Raglan Rock: Canyoning in Nature’s Water Park

Leaping from waterfalls

Straight to our first waterfall, Gareth clips our harness to his rope and we take it in turns to climb halfway down the waterfall.

“Jump into the white water!” Gareth voice reminds us among the gushing sounds of the waterfall. “3,2,1..” There’s nothing like a countdown to make you want to jump! Usually, there is nothing that would make us want to jump off a waterfall (Robin is afraid of heights and Laura is slightly afraid of jumping off high things), but Gareth succeeds to get us down with no hesitation. The cold water spills over our heads and takes our breath away. Gawd, so many feelings! Most of all: achievement!

The stream from here is a cascade of waterfall after waterfall, all tiered for easy climbing. Since we warmed up on the first waterfall, why not jump off another?! Everyone seems a bit more relaxed on this one to have fun with it, smile for the camera, do a silly pose or whatever. Robin goes first. Laura goes last emerging from the water with the ugliest face as water has shot right up her nose. #BigNoseProblems.

Boulder stream scramble

Now that there are not too many risks around, it’s every man and woman for themselves as they scramble through the rocky stream. We really appreciate this time when you’re just taking yourself through the stream on your own little adventure. Although we obviously want a guide for safety purposes (and we sort of like or life), it feels more adventurous to use your own initiative and will to get yourself over rocks and down rapids.

We are now taking a loop and heading upstream, where climbing up huge boulders makes things a little easier and gets us warmed up much faster. (The tea breaks help with that too). Gareth points out a few edible mushrooms and leaves, should we ever get lost in the bush.

Waterfall to the face!

Up ahead is the highest waterfall yet. It looks climbable. Please say we are climbing it!

We are climbing it! Gareth rushes around a safe way to the top of the waterfall to get set up with ropes then throws a clip down for us to clip on one by one. Laura has always wanted to climb a waterfall like this. So many waterfalls in New Zealand look totally climbable, but you can’t really afford to make a mistake. Finally, with the safety of a harness, she finally gets to do it! (Meanwhile, Robin is sh*tting himself about the whole thing). Laura goes first with our Torpedo7 dry pack of camera equipment clipped to her back. She feels pretty badass right now. Water spraying right in her face as she climbs up… This is awesome!!!

Bish, bash, bosh, Robin is up – no time to mess around and get scared. We all make it up feeling refreshed from the waterfall getting all up in our face. What a way to end such an cool adventure!

Cooking in the spa pool

Before we know it we are back at the van, heating on, and we are all dreaming of hitting the Raglan Backpackers’ spa pool. We spend about an hour reminiscing about the Raglan Rocks trip while cooking in the pool. Gareth tells us more stories of his past crazy caving and rocks climbing missions, and what else Raglan has to offer for adrenaline-seekers. His passion for it mixed with our experience today makes us definitely want to come back and check out Raglan Rocks’ other trips.

Spa pool talk continues until we literally can’t stand the heat anymore. The fire is on in the common area, the puppy is out playing with its toys, so you can guess where we are spending the rest of the night…

If the rain ever stops, we’ll go kayaking to Pancake Rocks tomorrow. If not, we’ll find some dry weather activities. Maybe even stop caving/canyoning for the first time in days!