Extreme Edge Rock Climbing — Attraction in Maungakiekie-Tāmaki

One of the worst climbing gyms I’ve visited around the world in terms of safety. I am not one to leave negative reviews for climbing gyms as I have never had a bad experience with one , but sadly I did have one here. It seems like a management issue rather than staffing.

I did go to Extreme Rock on a Sunday being a busy day, plus it was my first time climbing here. Cues were long and busy to check in, after checking in and paying , staff did not inform us about where facilities were, and whether we needed an induction or even belay check. It seemed like we were allowed to hit the walls at our own demise, it was only there and then I went over and asked whether we needed this, where we were told we just had to do a safety introduction and a belay spot check where we could grab any member of staff to spot check us.

After waiting 15minutes for a safety brief which was aimed at the beginners and the clip and climb section rather than a bouldering, top rope / lead introduction. Half of the time other customers were out in the heavens not listening to the brief , typical.

Went for a quick boulder session , amazing to see non climbing shoes on the walls , with children running around the matts and climbing onto the wall underneath other climbers…

Went to go ask for a belay spot check and we were exclaimed by a newish looking staff member that we would have to join in a belay class with the next one being in 15minutes. Where we had told the member of staff that we knew how to belay and have climbed before, he asked his manger and she informed him we had to do a belay class, which didn’t make sense when we were informed originally we could grab any staff member to spot check. Luckily after 10 minutes of waiting a kind female staff member came to spot check us, so I thank her for her time.

It seemed like it was all hectic and a lot of waiting, I probably spent more time waiting then actually climbing it seemed like.

So what can I say, the gym has a great selection of top rope selections and a massive lead walls, with good overhangs and a range of grades, the boulder section is small but does have grades and some ish comp stuff. I really liked the mix range of climbs , no negative aspects of the climbing factor of the gym, it’s amazing, just all cramped up with the clip n climb stuff.

It was more so the saftey aspect, staff and parents allowing children and even adults walking under belayers, especially under the lead climbs, jumping on Matt’s, and the whole atmosphere being a kids play park, with children eating on the matts and climbing up the walls, and adults doing the same, with all their belongings scattered around. And with non climbing shoes being allowed on the walls, where definitely children has been back and forth from toilets is amazing to see… alongside seeing alarming belaying from adults , yes there is a Gri Gri but can’t always trust on gear.

Overall the gym is great if it was quiet , I may visit back again and try it, as I really enjoyed the climbs and value of it. It was just crazy to see the disregard of safety from management allowing members of public to do what they did… seems like they don’t limit entry, allow everyone in, parking was a mess, bags was a mess, people eating food everywhere. And major concern is allowing beginners to sort their harness themselves without proper checks with my observation. Staff seemed stunt at the amount of people, props to them looking like a small team, I know how it is working in the same environment but it should be the management organisation of entry and bday parties, seems like a profit over safety. Just a shame, first time to leave a negative review on a...

Will not be coming back. Didnt have the best impression walking in, had someone yelling at us the moment we walked past the counter area just because we wanted to check out the children's play area for the child with us.

Worst part is that we wasted 2 hours of our time and didn't got to climb at all because I was failed a belay lesson (due to not enough confidence eventhough I did everything right), which I can understand. But instead of letting me practice some more they had us waiting for another HALF an hour, which came by and no one approached us for a second belay lesson.

And when we left, my partner told them we've been waiting and can't wait anymore and their response was a lack of understanding and a generic and non-empathetic "you're welcome to come back again".

It was a combination of a waste of time, a lack of empathy from the crew, and not even an apology. Pretty sure they know what they're doing to us too.

And yes there is a bouldering section, which I know the team will reply to say we can warm up there before rock climbing. But not everyone wants to boulder, some people came because we want to rockclimb, vertically, except in our case, we came, sat around, and left.

Anyways, good luck with everything, I'm sure with how big of an establishment this is my single one star review isn't going to knock it down.

Also, we want out money back.

Edit: When we said 'the staff', we actually meant you, however we initially did not want to point you out.

Regardless of this, we were explained by the female staff (who was being monitored by another male staff) that the only reason to be failed was: 1. You let go of the dead end, 2. You left too much slack in the rope, 3. You touched the Grigri before the climber was off the wall. None of these rules were broken, yet was failed for 'not enough confidence'. Perception of confidence isn't a fail or pass rule and will be measured differently depending on the assessor, which we note wasn't mentioned at all until the end.

My partner was slow on the certification round, as he was aware the first time he climbed was too fast and I had to ask him to slow down (which I verbally did many times). On the certification round, there was no need, as there was not too much slack, which is why not one of you pointed it out, only citing confidence.

And while I commend you for looking out for your customer's safety, which is understandably very important, I don't think it was necessary to have us waiting for 2 hours (over 2 hrs if we had waited some more just to get the belay lesson a second time) just to be able to climb. I'm sure you dont treat all your customers like this and for whatever reasonszl, we were the unfortunate ones to have to experience such service.

Ultimately, we were robbed of 2 hours of our time waiting around, paid for a service that wasn't provided and are extremely unhappy with the experience. Therefore, we want a refund for the 2 adult passes. Please...

We booked a party room for our child's birthday and had we known how outrageously busy it was going to be on the day, we wouldn't have gone ahead, as we feel it was hardly value for money due to how over crowded it was - particularly around the kid's walls and Adventureland. Surely there's a limit on how many people are allowed in the area at one time, for safety purposes?

The amount of people present on the day was incredible, there were huge crowds of people at the front desk waiting to be served (thus blocking a lot of people from being able to come and go from the building safely), then again at the harnessing area and even all the way through around the kids walls and Adventureland area. The staff were doing the best they could, but I could see it was exhausting for a lot of them too. Aside from the adult climbing walls, the place was completely overwhelmed with people.

Unfortunately there wasn't any barrier (child gate or the likes) to stop kids wandering in and out of the Adventureland area either, meaning kids could easily lose their parent/caregiver among the crowds and end up wandering straight out into the carpark or road unsupervised if they became lost and frightened - especially with it being hard for the adults to keep track of children given the nature of the playground with it's many entrances and exits and dim lighting. As a result, this meant there was a big bottleneck of parents trying to congregate by the one entry and exit into Adventureland. Not only making it more difficult to keep safe Covid distancing, but also increasingly frustrating trying to navigate from one area to the next.

I have such fond memories of regularly coming to climb here as a kid and I never ever recall it getting this busy. It's sad having to write this review because the place has so much potential - the climbing walls are awesome, the playground itself was epic, the staff were really great with the kids.... but the experience for us was...