3. Farewell The Cromwell Gap
Our second day on the river would provide the ultimate test – a maximum Grade-6 rapid nick-named “The Terminator”. In the morning, we scouted this rapid looking for a line through. From a vantage point of boulders we looked down and calculated that the approach speed was 12 metres per second – amazing. At the top of the rapid the current converged with enough force to form a water-plume in the centre. The standing wall of water at the base of the drop appeared to be about four metres high, but turned out to be several. Downriver about half a kilometre, a high-rolling Grade-5 rapid formed the final exit.
Having seen enough, we returned to our camp at Lowburn, loaded the raft securely, fitted two flip-lines underneath, and shoved off. Within minutes we approached the new Deadman’s Point Bridge at the top of the narrow chasm that would lead down into the Cromwell Gap Rapid. The massive new bridge soared overhead. Here, the first span across the Clutha River, Henry Hill’s foot-bridge, was washed away in 1865.
The current quickened as we descended into the well-known Grade 3-4 constriction rapid simply called the Cromwell Gap. We charged down this sweeping, classic whitewater, enjoying it immensely and finally exiting under the old Cromwell Bridge. This 1868 landmark structure, at the junction of the Upper Clutha and Kawarau Rivers, served for over a hundred and twenty years.
