Class: III-IV (V)
Quality: 5
Location: Okere Falls, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Trip Time: Varied
Level: Visual
The put-in and take out of the Kaituna couldn’t be easier. Take the highway 33 out of Rotorua to Okere Falls. You’ll see the river flowing through a small dam out of the lake. This is the put-in. Take-out is just a kilometer down Trout Pool Rd, there is a parking lot at the end of the road.
The run starts off immediately with a class III pinch rapid. Just go right down the center. Locals like to hang out and do eddy turns and ferry’s sometimes for hours below this one. A long stretch of flat follows, before you get to the start of the gorge. The first rapid at the start of the gorge is a slide, best run on the right or the left. A bend in the river with a class II rapid brings you to the top of the Power House rapid. This is the first class IV of the run and is a double drop with several line options. The easiest option is to take the right channel. The left side of this channel is a small slide or run the 4′ boof on the right side. At the bottom of the first drop you’ll find yourself in a boily pool. Make a hard right to left ferry against the current so that you have space to run the bottom drop on the far right. If you don’t make a hard enough ferry you’ll end up getting pushed against the right wall before you get to the ledge. The race line on this rapid is to run the left channel at the top. A fast slide leads you directly into the bottom ledge.
After the Power House rapid the river eases up to class II for a few bends in the river. The next major rapid is biggest drop Tutea falls. Get some speed approaching the horizon line and boof right of center with some right angle. The drop lands in a huge pool before it drains down the gorge through several class III rapids. The biggest, the Abyss, is near the end of the run. The whole river goes over a sloping ledge with a big hole in the middle. Just left of center is the easiest line but you can also slide down the far right side or boof on the left.
One more class III rapid takes you to the play hole and the rafter’s takeout. The holes quite powerful and good for looping creek boats from 300s-600s. Just around the corner from the play hole is the take out if your not running Trout Pool Falls (Featured Photo). Trout Pool is a solid step up from any of the other drops on this run but is a awesome treat for the class V kayaker. The river makes a wide turn right above the waterfall making it difficult to approach the drop with speed or at a good angle. That coupled with a delayed lip and backed up hole at the bottom make this a challenging and consequential drop. If you run Trout Pool there is board walk down to the pool at the bottom back up to the take-out parking lot.
The Kayak State 