Haast Pass Canyoning Mar 28-29

I'm starting to lose the distinction between work and play as both seem to involve rocks and suffering to a large extent. This weekend was my first serious foray into canyoning in New Zealand. Divergent from most canyons I have done in the US, these ones are wetter, colder and slipperier. In a country with rapid uplift, previously extensive glaciation, hard rock and excessive water, there is an abundance of dark, narrow, waterfalled gorges, many of which have yet to be descended. My new found canyoning buddies and I did what is likely to be the second descent of a canyon by the name of Jubilee Creek (we probably started higher than the original group). This canyon had an abundance of awkward rappels and downclimbs on slippery rocks, but was still a great adventure as there was zero signs of humans and we had to select or make our own anchors. This canyon had about six abseils with one that we bypassed because of a particularly nasty looking log wedged in a raging waterfall right where you would go down. All told it was about 6 hours of shivering in a thick wetsuit. Not the best canyon I've done, but good company and a good adventure.

The second day we descended the classic canyon in the area, Cross Creek. It was 3 hours of bliss if you could get over how cold your extremities were. Beautiful abseils to 30m, numerous jumps to 9m into emerald green pools, several slides, giant potholes, some slot sections, kilometers of beautiful folded schist and even a natural rock bridge. It was just a consistently fun canyon. I am convinced I need to get a waterproof camera (all photos except first two are courtesy of Julie and Chucky). We scouted the water levels in the bottom of some of the nearby canyons and the other canyons look awesome. I cannot wait for a return trip. This trip was only the tip of the iceberg! Really keen to do some first descents in the future.

Wilsons Creek

Jubilee Creek

Cross Creek

OK so it was not all suffering!