Deep Canyon Wanaka

Deep Canyon Wanaka is a very unique and different business as the experience it is selling is very difficult to advertise and as it takes some technique or ability so it cannot be marketed to every tourist that visits New Zealand. Deep Canyon Wanaka have a variety of trips that you can choose from, these include the Niger Stream trip and many others that you can read about on their website here Deep Canyon.

The trip starts outside the Deep Canyon offices in Wanaka located at 103 Ardmore Street where you are greeted by your guides. The guides will then drive you out to the location of your canyoning dependant on which trip you have chosen. Once on site you will be fitted with the appropriate equipment in order to ensure you stay warm whilst on the trip.

During your trip you will use a variety of ways to descend through the canyon including jumping, sliding and of course abseiling. One thing not mentioned on the website is the walk up to the top of the canyon. This can be quite difficult for those with an injury as on a wet day the track can be quite slippery a difficult to climb. However it is not impossible and your guides should be willing to help at any difficult points.

Lunch and hot drinks are also provided at the end of your adventure and is a nice added bonus to warm you up and refuel at the conclusion of your trip. It’s also a nice time to get to know your guides afterwards as you can socialise with them and ask them any questions you have about the trip and the area as they are very familiar with where they are.

The Niger Stream trip costs $240 per person and is well worth the money as it is a day of experiences and pushing yourself to the limits. It is unlike many other products as it was the first of its kind in New Zealand, what makes this product different to many other tourism products in its price range is that you are paying for a whole days activities instead of paying a slightly cheaper price for one activity that will last an hour at the longest.

My experience with Deep Canyon Wanaka was slightly different as it did not begin outside their offices in Wanaka. It started at Snow Farm lodge for a class trip. This just meant that there was a longer drive out to the location of the canyon which was no problem. We were collected at 8.45 by the owner and founder of the company Dave; with no time wasted we were inside the company van and heading down the Cardrona valley towards Wanaka.

The trip we were taking part in was the Niger Stream trip. Once arriving in Wanaka we had a short wait for our second guide Holly to show up who greeted us with a very enthusiastic attitude once she had arrived. The drive to the canyon seemed to be an adventure itself with points where we had to come to a stop due to cows covering the road and big bumps and drops going on and off of bridges.

Once we arrived at the site Holly started to hand out our equipment for the day while we searched through a pile of old shoes to use so that we wouldn’t ruin our own.  After about 15-20 minutes of gearing up we began our ascent to the top of the canyon so that we could begin our adventure. The track is in reasonable condition and is fairly easy to make it up when you are physically capable with no injuries.

At the start of the canyoning we had a short 10 minute safety briefing and snack to keep our energy levels up. Part of the safety briefing was a practise rope to practise abseiling on so that you were confident in your abilities before tackling a large first abseil immediately. This is followed up by an awesome slide making this product unlike no others as when can you say you did a near vertical 8 metre slide into a rock pool! Afterwards we carried on through the                    canyon with a few smaller slides and larger abseils down waterfalls.

Holly and Dave knew exactly what to do to keep us entertained while we waited for the rest of our group to catch up having us try small things that isn’t advertised as a part of the product. At the halfway point we were refuelled again with more snacks and a hot cup of tea to                  keep energy levels and warmth up once more.

This trip continued to surprise as we started to do some slides face first instead of feet first. Dave and Holly were both magnificent guides and you can see the passion they put into their job as it makes it a much more enjoyable atmosphere. I guess the fact that you’re working in a playground that anyone would enjoy does help make it easy to be enthusiastic but that is beside the point as they know what they’re doing and they know exactly what to do to make the trip amazing!

The conclusion of the trip was very exciting with a big 10 metre jump into a rock pool which you can repeat and do as many times as you’d like within reason. This last jump is also optional as it is on the way to the zip line to make your way out of the canyon and back down the hill. The zip line is a great extra to finish the trip however I didn’t find it quite as exciting as the rest of the activities that we got to do while on the trip. For the last and most difficult part we had to walk back down a slippery track which we seemed to find harder than the canyoning itself with most of us slipping over at least once which was a great laugh.

A great way to round off the trip was the lunch provided, sandwiches made how you like them as you make them yourself so that you don’t get anything you don’t want and a nice hot drink of your choice. Overall this trip exceeded my expectations and was well worth it, it is a trip I would recommend to anyone with a spare day up their sleeve.

Please view my classmate Corneille’s blog to hear about his Deep Canyon experience or alternately my other classmates Stephen or Melissa.