Class: IV/V (V+)
Quality: 4
Location: Turangi, Central North Island, New Zealand
Trip Time: Half-Day
Level: Online Gauge. 10cms would be very low. 20-25cms is a nice medium. It can be run as high as 40+cms but it is very committing class V at this point.
Put-In: -38.975417, 175.968695
The put-in for the normal gorge run can be a little tricky to find. Start by turning off the main highway onto Kiko Rd. After about 7km turn left onto forestry rd. Less than 2km later you’ll reach a turn off to the left up an old logging road with powerlines running over head. Go 100meters on this side track until you reach a clearing on your right. The easiest way into the gorge is to bushwack your way down here.
Take-Out: -38.912236, 175.898066
The Tauranga-Taupo is an often overlooked gem for north island creek boating. The river flows out of the Kaimanawas and into Lake Taupo just 10 minutes north of Turangi and less than an hour south of Taupo. The run is super scenic and features world class boulder garden rapids, not to mention a clean 70’er several kilometers upstream. If it wasn’t for the challenging put in for the gorge or the 4 hour hike in for the waterfall and the 7 kilometer flat water paddle out this run would definitely score a 5 for quality.
After making your way down to river level you’ll have a kilometer or so of flat water and class II to warm up before the bigger rapids start. It’ll be clear when you’ve gotten to the top of the first boulder garden. Get out on river left to scout. The second boulder garden is the crux of the run. 100 meters of boulder dodging moves brings you to a sloping river wide ledge. Run this left or right the center is a powerful hole but you can boof it if your feeling ballsy. After the 2nd boulder garden the river enters a narrow canyon common in New Zealand.
The tight canyon continues through a kilometer or two of small boily rapids before reaching the next big boulder garden. The third boulder garden is the longest yet. Make your way through the various slots and ledges but be careful of pinning and wood. There’s a number of different lines but scouting on the shore would be difficult.
200 meters of flat water followed by some small ledges brings you to the top of the fourth boulder garden. This rapid starts with a series of pushy moves on the left. Try to stay in control as the main flow moves back to the right and through a series of ledge holes. At higher flows this is a very challenging series of moves with little possibility of safety. Make sure you’re in control at the bottom because boulder garden number five is immediately downstream. Number five is an easy final rapid. Make your way anyway down it then paddle several class III rapids to the exit of the gorge.
There’s a take out option downstream of the fifth boulder garden to avoid the long 7km paddle back down to the highway bridge and the lake but it involves some climbing and hiking too. A kilometer or so after the final boulder garden there’s a bridge and logging road over the river. You can scramble up the bank on river right upstream of the bridge to get out here but it’s not easy. A 2km hike up the logging road will take you back to Kiko Rd. This would be a great option if you could drive down to the river bridge every time I went there the gate was locked to turn off Kiko Rd.
The gorge run is the most commonly paddled section of the Tuaranga-Taupo River but there’s more upstream for people looking for something bigger. The waterfall is not easy to find and takes 3-4 hours to hike too if you know where you’re going. The hike starts from the parking lot at the end of Kiko Rd. Hike down the trail for about a kilometer and start looking for trees marked off to your left. The start of the track is hard to find and it’s easy to get lost. If you get to the spit in the main trail without seeing the marked trees to turn off to your left then you’ve gone a ways too far. Once you find the markers you’ll have to try to follow them through the woods for several kilometers both times I did the hike it took around 3 hours.
If it’s running you’ll hear the waterfall as you approach the canyon rim. The first view of the waterfall from the canyon rim is the best view. After you see the waterfall you’ll have to climb down to the pool at the base on a steep track. Paddle around in the pool and decide if you’re going to climb up to the lip with your boat. The climb is about 30 meters of near vertical dirt and bushes. It’s challenging without a boat so it’ll probably take you half an hour just to get your boat up to the lip. At the top you finally get to see the lip of the drop and make your final decision. You’ll have to use a rope to climb down onto a ledge immediately above the lip of the waterfall. Seal launch into the eddy and then all you have to do is peel out and fall off the stout! The waterfall was first run in 2010 by 4 boaters including Ryan Lucas at 17cms. I ran it next in January of 2017, the flow was probably somewhere around 35-40cms and the river was in the process of flash flooding. Ryan returned later in 2017 to run it again and knocked him self out after boof. He was resuscitated and survived but be careful with this one it’s big and it’s remote, make sure you hike in with plenty of day light and a solid safety crew.
Downstream of the waterfall is a long section of quality whitewater similar to the gorge but smaller and easier. This could be a world class grade III/IV run and would could be run quite high were it not for the challenge of access. It would be possible for a motivated boater to hike in, put in below the waterfall then take out above the gorge run.
The Kayak State 