Destination guides > Pacific Islands > New Zealand > Manawatu-Wanganui > Manawatu & Rangitikei > Taihape
Taihape
Taihape is a small service town on State Highway 1 that bills itself as the “gumboot capital of New Zealand” – but then you already knew that. Or maybe not, but it’s kind of hard to miss the enormous gumboot statue on the north side of town. Each year in October, Taihape holds a Gumboot Day festival, with events like gumboot throwing and gumboot races.
Taihape has a small main street with shopping and a few restaurants and cafés. It’s about a 45-minute drive from Mount Ruapehu, making it a potential base for skiing. Twenty minutes southeast of Taihape is an extreme sports complex, Mokai Gravity Canyon, with an 80m bungee jump, the highest tandem swing in the world, and what they claim is the world’s most extreme flying fox, which goes over the Rangitikei River at speeds up to 160 km/h.
Coming & going
InterCity (tel (09) 623 1503) and Nakedbus.com stop opposite the BP Service Station on Kuku Street. Buses go to Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington.
Hostel accommodation
River Valley Lodge
RD2, Pukeokahu, Taihape
Tel (06) 388 1444 or 0800 248 666
Stockman’s Lodge
9 Dixon Way, Taihape
Tel (06) 388 1584
Activities
Mokai Gravity Canyon
This extreme sports complex, 20 minutes southeast of Taihape, features an 80m bungee jump (New Zealand’s tallest bridge bungee jump), the highest tandem swing in the world (with a 50m freefall) and what they claim is the world’s most extreme flying fox, which is 1km-long and goes at speeds up to 160 km/h over the Rangitikei River.
Mokai Bridge, Taihape
Tel (06) 388 9109 or 0800 802 864
Website www.gravitycanyon.co.nz
One activity $110, two activities $175, three activities $240, repeat an activity on the same day $65
Open 9am-5pm daily
|
|
|
