New Zealand’s Great Walk (on Water): The Whanganui River Journey
Summary
Total trip: 3 days/2 nights
Accommodation: Camping and Huts
Length of longest day: 8 hours/35 km
Highlights
Complete tranquility on the water
Experiencing first powhiri (maori welcome) at the marae
Trying something new and out of our comfort zone
The “Great Walk” that isn’t
New Zealand is home to ten “great walks'“. These are multi-day journeys in New Zealand’s landscape that are generally well-maintained and showcase all of the beauty, birds and fauna that New Zealand has to offer. A great walk comprises of multiple backcountry huts, linked by an outdoor trail, or in this case, by the Whanganui River. There are quite a few great walks in the South Island - the Routeburn and the Kepler tracks being among the most popular - but Elle and I have had our eye on the more unique “river journey” since we arrived back in January 2023. The Whanganui River journey can be completed as a three, four or five day trip. There are only a couple of entry points (Taumarunui, Ōhinepane and Whakahoro), with the exit point remaining constant at Pipiriki.
Our Journey
Organising our Whanganui River Journey was no mean feat. This great walk is situated right in the heart of the North Island, a far cry from our home in Queenstown. Accounting for travel and time off work, we opted to plan our journey over three days. We decided to do the self-guided journey, as we both have previous experience canoeing (fun fact: Elle was actually a canoe instructor with Camp Canada!). Now that we have completed the journey, I would say that it’s pretty straight-forward expedition if you have a little paddling experience, but there are also guided options available if you’re nervous or have no on-water experience.
The other consideration for the journey is the time of year. The great walk season for this journey is 1st October - 30th April, and although you can still complete the trip outside of these dates, we realised after a little bit of research that it would be out of our comfort zone to contend with potentially more treacherous weather.
The full river journey, as described by the Department of Conservation.
The usual three-day route is:
Day 1 - Whakahoro (start) to John Coull
Day 2 - John Coull to Tieke Kāinga
Day 3 - Tieke Kāinga to Pipiriki (finish)
We were planning quite last minute, and so spaces at campsites were already limited. We did consider if we could amend the journey and stay at some of the other campsites listed, doing shorter or longer days as needed. However, when speaking to DOC, they advised us this would not be a good idea, especially at the time of year we were choosing. Shorter days meant that our absolute maximum paddle time should be 9 hours. I am extremely grateful that we followed this advice - the journey is well-designed for suitable distances and low river levels meant that we were often on the longer side of the suggested times. We managed to get a spot booked at the John Coull and Tieke Kāinga campsites, as well as our canoe rentals booked in with the aptly named Whanganui River Canoes.
Getting There
As I mentioned, it’s not the most straightforward trip to get from Queenstown to the Whanganui Journey. Elle and I are extremely fortunate to have some family over here in New Zealand, who very conveniently live in Wellington. They were gracious enough to let us come stay with them and also let us borrow their car - a godsend that saved us so much money in rental!
Our trip started on Tuesday evening, flying up from Queenstown to stay the night in Wellington. The next day, on Wednesday, we drove up to Raetihi Holiday Park, where the Whanganui River Canoe rentals are based. We got here in time for a briefing on the river journey and to collect all our supplies. We decided to stay at the holiday park in one of their cabins - the cabin itself was very basic but it did the job to allow us to sort all our gear before heading out the next day.
In true Sarah fashion (see any of our other blogs…), I had begun to get a bit of pre-trip anxiety. It had been a while since I was in a canoe and I was worried I had bitten off more than I could chew. However, I was determined to push through and have this experience. I knew rationally that thousands of people complete this trip every year. In a stroke of luck, we checked the Great Walks website and found that a booking had become available at the John Coull hut. This is the serviced DOC hut with a shared bunk room rather than the campsite we had initially booked to stay in. We jumped on the opportunity and were looking forward to at least one dry night inside.
On Thursday morning, we joined the rest of the eager canoers for our morning briefings, to collect our canoes and to make our way to Whakahoro for the start of the journey.
Day 1 - Finding our Flow
Time on the water: 8 hours
Accommodation: John Coull Hut
We packed up all of our essentials into river-ready containers. This consisted of four barrels - two large and two small - each with a further dry bag inside. We packed our clothes and sleeping bags into the larger barrels, using the smaller barrels for food, cooking gear and toiletries. It was important to keep the weight of same-sized barrels roughly equal, as they were packed into the centre of the canoes and used to keep balance. We also had a small black box with a tight water seal that we used to store more precious items such as cameras and phones. All of these items were secured into the canoe with black straps so that in the (hopefully unlikely) event of a capsize, we wouldn’t lose anything to the river.
