Why A Rafting Trip is the Perfect Family Activity

Looking for a NZ family adventure activity to delight everyone from your five-year-old to your grandpa?

Grab your swimwear, head to beautiful Turangi (close to Taupō) and go white water rafting on the Tongariro River.

As far as family activities go, rafting ticks all the boxes – read on to find out exactly why!

Great Lake Taupō: Heaven for Outdoor-Lovers

We know how lucky we are to live in a region filled with glorious mountain scenery, pristine rivers, and native forest to die for. It’s the perfect place to step away from big city life and introduce the kids to the amazing Kiwi Great Outdoors.

There’s heaps to see here, but what if you want to have an exhilarating outdoor adventure together?

A lot of the once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you can do here aren’t suitable for younger visitors due to age and safety restrictions – think jumping off a bridge our out of a plane – great for mum or dad, not so great for the little ones!

We know options are limited for outdoor-lovers with young families. You need activities that won’t tire out the little ones while still being exciting for bigger kids (and their parents of course).

That’s why we put our heads together to create our Family Floats rafting experience – a genuine adventure activity that the whole family can enjoy and participate in.

Our Secret Recipe For The Perfect Family Outdoor Adventure

Like any good recipe, we use only the finest ingredients:

• One adventure-loving family – kids as young as five are welcome.
• One pristine Tongariro river in the heart of stunning NZ Backcountry
• One friendly, family-owned rafting company who knows the river like the back of their hand
• Around an hour and a quarter of exciting rafting on a carefully chosen stretch of water that the adults will enjoy but the kids will feel they have had an epic adventure.
• One highly experienced, family-friendly, fun-loving river guide
• A whole host of native wildlife to encounter as you paddle along

Why come on a Family Float?

Brilliant for Bonding
As well as seeing the beauty of the region, you’re actually getting out there together and paddling your way through it as a family. Children as young as five can join the fun, and anyone in the family can paddle as much or as little as you like thanks to your wonderful rafting guide who will be with you all the way.

Build Confidence in your Kids
As a family company, we love it when kids come rafting with us. There’s nothing like the excitement on their faces when they discover that they have the power to help steer the raft and make it move.
Our experienced guides will gently encourage those with first-time nerves. We’ve carefully selected a Grade 2 section of the river where there are plenty of bouncy splashy spots for maximum fun, but no big rapids to worry about.

Stunning Backcountry and Wonderful Wildlife
The Tongariro River flows down from the Central Plateau of the North Island, fed by streams from Mt Ruapehu and nearby hill ranges. Flowing through Turangi on its journey to Lake Taupō surrounded by beautiful bush, we’re lucky to have it on our doorstep, along with its fascinating animal inhabitants:

Meet an Endangered Species
Our neighbours on the river, the Whio (Blue Ducks), are beautiful birds threatened with extinction. You’ll see where they live and find out all about them from your guide, including how we can help their numbers to grow. We’re so passionate about this little native duck, that we started our own conservation project dedicated to saving them. Seeing them in the wild is so much more special than visiting a sanctuary.

Beautiful Birdsong
With New Zealand’s native birds calling to each other from the trees around you, your family rafting adventure will have a stunning soundtrack!

Look Out for Trout
The Tongariro River is one of the best trout-fishing rivers in the world. Brown and Rainbow Trout come here in their thousands, and with our beautifully clear river water, you can often spot them coming and going. If the kids want to catch one for dinner, we have a Family Float and Kids Fishing activity combo – you can even have your catch filleted and smoked for you!

Awesome Fun – Rain or Shine
Forget indoor activities on rainy days – the river is where it’s at!  You’ll be wearing wetsuits and splash jackets so you’ll hardly notice a little extra water falling from the sky.

This makes rafting an awesome winter family activity too. If you’re on a ski trip at nearby Whakapapa and the mountain is closed due to weather, give us a call and we’ll see where we can fit you in. We have cosy fleece layers to wear under your wetsuits so don’t worry about feeling the chill.

Magical Memories
Whether you’re aged five or fifty, we know that you’ll always remember the excitement of your first time on the rapids. That’s why we film the experience for you and station our trusty photographers along the riverbank to capture some of those magic moments for you.

The Practical Stuff

Relax – it’s all taken care of
With quality safety equipment, insulated wetsuits, fleece jerseys, helmets and life jackets provided, the only thing you need to bring is a swimsuit and towel.

Safety Comes First
Our expert guides will give you a clear, easy to follow safety briefing before you hit the water, and they’ll be in charge of the raft at all times. In fact, you don’t even need to paddle if you don’t want to!

The location we’ve chosen is a Grade 2 section of the Lower Tongariro River. This means it’s been assessed as having gentle currents, small to medium rapids and no major obstacles.

Because this part of the river is nice and wide with lots of calm sections, your guide has some leeway to make the trip a bit more bouncy or a bit less splashy according to everyone’s wishes.

Come And See Us
If this sounds like the trip for you, book online now and come and see us for an unforgettable half-day of awesome “Kiwi as” family fun with the most experienced operators on the Tongariro.

We’re under 40 minutes from Taupō and the Whakapapa ski fields, and if you’re in Hamilton, New Plymouth, Rotorua or Napier we’re a great day trip option for escaping the city.

We look forward to meeting you!