Reviews of Whanganui River Canoes. (Car Rental Agency) in Palmerston North (Manawatu Whanganui).

Whanganui River Canoes

115 Reviews

70 Comments

Car rental agency

Canoe & kayak rental service

Tourist attraction

10 Parapara Road, Raetihi 4632, New Zealand

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Description Map Open Hours Reviews Contact Photos

Description

Information of Whanganui River Canoes, Car rental agency in Palmerston North (Manawatu Whanganui)

Here you can see the location, open hours, popular times, contact, photos and real reviews done by the users.

This place has good reviews, this means that they treat their customers well and you’ll feel great with their services, recommended 100%!

Map

Open hours of Whanganui River Canoes

Monday

7 a.m.–7 p.m.

Tuesday

7 a.m.–7 p.m.

Wednesday

7 a.m.–7:30 p.m.

Thursday

7 a.m.–7 p.m.

Friday

7 a.m.–7 p.m.

Saturday

7 a.m.–7 p.m.

Sunday

7 a.m.–7 p.m.

Popular times

Monday

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Tuesday

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Wednesday

7
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Thursday

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Friday

8
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Saturday

7
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Sunday

7
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Reviews of Whanganui River Canoes

P. N. Z.

Excellent place. We had a group that stayed in their cabins and did the 4 day canoe trip. Everything is extremely well run and organized. I highly recommend it. The cabins are clean, the bathrooms and showers are awesome and there is also a laundry area. Lots of short walks around the area from the cabins. The canoe trips are extremely well run and organized, it was extremely impressive. You watch a video, learn about the trip, then get bags and barrels to put your stuff in. They take you to the river. You get your canoes and paddles, lifejackets, emergency beacon. You have fun on the river and they pick you up at the end of your journey and take you back. You get to keep your car at their place. And they even give you some drinks and snacks when you get back, which was a welcome surprise bonus. I highly recommend the Whanganui River Canoes

A. K.

My friends and I (a group of 5) had an amazing time on our 4 day canoe trip! It was a once in a lifetime type of experience. The canoes and other gear from Whanganui River Canoes was excellent, and the pick up and drop off service (with snacks at the end) was excellent. My only critique would be to print out the pictures for the briefing on a larger piece of paper - trying to squint at the tiny pictures on an A4 sheet was very difficult. Other wise, we had a wonderful time! Thank you again.

P. A.

We rented 2 canoes for a self-guided 3-day trip from Whakahoro to Pipiriki. 2 adults with 2 kids (12 and 14) with very little river/paddling experience and we had an amazing time. The rapids were just enough to get the blood pumping, but not terrifying. We somehow managed to get through the 3 days without capsizing, The team at Whanganui River Canoes were friendly, fun and professional, and I recommend this experience to anyone.

S. D.

Excellent and friendly advice for a fantastic journey. Much appreciated the info session, ease of pick up and drop off, and the journey was amazing. Just remember that canoeing takes a lot of energy and patience when the water is low and wind is at your face!

S. G.

Excellent hire company! My partner and I hired a canoe for 3 days for a freedom tour on the river. We were given a detailed video guide the day before and tips about how to paddle the canoe effectively and safely. Ben and Rebecca were very helpful, informative and accomodating, plus the snacks and drinks upon our return were very welcomed and a nice touch! :)

C. M.

Outstanding experience - on time, great equipment and extremely friendly. We stayed in the holiday park the night before and that is great as well. Highly recommend!

Canoeing the Whanganui River was an absolutely incredible experience that I would refer to as once in a lifetime if not for the fact I can definitely see myself coming back. This experience was greatly enhanced by the amazing and personable service provided by Rachel, Trever and Ben at Whanganui River Canoes. They were incredibly knowledgeable and provided us with constant updates with regards to the weather to help us make an informed decision about our journey. They were also wonderfully flexible and understanding as members of our group were not able to make the journey due to lockdown restrictions as well as worries about the weather. They provided a 'door to door' service dropping us off at one end of the river and picking us up on time right as we finished. Throughout the experience their expertise was on full display. On top of this the facilities at the Holiday Park were top-notch and the shower after completing the trip was an absolute godsend. Whanganui River Canoes also provided afternoon tea on our return which was a perfect encapsulation of the faultless service provided.

D. R.

Wow! Blinking great service, ties in with the Raetihi Holiday Park to make for an easy time getting sorted in the morning. Icing on the cake was some hot chips and cake waiting back after 3 days paddling on the river! Then a hot shower at the campsite. Highly recommend using this company, they make the whole process seemless! 😊

M. R.

Fantastic service from the team at Whanganui River Canoes. Easy to arrange, very clean comfortable accomodation the night before and very good quality gear. Briefings were very useful, if a little long on the day we set off. Lovely welcome back with treats we all appreciated. Would recommend this company to anyone thinking about doing the river journey. While we didn't have kids with us, we were also really impressed with how they looked after nervous kids in other groups, reassuring them before we set off and rewarding them with ice cream sundaes on our return to base.