A driver from the holiday park took us to the start of the river, and once we had everything adequately secured, life-vests on and paddles in hand, we were ready to set off.
Safety first: Sarah making her life jacket fits properly
We had only made it about 20 minutes when we realised we made a grave error - we hadn’t had a coffee that morning. We decided that our morning tea break should take priority and pulled our canoe onto a nearby bank to rectify our mistake. It was quite nice to have a short reflection at this point to appreciate that we had made it to the river and we were on our way. The initial nerves had begun to subside and I was starting to feel excited and grateful for the journey ahead.
We pulled our canoe back out onto the water and started to make our way gently down the rest of the river. We got more and more used to the paddling motion and gradually distance grew between us and other canoers who had started at the same point. For the first time in months, we began to slow down. No phone screens to distract us, no work worries, no FOMO. Just us and the river. There were long stretches of water where we didn’t see a single soul for hours, and we tried to really absorb these moments of quiet.
At about 5pm, we saw the sign for the John Coull campsite on the hillside ahead of us. This was a very welcome sight after almost 8 hours on the water. We pulled our canoe up alongside the many other campers who had stopped for the night. As we walked past the organised chaos of tents and cooksets, I started to appreciate the diversity of the groups that were all out in nature for this experience. There were family groups spanning generations from grandparents to pre-teens, other couples like Elle and I, groups of friends, young and old. It was cool to see all of these different people united over the same purpose.
We made our way with our things through the campsite to the hut. We were last of those booked in to arrive, but were pleasantly surprised to find we had the top bunk all to ourselves. We made our camp meals (our favourites are Ready Meals NZ), and after a few games of Monopoly Deal were well ready for an early night! It was at this point that we realised we had underestimated our snack game, and were wishing we had brought an extra bar or two of chocolate for our evening. Lesson learnt!
John Coull Hut
Day 2 - The Spiritual River
Time on the water: 8 hours
Accommodation: Tieke Campsite
Our second day on the river saw us setting off from John Coull and heading towards Tieke Kāinga. I was feeling really grateful for getting a spot in the hut, as both Elle and I managed to get a good night’s sleep and were ready to take on day 2. As with any activity you are unfamiliar with, we were definitely feeling the effects of paddling in our bodies; The idea of another 7-9 hour day did feel quite daunting but we were excited to get back out on the water.
With the low water levels, we knew the journey would be on the longer side and so we set off fairly early at 9am. It was a fairly uneventful (but beautiful!) journey up the river. We faced a few more rapids, which we had now got used to navigating. The trick is to spot the “V” shape as you approach the rapid and direct yourselves so that you follow this down the centre. The most important part is to not stop paddling until you are completely clear of the rapid or you risk capsizing!
Day two has an optional stop called “The Bridge to Nowhere” depending on how you are feeling and how quickly you are progressing along the river. Elle and I were really keen to make it here with enough time as it involved a short hike and we were craving a stretch of the legs. The landing here is a little trickier as the canoes sit beneath a fairly steep rock face. Most people travel down the river at similar speeds, meaning that you tend to arrive at key destinations within the same time period. When we arrived at Bridge to Nowhere, there were already a fair few canoes at the small landing spot. With a little bit of maneuvering and help from fellow River Journey-ers, we were able to get tied up and out on to the landing.
Bridge to Nowhere: Loading Zone
The Bridge to Nowhere hike involves a gentle 40 minute trail to an old settlement. During World War I, the government offered this land to returned servicemen as part of a soldier settlement scheme. Returning soldiers set up settlements in the area, but the land was incredibly unforgiving and remote, making it extremely difficult to set up life here. There was originally a wooden swing bridge constructed to connect the isolated village with the Whanganui River but a more solid bridge was going to be needed if the township was to succeed. In 1936, the construction of a new steel-enforced bridge was finally completed, but by this time most of the new settlers had been forced to abandon their new homes due to the hardship of living in such a remote area. By 1944, all of the residents of the valley were gone but the bridge remained - leading to “nowhere” but the “valley of abandoned dreams”.
Ironically, and somewhere tragically, the bridge now gets more use than it ever did for the purposes it was built - as a tourist attraction for people like us floating down the river.
