River Valley Lodge

Our mountain bike experience with River Valley Lodge, hosted and guided by Brian/Janey and Ross was the complete package of Dramatic landscape and beautiful scenery mixed in with great food and their insightful knowledge of the local history. The ride/terrain was on the challenging side at times, so it is very important to be setting off with mountain bikes fit for purpose and with adequate battery. A great ride that was extremely well supported by the River Valley Family team. Would have to be one of the best multi day rides of its type in the North Island. Highly recommend. Glenn and Tara

What an unbelievable experience. We were made welcome by Jacob and looked after from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. We had our motorhome on the field and were welcomed to use all the facilities, bar and restaurant with a great breakfast provided by Miranda. Janey, Tom, Brian and the whole family and staff could not have been nicer and happily chatted with us about their amazing business and the love they all have for it. Now onto the rafting itself! Wow what an adrenaline fuelled few hours. It was fantastic from start to finish and despite one of our party being a little nervous Tom was our guide and was encouraging, funny and professional throughout. At no time did we feel unsafe. The river itself is truly beautiful and it felt like there was no one else around for miles, which there probably wasn’t. If you have any doubts about this experience with this team, don’t, they will look after you throughout. Finally to cap it all as our motor home was unlikely to get back up the steep hill out Brian, who had to be elsewhere just left us the keys to his 4x4 to tow ourselves out. Thoroughly recommended and would love to visit again. thanks to all of you for such great memories.

Our son is in NZ for a couple of years so we decided to visit and tour the North Island. We had accommodation booked in Whanganui and looking for things to do I found River Valley Lodge advertising white water rafting. I sent e-mails from the UK and got good info from Janey so booked in 3 for rafting. We arrived for our session and were greeted by Tom who explained everything clearly. My 3 family members went off to raft and although a knee injury kept me out of the boat the staff were great and I went in the bus to the start point and when I got back was looked after at the lodge by Luke and Miranda in the kitchen even though they were preparing for a birthday bash. When my crew got back Miranda prepared some tasty sandwiches to keep us going. This family run activity centre is impressive. All the staff are well trained safety is clearly paramount but not overbearing. I highly recommend it. If I had realised there were rooms we would have stayed. Thanks for a great time, amazing memories and fab photos. Julie, Dave, Sam and Mary. Xxxx