With tonnes of exposure and fantastic surrounds Maratoto makes for a great days climbing. If you make the effort to venture up to the base of this impressive looking rock feature you will be rewarded with some classic sport routes in an amazing location. Maratoto means rock of blood and was named after a Maori battle. The block was mined in the early 1900s with some relics still visible.
The first climbing occurred in the 1970s with an aid route on the top tier, however there is very little detail about who did this route or where it goes. The crag was rediscovered by Dean Maxwell in 1996 and with the help of John van der Warff the pair set about clearing a track, cutting steps, cleaning rock and placing over 200 bolts. This mammoth effort took place over a couple of summers and often saw the pair camped out at the cave bivvy at the base of the crag for weeks on end. The crag faces southwest so gets the late afternoon sun.
Gear
You will need 15–18 quickdraws. A couple of the routes need trad gear (cams and wires) but most are sport.
Maratoto Road is situated on the Thames–Paeroa road (SH26). From Thames bridge drive 16km past old Maratoto road till you come to Maratoto Road on your left, or from Paeroa take the road to Thames and after 10–15km you will come across Maratoto Road on the right. Drive up Maratoto Road for about 10km and park on the bend directly beneath Maratoto.
The track can be a bit hard to find. Either walk up the road 250m to a small culvert (drain), scramble down to the river and pick up the track up from here, or cross the paddock and river by the car park then climb the hill moving right until you pick the track up. A 30 minute walk up the hill, steep in places, brings you to the base of the cliff (allow an hour as you’ll probably get lost a couple of times).