Once we had enjoyed our hike, we headed on the final leg of day two towards our campsite. We were a little behind schedule, and a lot tired, arriving at our campsite just in time for the welcoming ceremony (powhiri) at 5pm. We quickly dumped our things in a camp spot and headed to the marae with the rest of the campers. This was both Elle and I’s first experience of a Māori welcome, and what a place to experience it. The marae is a meeting house and is core to a Māori person's cultural identity; invitation to a powhiri is only when members of the family (whānau) are present. The campsite hosts led us through the process and customs, which involved participation from men and women in the camp group. Respect towards customs and culture is key and so we do not have any photographs of the powhiri or marae to share here, but it was a special experience which I would recommend if you get the chance!
Once we had been welcomed, we returned to our campsite to set up for the night. I think sheer exhaustion took over and I managed to get another fairly good sleep. Unfortunately, Elle wasn’t so lucky. A trip to the long drop in the middle of the night presented her with a “rat and possum party” at the spot where other happy campers had been eating their dinner the night before leaving her a bit unsettled for the rest of the night - the joys of camping!
Day 3 - Blessed by the Rapids
Time on the water: 4.5 hours
Accommodation: A comfy bed in Welly!
Our final day saw us making our way from the Tieke campsite to the final destination of the journey - Pipiriki. When you are on the river, you have absolutely zero signal for the entire time, and so we had made arrangements with the holiday park to meet at around 1pm at the final landing. The journey for this day is estimated at around 3-5 hours. From our previous two days, we knew that due to low river levels (and my shoulder injury) we had been on the longer side of estimations on both days. We expected it would be the same today and decided to set off bright and early at 8am to give us plenty of time on the river.
Our host at Tieke had warned us that today we would face the biggest rapids so far, where around 50% of canoers tip. Low water levels meant that these rapids would be at their most ferocious, as obstructions in the water are more pronounced rather than the water flowing smoothly over the top. The night prior, he had told us stories of the river’s sentience - the Whanganui River has actually been granted “personhood” status, meaning that it has the same rights as a living being. He said that he thinks of the river as his ancestors, his great, great grandmother guiding the way. If we were to be tipped by the rapids, we would simply be lucky enough to be blessed by her.
As we approached “the big one”, we watched as not one, not two, but three pairs of canoers in front of us tried - and failed - to get through the rapids without tipping. She was giving out the blessings today. Nevertheless, Elle and I were determined to get through. We angled our vessel down the centre of the V and paddled hard. As we dropped over the edge, I watched in horror as the entire tip of our boat dunked full underneath the water as I shouted back '“KEEP PADDLING, KEEP PADDLING!”. We did just that, and paddled until we were well clear of the rapid. Miraculously, we had not yet tipped, though our boat was almost to the brim with water and precariously swaying from side to side. We made our way carefully to the nearby banks and bailed out the water, while some of the canoers who had been tipped gave the rapid another go. We watched them drop into the rapid and…. another blessing was given by the river.
After that excitement, we made our way down the final stretch of the river. Funnily enough, this ended up being the hardest part of the journey. The wind had picked up and was funnelling down the river valley, pushing us back as we tried to paddle onwards. We had both been in pretty high spirits for the whole journey but I definitely started to falter here. I turned to Elle at one point and said “I don’t think I can do this!!” as my shoulder screamed at me to give up. Of course, the only option in this situation is to keep calm and carry on, and so we battled through to the landing, finally making it there around 1:20pm. A group arrived shortly after us and it was evident they had been through the same emotions as us as we all tackled the homestretch.
With the group together, we made our way back to the holiday park where we unloaded, unpacked, cleaned and returned all our rentals. To our delight, the holiday park had put on a spread of chip shop chips, chocolate biscuits and coffee, all of which was extremely appreciated after our three days of exertion.
Once we were adequate fed, watered and rested, Elle and I started our drive back to Wellington at around 3pm - where a nice, comfy bed at her aunt’s house was waiting for us.
Final Reflections
We absolutely adored our experience on the Whanganui River Journey. It was definitely a lesson in stepping out your comfort zone and trying something new. Initially, I was daunted by the prospect of canoeing. Now, I’m craving another adventure on water and have my eye on a packrafting trip as soon as the weather allows. I would definitely recommend a moderate level of fitness - Elle and I are pretty active and we both found the long days quite tough on our bodies. This trip definitely took more planning, effort, time (and money) than some of our other usual adventures but I am so glad we went for it and got to have this truly unique, magical experience!
