A pleasant couple hour jaunt down a local creek about 5-10 minutes drive from Uni. The bottom of the creek has a short track to a waterfall and a section of vertical canyon walls. Although the catchment is too small to make a proper canyon, it seemed promising enough to make a look worthwhile. Recent rains meant the creek was running high, and evidence of recent floods was prevalent. We walked the track up the hill almost to the Pineapple Track and then bashed our way down to the creek. Five minutes of creek walking found us at the top of a respectable drop- it seemed like we entered the creek at just about the right place and I was instantly glad to have made the intelligent last minute decision to bring a wetsuit. This first rappel was about 14m- a nice fanning waterfall with a carved bedrock chute to the side.
Continuing on we came to a nice sculpted bedrock section with over a dozen pothole pools and small cascades. The so-called Cup & Saucers. It was very reminiscent of 7 Falls back in Santa Barbara and a very pretty spot. My low-light untripod-ed shots do not do it justice.
Next came a nice 3m waterfall into a deep pool. Open streambed then another short narrows section with a 3.5m waterfall. A 2m waterfall downclimb then some more streambed found us at the top of Nicols Falls (16m).
Due to the "high" flow, the water was actually jetting out from the cliff which meant we got wetter on the abseil. We then walked down the fern and glowworm lined walls of the last narrows before regaining the trail at the weir. We found good anchors at every drop and clean pulls. It was a nice couple hours out. A quick scout on Google Earth and topo maps suggests the next creek up, Morrisons Burn, might be worth a go as well.
Thanks to Lara.
