Pukehinau Canyon, Tongairro Forrest

The put in to this neat little Canyon is 30mins from SH46 down Pukehinau Rd, in the Tongairro Forrest. Pulling into the dusty campsite just before the gravel road turns into a 4WD track, we found a well defined track leading off to the west which took us down to the stream.

It didn’t take long for the canyon to get going.. Whilst there’s no waterfalls in the main canyon, there are several swims in some rather cold water. I wore 5mm of Neoprene and was comfy, whilst Kay was a little cold in her Farmer Jane/Fuzzy rubber top combination. (Neo gloves would have been worthwhile too..)

There are sections of solid conglomerate rock but beautiful dark limestone dominates the canyon. The walls reach about 20m at their maximum and the canyon is about 2m wide at its thinnest point. 30 mins is all it takes to get through the Canyon section, whilst another 15 or so minutes along the stream sees you arrive at a steep old vehicle track on the true right.

The whole trip took us an hour car to car. Great way to spend a little spare time!!!