Blazing Paddles Canoe Adventures
24 Rankers Reviews
11 Face-to-Face
19 Fresh Water Kayaking
7 Whanganui River
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The Waitomo Caves gets 500,000 visitors a year; the Tongariro Crossing has 40,000 walkers per season; the Whanganui River has only 4000 people in total and most of them travel between Christmas and New Year - and Easter. You'll never get a better chance to experience a NZ Great Walk with so few people.
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Showing 8 reviews of 23.
Flatlanders
Ranking: 10/10
What a ride! Friendly, communicative, helpfull, though a bit more info about the rapids (we tipped over twice) and a check if we had the right supplies would have made it perfect . We did luckely ;) They gave us a tent, mats and raincoats to use for free which we luckely did not need. We booked two huts. Amazing trip, beautiful nature, lot's of goats and falcons. Plenty of time to learn how to canoe because the river starts out sweet and gentle...and even though I canoed the Dordogne several days, this was a much bigger adventure. They had cold beers for us at the end which was sooo great (and needed). Tip: Be prepared! Keep your lifevest on, tie everything to the boat or yourself. Some rapids and the river are a real challenge when tipping over. We lost a hat, watershoes and a waterbottle, tipping over twice.
tim harnisch
Ranking: 10/10
staying at the lovely taumarunui holiday park, my hosts helene & phil helped me wonderfully planning my kajak trip down the whanganui river with blazing paddles.
since I am traveling on foot, the friendly folks from b.p picked me up at the camp, helped pack the boat and made sure that everything went smooth and safe.
everything was done in a very friendly & professional manner ! the pick up 4 and a half days down the river at pipiriki was a good example.
the guys from b.p arrived not only on time, but early !
the first company to load all the boats and drive the people back up to taumarunui.
thanx again for making this beautiful trip very special !
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NZRach
Ranking: 3/10
We recently took a day trip with Blazing Paddles on the Whanganui river launching at Taumaranui & travelling approx 4 hours down river to a campsite where we were picked up. The guy who dropped us off who I believe was the owner was in a bad mood, very rude & in a big hurry to get us on the river & out of his hair, his mood was not improved when he realised part of the canadian canoe that we were to use was broken & he had to go back & change it. The women who took our money at the end of the journey who I believe is his wife (& therefore a perfect match for him) was extremely rude as well. The guy who picked us up at then end of the trip was also grumpy & spent his time moaning that he had exceeded the amount of hours he could legally drive on that day, but with a boss like his I can not blame him. After a spill out of the double canadian canoe one of our party members did not want to continue & while we on the side of the river contacting blazing paddles for a pick up of the two passengers of the canoe a very nice guy came accross the river in a boat to see if we were ok, it turned out that this guy was from Taumaranui canoe hire, we explained our situation & he offered for the company jet boat to pick up the two from the canoe take them to their house which happened to be directly opposite, he then took the C Canoe over to the other side of the river for Blazing Paddles to pick up. They then offered to have the person who did not want to continue to down the river to spend the day at their house, lent us a extra single kayak for the other person & we all continued down the river. In the end we all had a fabulous day thanks to Taumaranui canoe hire who would not take any money for the kayak that we used for the day, they are extremely nice family & I would use them for our next trip without any hesitation.
Blazing Paddles Canoe Adventures responds:
This is historic. We apologise for our apparent rude behaviour - but we had just been advised that one of us was suffering from stage 3 bowel cancer and the other was in the process of being treated for prostate cancer. This does not excuse bad behaviour, but helps put it into some perspective. Fortunately both of us are now in remission.
Ute Rogawski
Ranking: 9/10
Everything worked out perfectly - shuttle service on time, canoes were fine, reservation campsites were done, compared to other paid actitivities the price was okay.
Jennifer
Ranking: 8/10
Safe, helpful, boats in good condition.
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Klemlyn
Ranking: 5/10
The river and trip were awesome, and self guiding was easy with great gear. However we were very disappointed with the attitude of the man who shuttled us. He was uncommunicative to the point of rudeness, didn't even ask us how we enjoyed the trip when he picked us up from Pipiriki. I cannot recommend this company based on this attitude, but see that others have had better experiences.
Lukas Bauer
Ranking: 8/10
Very nice people, scenic tour, love the cafe at the lavendar farm aprox 30min before reaching the end.
Sebastian Engelke
Ranking: 6/10
Nice tour on Wanganui River through beautiful river landscape. Things on guiding maps were explained, a bit confusing eg obstacles in water, rapids). Good price, good for families with older kids. I think there are more amazing rivers to paddle.