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Tairua Crag

Type
Altitude
300m
Part of

As seen in the opening scene of "Hunt for the wilderpeople". The rock at Tairua is rhyolite from the Kapowai Caldera, a volcanic complex that was active around 9 million years ago. It has steep, featured terrain with crack systems, pockets, edges, sloping bulges and chickenhead knobs in abundance. Some of the more featured rock resembles bubbles and there is the occasional hollow sounding flake, but the vast majority is good quality hard rock. Once further developed this will be a great crag to climb in the rain due to how steep it is.

Image
Walktime
2 hrs
Aspect
North West
Lat/lon
POINT (175.722499 -37.061616)
Topo50
BB35 375 939
Access

Tairua crag is located in the Second Branch valley of the Tairua river, it sits at the intersections of Camp and Scots stream, within the southern sector of the Coromandel Forest Park.
Contact:
The track starts from a farm at 380 Puketui Valley Road. You do not need to request permission to cross the farm, but please fill in the register book with your details, and make sure to sign out when you leave. This is crucial to ensuring ongoing access.
Directions:
You can Google Map your way to 380 Puketui Valley Road.
Manual directions:
Head to SH25A that runs between Kopu and Hikuai. Along this road there is a turn off opposite the Waitomo gas and service station onto Morrison Rd, with a sign reading “Community Hall.” Follow this for 1km, at the end of Morrison Rd is a bridge over the river, at which you turn onto Puketui Valley Rd. Follow this for 3.8km. You will have arrived at the farm when you see a cinderblock cattle station on your right.
Parking:
Climbers may park on the farm down by the river, just right of the first bridge. Do not drive over the bridges or across the farm. Please make sure your vehicle is not blocking the farm road.
From the parking area, walk down the farm road over two bridges, past a house on the right and into a large field where the road ends, leaving all gates as you found them. The start of the track is on the far right side of the field.
The track is an old kauri logging route that goes up the valley, beginning from the marked location in the farm. It begins as a quad bike track, but quickly turns into a partially landscaped bush track, before becoming a less visible pathway through the otherwise dense forest. The track has been marked with pink tape, has a handful old pink DOC tags, and white tin tags nailed to occasional trees. About 30 minutes up the track there is one section where you need to follow the river bed for about hundred meters before crossing the river. The way across is marked by occasional cairns. This is an easy rock-hop in good weather or light rain but has been known to get pretty committing in the rain, take that into account if walking out in bad weather. Stick to the track to protect the environment.
There is a big cairn and a sign when you get to the campground/crag turnoff. The campground is down by the river.
Both large Waterfalls in the second branch of the Tairua river have bolted rap stations at the top. Following the stream bed on the way out on a warm summer afternoon makes for a great wee stream-bash with a couple 10m abseils.

Add Place Add Route

Routes

Reference Title Grade Length Pro Quality Operations
1 Five Legged Goat 24 30m
1.02
2 Walking the Plank 23 121m 9
3
5 Kapowai Calling 21 37m 1
2.01
6 Jam 22 25m
0
Feral Bush Lawyers (trad) 23 26m
0
11 Coitus Interruptus 22 45m 16
3
8 Are We Tramping Yet? 19 25m 7
0
16 Feral Bush Lawyer 25 12m 6
2.01
9 Not Here To F*** Spiders 23 30m
1.02
14 Wetsuit Crack 20m
0
15 Dirty Hairy Frenchman 22 20m 7
2.01
10 Open project - probably 29/30 30m 9
0
4 Home Again 20 20m 10
2.01
3 Chockaholic 23 30m 1
0
12 Space Ape 23 22m 12
3
13 Boulderer's Day Off (Under development) 3
0
Comments
Gomez

It would be great to update the routes on this crag and any changes to access information?

Wed, 04/10/2023 - 10:09 Permalink
g.v.kolbe

A few of the trad routes have been climbed and anchors bolted but they all still need a few pitches!
The approach track also still needs some grooming...

Wed, 11/11/2015 - 23:16 Permalink
cragrat

So what has been climbed there ? Looks great!!!

Sat, 31/10/2015 - 20:36 Permalink
UUID
 
f07d8809-bc68-4a1d-823a-19fbddd1f9f7