At the entrance to Omatane Canyon is a huge slotty slidy fall to portage. As we inspected Owen's boat came floating past and landed in the gorge far below before vanishing downstream. The bush was inpenetrable even by West Coast standards and after a quick search for a path we found a good bivvy rock instead. Owen spent the night there while Rich and I continued down. Fortunately after our epics on the Arahura we had loads of food and spare clothing and he had a relatively easy night out--the lightweight plastic foil bivvy sacks come highly recommended! Rich and I had a good run down the rest of the river--the lower section took us about 20 minutes!--and were out at 7pm. We even found Owen's boat halfway down the gorge (we added a couple of airbags, then threw it back in the river and chased it down a couple of rapids until we were out of the gorge and could rescue it again). Unfortunately the road was even boggier than earlier and the car was soon grounded in the mud. After failing to Z-drag it out we jacked it up and built a better track under it and we were out at the S&R Central Control Centre (Kokatahi Hotel) by 8.30. The weather was too poor for Bruce to fly that evening so we waited for better weather in the morning.

The next morning the weather was still a bit dodgy so the Greymouth rescue helicopter was called to pick Owen off the river bank. Bruce was up flying rafts up the Hokitika later that day and managed to retreive the boat with a grappling hook. Thanks to all the helicopter crew!!

We had left the boat at the bush edge high up the river bank as we didn't know how it would be rescued--if you ever abandon a boat leave it in an open area, cockpit-up and weighed down with rocks so it can be grappled when the helicopter can't land.

We thought about whether Owen should tramp less than 2km upstream to Serpentine Hut but didn't as there was dense bush and he had shelter where he was. After reading the Remote Huts write-up I think we made the right decision!