**EXTRA COURTESY REQUESTED**
Rangihau Rd is not maintained by the council, but the local landowners.
The recent popularity of Oteao and Rangihau has lead to a significant increase in vehicle traffic, and locals who maintain the road are concerned about damage to the road.
Please drive slowly and carefully, and avoid using the road during/after rain.
It is vital to keep a good relationship with the landowners (who pay for road maintenance) If we ruin a relationship, then the access might remain closed permanently.
Please inform your friends and canyoning buddies and watch this space for updates:
Dan Clearwater NZCA President & Brad Schimanski NZCA Local area rep
Te Tipi Stream overview
25m
6hrs/1.5hrs/4.5hrs ( Approach, Te Tipi descent, Rangihau gorge v4a4IV** descent)
Publc access
Te Tipi Stream is another of the headwater tributaries of the excellent Rangihau Gorge v4a4IV**. Te Tipi itself is not the pick of the entry routes to Rangihau, but is described here for completeness.
Route description
Rangihau Road end to old Moss Creek track – 1 1/2 hours
Old Moss Creek track to Moss Creek Camp site – 1 3/4 hours – many litres of blood loss due to an insane amount of 6ft high cutty grass! lol. Lost the track a few times too.
Moss Creek Campsite to small Te Tipi tributary – 1 1/2 hours – Bush bashing and navigation skills required. Even more cutty grass/ blood loss/ crawling/ stumbling/ falling/ crying and temptation to push PLB (joking)
Te Tipi Tributary to main Te Tipi Canyon – 1 hour – Beautiful moss covered stream and tea coloured water, very picturesque and tranquil! Occasional sections of more bloody cutty grass!!
Te Tipi Canyon to Rangihau confluence – 1 1/2 hours – really cool partially intact Kauri Dam, only 1 abseil approx. 25m pictured, a couple of small jumps and slides and lots of stream and bolder walking/ climbing. A lot further than one would think looking at the map!!
Rangihau confluence to car – 4 1/2 hours – the usual full Rangihau trip (you do miss out on the first 70m pitch further upstream though), I think we just about jumped every pitch except the “blasted” rock slide in the upper Rangihau, jumped or climbed all the lower Rangihau (to save time).
Good day out with mates – saw some cool stuff. Wouldn’t recommended the effort for such little gain though. Haha.
Dion Philip, as part of first canyoning descent team, 16 January, 2023
First canyoning descent of Te Tipi Stream: Callum McLean, Davie Lourie and Dion Philip. Thanks to Dion Philip for the route description and photos.
