Kaumira Canyon April 15

I awoke to the relative roar of birdsong. The others enjoyed waking up to see their surroundings, which reminded me of boy scout camping trips where we would often arrive and set up camp in the dark. It was a cold morning and the sun always seemed just out of reach. We had a leisurely breakfast and packed for the day. By the time we started walking up the hill we were all dripping with sweat. We reached the top of the canyon without incident and suited up. This canyon was a lot slipperier than I remembered! Perhaps it was a function of the low flow (lower than I had seen it before). Since my last visit Kaumira has been fully bolted which made things quick and easy, but took some of the fun out of it. I still really enjoyed the long abseil through the arch, which ended the first half of the canyon.

Intermission was a sunny lunch spot on the side of a hillside. I warmed rapidly as the sun baked vapor off of my wetsuit. We only had one mutiny back down the trail due to the cold and 4 of us continued on. Everyone seemed to adopt a variation on the same dance (utilizing a shoulder strengthening exercise) to keep warm. We said goodbye to the sun at the top of the next abseil (8m jump in my case). This is probably my favorite part of the canyon- two back to back waterfalls with two spectacular plunge pools at their bases.

        Goodbye sun!

We continued on past a few more jumps and downclimbs to the last short abseil. A short walk down the stream brought us to the trail back to the car where Kat was already basking in the sun. Thankfully much of my gear dried as we had a leisurely picnic lunch before heading back to Dunedin. It sounded like everyone had a great time despite being cold! I had an enjoyable time, even after 2.5 trips down this canyon. It is a fun canyon for being not too far away. I think canyoning season is over though!

Thanks to Aaron, Kat, Nina and James.