A Taste of Canyoning in the Coromandel

When people describe the Coromandel in New Zealand, they probably talk about the beautiful beaches and relaxing lifestyle. But, as we find out today, there is an epic side to the Coromandel Peninsula. One that involves canyoning.

This is an activity we are most stoked about for our first week on the road. The plan is to go with the guys from CanyoNZ deep into the Kauaeranga Valley. The Sleeping God Canyon (just the name gives you an idea of how otherworldly this place is) has been well equipped by the CanyoNZ crew for abseiling down waterfalls, ziplining over forest, and jumping into icy cold rivers.

Please don’t be cancelled!

If you have being keeping up with our new adventure, you will have seen that it has got off to a wet start. The rain has been on and off over the past few days, but when it rains it pours! The morning of our scheduled canyoning trip, the rain is pounding the top of our campervan. “Please don’t let it be cancelled…”

As we find out later, the guys at CanyoNZ were already in the canyon checking the water level at 4am making sure it is safe for us. Turns out we are good to go!

Wayne and T, CanyoNZ’s guides, pick us and our canyoning crew (a German couple and three American friends) from Thames and we are on our way down the Kauaeranga Valley Road. This is a pretty adventurous road in itself. Pothole central! But the views of rugged peaks while we followed a river continued to get us pumped!

River rapid crossing

We suit up with sexy thermals for the initial 45-minute hike and share the wetsuits, harnesses and food between packs. Somehow, Laura, the smallest one of the group, ends up taking gear for three people in her pack. That’s because she is freakin’ hardcore!

Let the hike begin! First, we need to do a river crossing to get to the hiking track. Our guide, T, takes a look at the river and says: “The water’s crankin’! We usually have stepping stones to get across!”

There’s no stepping stones to be seen, just pure rapids. But we’re not winey little bitches. Let’s cross this thing! There is one waist-deep section where we need to hold hands or we will lose our balance and left to the river demons to decide our fate. (Laura was then thankful she had her heavy pack to keep her weighted!)

We succeed in crossing the river, but T seems concerned that the water level has “cranked” right up since this morning.

Wayne catches us up, practically pounding across the river like he was the master of it. (These Maori guys, man). Both guides assess the situation and decide that due to the unexpected surge of water passing through, it was far too dangerous to do the canyoning today. They say they will give everyone a full refund, yet they are still happy to take us up to the canyon entrance to show us the views and scramble through a few of the initial rapids. Honestly, that is beyond kind of them to do that for us all. We realise later, just how much awesome stuff they are going to do for us that day.