Packrafting Ngaruroro River Grade 2+ Boyd Hut to Kuripapango

Packrafting Ngaruroro River Grade 2+ Boyd Hut to Kuripapango

The Ngaruroro is one of the great wild rivers in the north island, suitable for long, relatively easy packraft trips through fantastic scenery. There are countless options for making this trip long or short, with a helicopter or fixed wing flight to the start, a car shuttle and a through trip or even doing loop trips by walking into the start.

A straight forward overnight trip would be from Kuripapango to Kiwi Mouth Hut, then back to Kuripapango. For more than a night, just grab a map and the internet to scheme a trip anywhere from 1 to 10 (or more) days in length. The Kaweka and Kaimanawa ranges are criss-crossed with tracks, have many access points and lots of fantastic DOC huts, so you really can mix and match a perfect trip for yourself.

There is a lot of private land in the Kaweka/Kaimanawa Ranges, so whenever planning a trip in this area, make sure that you check on the Walking Access Mapping System and the DOC Maps Website as well as the DOC website page about the Kaweka Forest Park
to ensure that you are on public land.

Walk-in from Poronui station road-end off the Napier-Taupo Road or helicopter in with Helisika (Poronui) or East Kaweka Helicopters (Puketiritiri). After a long drive it’s a four hour walk to the Mohaka through Poronui station along a poled route through private farmland.

At the Mohaka River there is accomodation at Oamaru Hut but pushing on to fly-camp along the track to Boyd is not a bad option. This allows a more leisurely paddle if you can hit the river before lunch the next day.

On the Water

Inflating Packrafts at Boyd is an option if the river is high. “Walking the dog” by leading the packraft down the shallows on a leash is likely to be required to varying degrees in low flows.

After a couple of hours in the tussock covered valley the Gold Creek confluence is reached. Here the river channel is relatively constricted and, with the tributaries extra flow, should be good for some paddling. Land on river right is private from this point but there is camping on river left above the top gorge.

Half an hour on from Gold Creek and the pace picks up as the river enters the “Top Gorge”. This is the highlight of the paddling with lots of Grace II+ and Grade III rapids and fun drops. Most of the more challenging rapids are short with safe run-outs into pools but inexperienced paddlers may choose to walk a number of these. In low flows some of these drops could get too bony to be safe.

The upper river scrub gives way to lush beech forest by Te Rua flat (a DOC helipad and camping spot perched above the river). Logs are more common in the river from this point but experienced paddlers should be able to boat-scout most rapids. Again in-experienced paddlers should shore-scout any horizon lines and rapids with large boulders visible. Three to four hours on from Gold Creek the Ngawaparua (Harkness) stream joins from river left. The Ngawaparua hut makes a great overnight stop. We spent the night in the company of hunters and fisherman who had helicoptered in with East Kaweka Helicopters. As with all the huts down the river there is plenty of camping space available. Remember to leave room for helicopter comings and goings; tents, loose gear drying in the sun and helipads don’t mix well.

From Ngawaparua the river is mostly Grade II to II+ so this or Rocks Ahead can be a better starting point for less experienced paddlers. There is still no shortage of challenging and interesting paddling with lots of play holes and rock gardens to entertain more proficient paddlers. Rocks Ahead Hut is accessable via a track over Kaweka trig from Makahu Saddle Road end (a good days walk). This is the main variant for a shorter trip and car shuttle.

From halfway between Ngawaparua and Omarukokere Biv both sides of the river are public land until about a kilometre upstream of Kiwi Mouth Hut where the true right becomes private again.

Kiwi Mouth Hut has nice camping areas iand there is a nice campsite 40 minutes on. It is opposite the Manson Creek Confluence but best accessed 200m downstream where there are some track markers on river left.

From Kiwi Mouth Hut it’s 4 hours to the road end with Cameron Hut about half way. The days highlight is a grunty Grade III- near the hut. There are a few takeout options with the Kuripapango Bridge being the last and the most obvious. If waiting for a scheduled shuttle chilling out or camping is best at the camp ground upstream of the bridge. A poorly marked access track up to the camping ground can be found as the river swings through a hard left corner.

You can carry on down river 10km to camp and then knock off the lower gorge in one extra (very full day) if keen. Check out the separate Lower Gorge trip page.

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