M. M.

Did a trip here a few months ago and had an absolutely fantastic time. Everyone was incredibly friendly and immediately made us feel like part of the family. The canoes and barrels provided were great. At the end, when we were cold and wet, they even fed us chips. Can't recommend Whanganui River Canoes highly enough!

J. B.

Excellent friendly staff. The trip ran smoothly. Good food. Our guide Damian welcomed us onto his marae on the river, told us the stories of the river, and fed us well! A good choice of trip for our primary age kids with just enough excitement but not too much for them. Memorable family holiday. Kids pretty tired tonight!

J. G.

Really friendly and helpful team that provided us with the canoes and pick up/drop off we needed for our three day trip down the river. Made everything easy and fun, would happily recommend.

J. G.

Super helpful in our preparation leading up to our trip on the Whanganui river journey, they prepared us well with gear and information (as well as accommodation the night before the trip- very handy!). Very much appreciated the fact that their location is near the end of the journey, so not a long shuttle back to base! Very friendly staff too! Definitely recommend for Whanganui Journey canoe hire etc.

C. S.

We booked the Whanganui Canoe Trip with Rebecca, so helpful through email. Really nice family owned business, stayed the night before we set off for our canoe trip. Facilities were very good at the campsite. Rebecca and family are very friendly and helpful. Drop offs and pick ups on time. We even got snacks and hot drinks when we got back to the campground after 3 days of camping and were able to use the facilities before we left, lovely touch! Would highly recommend booking with these guys!!

Very, very good. This family-run business gave us warm, generous and good-humoured service with even home baking thrown in amidst their busiest times. High quality and funny briefings, excellent gear, flexible to our needs. Look no further. We met canoeists who had gone with other companies that had very different experiences! Just saying.

I. J.

Wow, what an epic trip we had! The weather was perfect, the river was flowing which meant we got away with minimal paddling for a lot of it, a lot of us had never done any Canoeing like this before. Damien and Ben were such legends having a good laugh with our group of 14 but also ensuring we got key information to make our trip safe. I over packed food and clothes but better to be safe than sorry, didn't take enough sunblock. This is definitely one of the best experiences of my life to date. Definitely want some water shoes and a hat with an adjustable strap if your planning on doing a trip yourself. Get into it you will have a blast!

M. T.

What an amazing experience, words cannot explain how awesome it was. Its something you have to experience yourself to understand. The staff were really friendly and nice, we had some unfortunate car problems and they went out of their way to help us. Great campsite, the facilities were really good, clean and modern and the atmosphere was positive. Lovely location looking up to the mountain too!!! Thank you!!

L. J.

Whanganui River Canoes were great to deal with. They were well organised and their safety planning was excellent. Had nice touches like a warm feed and offered hot showers on our return.

A. W.

Excellent family rental company and friendly ! Great Walk of Whanganui Journey was wonderful !

S. T.

Whanganui River Canoes facilitated our large group in a seamless and stress free way. They prepared us for the river with a thorough briefing, maps and provided all necessary and good quality equipment. The Raetihi Holiday Park is modern and clean, with great bathroom/shower facilities. What a great trip! Would totally recommend.

l. r.

Whanganui River Canoes were exceptional with assisting us in planning, preparing and undertaking the Whanganui river journey over the New Year period. We had a massive group with 17 of us and Rebecca was very patient with providing informative information including packing lists and what to expect, where to stay prior and post the 3-day canoe trip as well as where to leave our cars and gears etc, and all our bookings...! She was also fantastic with keeping on top of our group numbers which confusingly grew over the 6-months we were planning this trip. When we arrived at Raetihi Holiday Park, we were given a decent safety briefing and shown what to do with our barrels etc. Ben was super helpful with any questions we had and very patient with many of us who had never been on a canoe before and were paranoid about dying ;D Raetihi Holiday Park is owned by the same family who owns Whanganui River Canoes which makes it the best place to stay prior to the journey! It's also a bonus that the facilities are fantastic and the campground is gorgeous! The journey itself on the river is a well-oiled operation! Arriving back at Pipiriki at 2pm on the last day, Ben was there to greet us with a big smile, and take us back to the campground! Wiped out from 3 days aboard our canoes, they put on a bbq and cakes to welcome us back to Raetihi Holiday Park.... quite possibly the most exciting and most needed sausage sizzle our group has ever seen! A real treat at the end of a brilliant few days! These guys are the best, all of them! We love, love, loved our canoe journey and felt very safe and very well looked after by Whanganui River Canoes!

