Rees valley by Packraft

There’s something wonderfully ridiculous about walking into the mountains carrying a boat on your back. The Rees Valley stretches north from Glenorchy into the mountains of Mount Aspiring National Park. It’s big, open country — braided river flats, beech forest, tussock and mountains rising sharply on either side. Most people who come up here walk in, have a look around, then turn around and walk back out again. We reckon there’s a better way. Pack your raft, then raft your pack. We start on foot, carrying everything we need in our backpacks, following the Rees deeper into the valley. Somewhere along the way the packs come off and what looked like a slightly overstuffed backpack turns into a remarkably capable little boat. A few minutes later, you’re floating. That moment never really gets old. From there, the river becomes the trail. We’ll teach you how to paddle, read the current and manoeuvre your packraft as we make our way downstream through the valley we’ve just walked into. There’s no engine, no road and no great tourism machine humming away in the background. Just a little boat, a beautiful river and a completely different way of moving through the landscape. You don’t need any previous paddling experience. This is an introduction to packrafting and we keep the groups small enough that your guide can actually spend time with you. The exact day changes with the river, the weather and the people who turn up — which is exactly how we like it. Packrafting Queenstown is a small crew of professional river and expedition guides, hand-picked by founder and Expedition Director Huw Miles. We’ve spent a fairly unreasonable portion of our lives wandering around rivers and mountains, and these are the sorts of adventures we’d choose to do on our own days off. The Rees is one of our favourites. You walk into the mountains carrying a boat. Then the river carries you home.

This isn’t a sightseeing tour with a short walk bolted on. You’ll earn the good bit. We’ll pick you up in Queenstown and head towards Glenorchy, following Lake Wakatipu before turning into the Rees Valley and leaving most of the tourism machine behind. Once we’re in the backcountry, everything we need goes on our backs. Your pack will weigh around 9kg, including your packraft and paddling gear, and we’ll carry it roughly 7km into the valley. The trail is easy going in places and rougher in others, and because this is a braided mountain river, we’ll cross the Rees several times on foot — usually around knee deep. It’s not technically difficult, but it is a proper little adventure. Expect uneven ground, wet feet and a few hours of carrying your own gear through the mountains. Then you get your reward. We unpack the rafts, inflate them and teach you the fundamentals of paddling, manoeuvring your boat and reading moving water. Once everyone is comfortable, we point the boats downstream. And this time, you’re not a passenger. You’ll paddle your own boat back down the valley, starting gently and building things up as your confidence grows. There’ll be some splashing about, a few little rapids and plenty of time to actually learn something along the way. You don’t need previous paddling experience, but you do need a reasonable level of fitness, a bit of enthusiasm for getting amongst it, and to be comfortable carrying a 9kg pack for 7km over uneven terrain and through multiple river crossings. You carry the boat in. The boat carries you home.