32m
Public access
6.5hrs
Tunakohoia is a little gem of a canyon nestled in the hills behind Te Aroha Township. Generally low flow, this is an ideal winter trip as you are not required to spend long periods in the water. The canyon is a lot of fun after some rain when the flow increases although care should be taken. R5 can be quite pushy and has the potential to invert the unprepared or inexperienced while on rappel. There are a number of technical down
climbs most of which are now protected with bolt anchors that can be used for a hand line or belay if required.
First descent unknown. Possibly Waitomo cavers. Rebolting funded by NZ Canyoning Association and carried out by Karl Burt, Leesa Fraser, Shanan Fraser, Pete Smith & Brendan Wallace in 2018
Download the CanyonTopo for Tunakohoia Canyon
Good conditions after a bit of rain. Rap anchors all good, some existing handlines/tat for scrambles which were definitely helpful for us. We accidentally walked into the bottom of R3 at the start instead of the top of R1, maybe we didn’t go quite far enough along the road but it looked like a doable/easy approach and pretty close on the GPS. Not sure if there’s a footpad at the actual entry but we didn’t see anything super obvious, I guess aim slightly higher than you think!