A. E.

We highly recommend Whanganui River Canoes. We did the three day from Whakaporo to Pipiriki, and it was fantastic. WRC has very friendly staff, they gave us an excellent safety briefing beforehand including tips and tricks for the river. Drop off and pick up were seamless. Great experience all around A+++

J. C.

They had good quality canoes and kayaks, life jackets and barrels. Great service and a clean well kept campsite. We received a lovely afternoon tea when we got back from our trip. They made our trip enjoyable and easy :).

T. L. -.

Thank you whanganui River Canoes. We were a group of 21, Ben and family were friendly, helpful, well organized and accommodating with pick up times, staggered briefings etc. A amazing New Zealand experience. Holiday park cabins were great value prior to.our 3 day paddle.

C. M.

We did a 5 day canoe trip on the Whanganui River. Started at Cherry Grove and went to Pipiriki. We camped at WRC the day before our trip and the day after. Great facilities there. We were picked up promptly at 2pm on the last day. Drivers were friendly and gave good advice! Some parts of the river wide and slow. The last day we had some intense rapids. It was a good time!

G. D.

Fab service and equipment. Very professional team with safety video to start, maps, tracking device and hot chips/cake when we finished. Seamless pick up and drop off

L. M.

What a wild ride. 3 days of amazing canoeing that my arms are still recovering from. The company are spectacular, incredibly hospitable and caring. Even Rosie, the dog, gets two thumbs up from the Aussie!

M. B.

I loved my 3 days on the Whanganui River. Prep, comfortable transport, canoes and kayaks and barrels, and a friendly coffee and cake when we returned. Thanks WRC. God provided the perfect weather and Awa showed off her marvelous river gorges, exhilarating rapids, family's of ducks, tributaries and waterfalls. We live in an awesome country. An memory making experience for our group of 5.

My group did a three day canoe trip down the river with almost no prior experience (have only kayaked before on a school trip). This was great fun but a lot of hard work. We had mostly sunny weather above 23 degrees most days and it did get quite hard working in that heat. Wear lots of sunscreen! The river was low when we went as there hadn't been much rain so the rapids were harder than normal and there were a lot more obstacles in the water. Aim to go after a rain. Please ensure your whole party can swim as a majority of people will get capsized going over the rapids (particularly the last two).

Great experience, we had 6 kids with us too aged 8 to 16 there were times especially in the head wind where you had to dig deep.

V. L.

Wow, what a service and a trip of a lifetime. To top it off a sausage sizzle surprise at the end of the 3 day voyage. Everyone we met along the way was delightful, knowledgeable, and willing to help. A trip I will never forget.

W. P.

An awesome canoeing experience on the Whanganui River, thanks to Whanganui River Canoes. Ben was very informative about the river and gave us an excellent safety briefing. We will do this trip again.

G. H.

We booked our own huts and had on clothes and food. They provided our canoes/kayak sleeping bags and cookware and place to stay before and after. Made our trip easy.

B. H.

Excellent outfit to deal with and made an already amazing trip even better. Extremely helpful, friendly people who were professional throughout. Highly recommended

V. L.

Rebecca and Ben were outstanding - professional, dedicated, safety conscious, hospitable. The briefing was serious without being boring and the trip was life-changing. Come prepared to be challenged and blown away. A modicum of fitness and a barrel-load of willingness to get stuck in are rewarded with a lifetime's feeling of "I'm so glad we did that!"

Just what you'd expect from canoes for hire. You have to watch a terrible instruction video that surprised me wasn't still on a video tape. Big lumpy heavy canoes that are hard to break. A busy filled buss for all the way back up the river. (They also have to bring you towards the river by bus) don't forget to mare reservations for campgrounds in between and having to canoe 10 km in their canoes in one day is not advisable...:p

C. C.

We did kayaking at this place back in 2013. Up till today we still often talk about this exciting experience. The owners are amazing people. Highly recommend this one to anyone travelling to nz.

S. C.

Really great staff, great prices and amazing experience. 5 of us did 2 day freedom canoe hire with jet boat pickup from bridge to nowhere. Would highly recommend this option.

A. S.

Great Service, very friendly. Was a busy time but still looked after everyone. Greta experience. But beware, great walk means lots of pedalling. All worth it.

J. E.

Great one stop shop for those doing the Whanganui Journey. Friendly staff and safety focused culture. Will return

T. M.

Great team. Took us at short notice. Professional, good gear, friendly, nice extras like afternoon tea when we got back.

L. W.

Fantastic team here. Great trip. Good gear. Very professional. Already recommended to all friends and family. A+

Fantastic operation and well worth the trip. And as apart of a holidays park, you can stay before or after your trip... Weldone to Ben and the crew!

R. d.

AMAZING !!!! staff are helpful and kind. The trip was well organised and had awesome experience, definitely would recommend the company.

C. P.

Friendly and well organised, couldn't have been happier choosing WRC for our trip.

M. T. H.

Whanganui is a beautiful town theres always things there to do for families awesome place that good that we are looking at moving there in the future see how this year goes