Courses
New Zealand boasts an endless number of Packrafting missions. We want to help you take them on independently, and successfully.
As the leading Packrafting Company in New Zealand, we are uniquely placed to lead you through your packrafting journey. We're a Rescue 3 International training provider and literally help write the curriculum for the Packrafting Association of New Zealand so you know you're in good hands.
No matter what your current ability, we have a course that will take your skills to the next level.
Our Aim
Above and beyond anything else, our goal is to create a safe packraft culture in New Zealand and further a field (we've had people travel from the States, Europe and Australia to undertake courses with us). This is best achieved through great education and building good habits. Packrafting isn't simply "taking your hiking trip onto the water" and a big part of successful packrafting adventures is building risk literacy around rivers. But more than providing world class instruction, we want to grow our community through increased participation, create development pathways for those already packrafting and deliver events and opportunities to recreationally packraft with like minded people.
These courses are the way in to our community which then allows you to:
- Join course graduate events, trips and social events. (such as Packrafting Festivals and Packrafting Speed dating to find adventure buddies)
- Become eligible to rent packrats for missions
- Access our members Facebook group to keep in touch with other course graduates.
- Get first dibs on second hand or ex-rental rafts being sold by Packrafting Queenstown
- Enjoy exclusive discounts on gear such as packrats, drysuit, back packs, paddles etc sold through our on-line shop.
A course with us is only the gateway drug. Packrafting Queenstown takes no responsibility what-so-ever for the inevitable river running addiction that may follow. Come join us!
Locations
You could call Queenstown the spiritual home of Packrafting in New Zealand. We were early adopters down here with exploration via packrafts starting commercially as early as 2012. It's still the main base for our training courses. We aim to put on at least one course a month down here but if you have a date and a group of 4 people or more, we can put on a date any time you'd like.
Additionally we do an annual pilgrimage to other locations in NZ to run courses, but these tend to be once a year and sadly we can't run them with the same frequency or flexibility.
Queenstown
PACKRAFTING 101
An introduction to Packrafting and River Safety
Our Packrafting intro course is one of our flagship products and one that we are most proud of. Our course became the template around which the Packrafting Association of NZ's curriculum was built and remains the best course, run by the most experienced and qualified instructors in the country (in our humble opinion!).
This is the difference between becoming a good paddler and becoming a good paddler to go paddling with! This is course is aimed to equip you with all the fundamentals of how to look after your own safety, make good decisions and how to help other when sh*t hits the fan.
Broadly speaking the course is divided into three key areas:
- Safety and rescue- with a strong focus initially on self rescue and preventing escalation when things go a little bit side ways
- Boat handling- The bulk of our time is spent on this. This is prevention of things going wrong... but also the most rewarding and exciting part of packrafting!
- River running considerations- This covers areas such as scouting, reading the water, how and when to set safety cover an decision making
All of the above takes places on simple sections of river and is designed with a skill development pathway that allows complete beginners to progress with confidence culminating with running grade 2 whitewater.
Queenstown
INTERMEDIATE PACKRAFTING COURSES
After years of runnning introductory packrafting courses, we've built up a community of packrafters keen to take the next step in their paddling careers. We've finally created a course to cater for those already packrafting who are looking to improve.
The aim is to pick up where the introductory courses finish and the content is designed to be beneficial for anyone who has been paddling for a year or so.
The location of the course will likely be dictated by the conditions but will likely include parts of the Matukituki and Rees.
We'll look at ideas such as effective (both Boat and bank based) scouting, breaking the river down in chunks, setting rolling cover for each other and boat based rescues. Under pinning this will be paddle coaching and feedback to help you make it all look good!
Murchison Based Courses
We've teamed up with the New Zealand Kayak School to run some packrafting courses in one of the best places for paddle sports in the country- Murchison.
Murchison boast a huge variety of rivers and watersheds so no matter the conditions, we'll be able to find the perfect section of river for teaching.
Another bonus of working out o the Kayak School is the facilities on hand. We'll be staying at the lodge which has a large kitchen, bunk rooms, plenty of drying space and a warm comfortable common area to run our video analysis sessions and any theory.
This season courses will be 3 days for both the introductory course and the intermediate. It's hardly surprising to hear that increased practice time and increased time with instructors helps to perfect skills being taught. Therefore students come away more confident and better able to put together some epic missions.
Wellington Packrafting 101
An introduction to Packrafting and River Safety based in Wellington.
We're really excited to be bringing our renowned Packrafting 101 course to Wellington. We only run this once a year. The syllabus is the same as we've always taught, we've not a got a few Wellington based rivers to deliver them on. If the mountain won't come to Mohamed, then Mohamed must go to the mountain.
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Nelson Packrafting Course
An introduction to Packrafting and River Safety
The Nelson region is home to one of the most phenomenal packrafting river in the country (in my humble opinion) so we were stoked when we got invited up to the Pelorus last year to run an intro course for a conservation company. What we delivered was too good not to repeat so we're putting it on again this season.
We've been working seriously hard this off season on creating a syllabus with the Packrafting Association of New Zealand so all the course content has been scrutinised, peer reviewed and is very much leading the way as an industry standard barer. This course offers an opportunity for folks to learn all the latest and greatest skills and techniques in a formidable river.
There's been a huge amount of interest in this course so book early to avoid missing out. Spaces are limited.
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