Scouting out the river above the Chute with a fine example of rock strata on the canyon wall opposite. Photo: Peter Laurenson

Paddling between giants

November 2021

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November 2021

For sheer distance, rafting the Waiau Toa/Clarence River makes an unbeatable wilderness journey.

There was a pleasing symmetry to the Chute, but it did little to mask the menace implied by the short stretch of water where steep rocky walls squeezed the entire flow of the Clarence River into a four metre-wide channel. Or the jagged fang of rock dead ahead.  We’d been on the water a couple […]
November 2021

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November 2021

Peter Laurenson

About the author

Peter Laurenson

Peter is a tramper, occasional climber, photographer, editor and writer. His adventures, spanning 30+ years, come together on his website ‘OccasionalClimber’. Richmond-based, Peter is editor of FMC’s Backcountry and has published three books: Occasional Climber (2013) and Khumbu (2021) and Aotearoa Light (2025).

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