Wanting to take a break from the cold sea caves for a day, I decided to have a lazier day showing my visitors a local canyon (and their first canyon). Although far from being a high quality canyon as far as the rest of New Zealand is concerned, it's a good couple hour jaunt which packs a good variety of beautiful terrain and up to five rappels. Even better, the trailhead was less than 5 minutes drive from the place I was renting in Dunedin!
I think it took us longer to find the drop in than it did on my first descent years ago because we ended up trying to drop in too early. Eventually we figured it out and strolled down the creek to the first waterfall. Though not the tallest, this waterfall is probably the most scenic, dropping into a nice water sculpted flute. Between having two harnesses for four of us and the pull being rather difficult, we had plenty of time to enjoy this beautiful, if cold, spot.
We soon arrived at the Cup & Saucers, an odd in-faulted sliver of Caversham Sandstone exposed amongst the Dunedin Volcanics. The hard volcanic boulders effectively sculpt the sandstone into a chain of perfect little potholes. Unfortunately this stretch is over almost as soon as it starts and it is back to volcanics. A few other short drops and downclimbs lead to the top of Nichol Falls (frontispiece), which trampers hike up to from below.
After a good soaking in Nichol Falls, we carried on down the creek which still offers a pretty spectacular narrows with wall-clinging ferns before we finally get kicked out at a weir. Despite being my second descent, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. The new canyoners seemed to have a good time as well.
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