and there we were ok!