Packrafting Stories, Tips & Resources
This is where we stash all the good stuff — yarns from the river, safety insights, gear talk, and the odd rant about why packrafting matters. Some of it’s practical, some of it’s cultural, all of it’s written from years of wet feet and cold hands on real rivers.
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Is a Guided Packrafting Trip Right For Me?
Safety, Fitness & What to Expect Thinking about giving packrafting a go? You’re not the first to wonder if it’s safe, if you’re fit enough, or if it’s something you’ll actually enjoy. These are all good questions — and worth asking. Here are some straight-up answers to help you figure out if packrafting is right…
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Intermediate or 101 Packrafting Course
Ambitious About Packrafting? Here’s How to Actually Progress A yarn for the ones keen to skip ahead My Packrafting Journey Started with a Reality Check Back when I first started packrafting, I came from a pretty solid outdoor background. I’d been working professionally in the outdoors for about seven years, and I’d spent a fair…
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420d vs 210d Packraft Material
420d vs 210d Packrafts – What Really Matters in New Zealand When people start looking at packrafts, one of the first questions they hit is fabric thickness. The perception is that 420d is more durable. People might frame it as a “buy once, cry once” decision — spend more now, get something that will last…
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The Best Beginner’s Packraft
Ode to the Gnarwhal: The Best Beginner’s Packraft When people ask me what the best beginner’s packraft is, I don’t have to think too hard — it’s the Alpacka Gnarwhal. Stable, forgiving, versatile as hell… if you’re only going to own one boat, this is the one I’d point you towards every time. But here’s…
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Packrafting Paddle Guide: Choosing the Right Length, Style, and Strength
The Best Packrafting Paddles Your Paddle is Your Engine (and Your Way Home) When you’re packrafting, your paddle is more than just a tool – it’s your engine, your steering wheel, and sometimes your ticket home. Choosing the best packraft paddle isn’t just about comfort; it’s about safety, efficiency, and making sure you can trust…
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Reinforcement Learning Traps
When Bad Decisions Look Like Good Ones in Packrafting Packrafts are sneaky bastards. That’s part of their charm, right? Tough, floaty little tanks that’ll bounce off a boulder, ferry you through a bony line, and make you look better than you are. But that’s also the danger: they forgive so much that it can stop…
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Pack Weight Reduction in Packrafting
The quest to lighten up the load you carry into the backcountry is seemingly never ending! At Packrafting Queenstown, we’re constantly looking for incremental improvements for our overnight set ups. Typically I’ve never been a “Weight Weiner”. I work in the backcountry and I have a duty of care meaning I often carry extra gear…
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Opportunistic Packrafting Overnighter
Days were getting shorter and noticeably colder. The official packrafting season had been closed for Packrafting Queenstown for a few weeks at least but a random road trip presented an opportunity for Jeremy, Charl and myself to rally up in Picton to crow bar in a sneaky last trip into the Taipo river as the…
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The Next Level with Packrafting Queenstown
TL;DR: We dreamed big about creating the next level of packrafting in Queenstown — but in the end, the permits fell through and the project had to be shelved. But god damn, it was fun finding this trip! We might not be able to guide people in here, but you should go find out for…
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Helmets for Packrafting
For years, in Packrafting meet ups around the world or pictures/vidoes you’ll see of packrafters, it was pretty common to see a menagerie of different helmets. Mountain bike helmets, climbing helmets, ski helmets, I’ve even seen the occasional horse riding helmet. I always assumed it was the expression of a recreation in it’s infancy and…
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Tips for Becoming a Guiding Pro
The subtle art of being a world class guide Some of you might be here reading this because you’ve just read the stream of consciousness that was my career advice blog. If that’s you, thanks for sticking with me! For others who are new here, I was asked to speak to a bunch of aspiring…
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Career Advice
Warning, this article has grown up themes and language. I recently was invited to a Networking event for a company we work with. They offer a 12 week program for young (and not so young) people looking to start a career in the outdoors. We help deliver some river safety training and teach them how…
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Following the Footsteps of River Runner
We’ve been huge fans of Deane Parkers film work since his first bike rafting adventure The Waiau Toa Odyssey back in 2017. Story telling plays such a huge role in the low term growth and health of our sport, inspiring people to get involved and firing up the imagination of what might be possible with…
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Hypothermia
As the third and final article in the series as part of the Packrafting Culture of Safety movement, we’re examining hypothermia. If you haven’t read the previous two articles, it might be useful to go back and read them first. We’ve examined how we die in the water in an attempt to build risk literacy…
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Cold Water Shock
As part of the packrafting culture of safety promotion we have been taking a deep dive into exploring some of the leading causes of fatalities on the water. The aim with these articles is to try to build risk literacy around the water in order to help ensure that the 2021/22 season is free from…
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Packrafting and Drowning
In 2020 the packrafting community didn’t suffer a single fatality. Also in 2020 many countries were in lockdown, access to the outdoors was limited and taking part in activities that could necessitate a Search and Rescue response was discouraged. Whilst we can take heart that there were no fatalities within packrafting, it would be foolish…
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PFD’s For Packrafting
I’ve fielded a lot of questions around gear and how to pack for longer packrafting trips recently and I’ve created some content on my current set up for longer trips on the Packrafting Queenstown Facebook page. I didn’t arrive at my current set up straight away and it’s taken years of trial and error to…
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Ice to Ocean
Sweaty, bleeding and tired – but Stoked. Despite knowing where we were geographically, we felt lost in the wilderness. We were somewhere in the dense bush of New Zealand’s wild West Coast. Battling the unrelenting undergrowth. The countless dead ends encountered as we searched for a route amongst the bluffed-out ridges, landslips or cliffs. This emulated the…
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Hydrology
As you set out on your journey to become a packrafting Jedi, it is important to begin by acknowledging a simple truth. The river is stronger than we are. Whilst there are times we may need to resist the water, wisdom there is in using the force. Fighting the force leads to the dark side…where…
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What Packraft Should I Buy?
Preface This piece started life years ago as a no-BS yarn about buying your first packraft. Back then, we didn’t sell boats and we were just figuring things out ourselves — trying every brand we could get our hands on, breaking a few, loving others, and slowly learning what mattered most. It’s been read by…
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Adventure and Mental Health
11–12 minute read In recent years we’ve seen an increase in focus in mainstream media towards mental health issues. I’ve used the outdoors as a way of managing my stress levels and look after my mental health for years so I’ve harbored latent thoughts that they are linked. In October 2018, the Guardian ran an…
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Packrafting Equipment Breakdown
12–13 minute read Knowing what gear you need for a new sport/activity is a minefield. You’re ready to purchase some shiny new toys, but don’t want to buy something only to discover after a couple of trips that it isn’t actually fit for purpose. It’s tricky. Especially in packrafting. More boats are coming out that…
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Packrafting Tips
11-12 minute read I get asked for packrafting advice a lot. When I started writing this blog it started out as a FAQ type blog. I was hoping to be able to create a comprehensive collection of tips to help people stay safe and improve as packrafter. However the more I wrote the more I…
