Another scene that I really hated, was the scene with all the giant bugs at the bottom of that cliff area. There was NO reason to have that scene in the movie, other than "let's see how many giant monsters we can fit in this film!!!" and "let's have some more really cool death scenes!!!" Jackson just wanted that scene to show off his special effects. It did nothing to help the story. The Captain and the actor guy still could have come back and rescued them, simply by dropping a rope or vine down the edge for them to climb up. All important, plot progressing moments in that scene, easily could have been done without the bugs, and again, it would have made the pacing of the film much better. The army of giant bugs was just ridiculous.
This was an homage to the lost "spider pit" sequence from the original 1933 "Kong", which is sort of the Holy Grail of deleted scene to movie enthusiasts. There is evidence that it exists, such as pieces of the original script and old photographs, but the actual sequence has never been found. So PJ, for his remake, decided to put it back in. So, for us "Kong" nuts, that scene was quite a treat.