Luxmore Oct 15-16

Looking up from Te Anau we could see a fair amount of snow above bushline. I was a bit disorganized for this one- the possibility of snow did not even cross my mind. The latest weather forecast was even worse than anticipated. Deliberating, we decided we had come this far and might as well go for it. At least Saturday should be nice and we could retreat early if we have to.

After an hour skirting Lake Te Anau, the track steadily climbed as darkness set on. We had a hasty dinner overlooking the lights of Te Anau far below before carrying on. Eventually we gained bushline where we were presented with a calm night and a clear ceiling of stars. The remaining 2km ridge walk to the hut made the tramp worth it as the small moon cast just enough light to walk by while still allowing much of the night sky to be seen. I even saw a few shooting stars. I could also see that a good portion of the karst field was still covered in snow. The wind settled in overnight, whistling off the corners of the hut.

After a leisurely brekkie, we strolled down the boardwalk and within 5 minutes were at Luxmore Cave. Rather easily we found the entrance to Big Cave and once the entrance was GPS-ed, we suited up, clambered down the patch of snow and went in. Almost immediately a low squeeze forces you to hover centimeters above the snowmelt streamway. Once past, the going is comparatively easy as we stooped and climbed our way down the streamway past some rather nice formations.





We easily found some of the caves nearby, and shimmied down the narrow rift of White Exit. Past several squeezes and up-and-over climbs to bypass formation chokes, the main streamway seemed to become too small to follow so we had a look at 2 nicely decorated side passages, hoping to find the supposed link to Luxmore Cave so we did not have to go back through the horrible squeezes and up the narrow climbs with gravity against us. Once we had thoroughly exhausted the side passage options, I had one last look downstream. This time I noticed a gap in the ceiling through which we could climb. Past this the passage became profusely decorated (although somewhat muddied by the careless). A spacious passage then brought us to a junction with a much larger stream, which we knew was the Luxmore stream. I had a quick run down the several hundred meters of pleasant passage before running back up and following the main stream out to the Luxmore entrance. We then explored the rest of the karst field, not having a great deal of luck positively identifying caves as most were either covered in melting knee-deep snow or nearly so, such that they were unsafe to enter. I GPS-ed a few more entrances to be identified at a later time. I will have to do a longer trip to the area on a sunny day when I am more willing to get wet.



We packed up and headed back down the mountain (staying longer would have meant less enjoyable weather). Strong winds propelled us across the ridge. The limestone bluffs the trail traverses were a great sight in daylight. Loud waves were lapping the shore of the lake. I had minor blister damage from hiking up and back in my Crocs. A feast of pizza was had in town. A marathon drive found us back in Dunedin by 1AM.