Shag Point Dec 8

We got a very early start from the Charleston Cave Base to tackle the 8 hour drive back to Dunedin and so that we could cross through Arthur's Pass before the West Coast weather bomb exploded on us. An escorted drive through a rare large fire scar at Castle Hill was an unusual occurrence for NZ. This put us passing Shag Point in early afternoon, about an hour drive from Dunedin. Lara had never been and the tide would be the ideal low so I led a detour to break up the drive. Thankfully the place had not yet been discovered and still had the same low key sleepy seaside cottage vibe as we drove through to the grass park on the seacliffs. We had the whole rocky shore platform to ourselves other than the many seals that variably objected to our presence or slept indifferently. We continued on past them to the widest part of the shore platform, with its strange and unusual shapes and textures.

Only a 10 minute drive to the north on this coast is the Moeraki Boulders, a geological wonder and very famous tourist trap of perfectly spherical sandstone concretions to greater than a meter across that are exposed among the beach sands at low tide. Here at Shag Point is a similar geological formation, except here the concretions are much larger, more variable, and still embedded in their source rock. And very few people know they are here. These ones are in various stages of decay, appearing like eggshells of giant monsters, many with their own tide pool gardens within, intricate cracks, and bright biotic colors. It was every bit as good as I remembered and we both enjoyed wandering around examining every little intricate feature and taking many photos.

At the far end of the beach two seals climbed on top of the largest concretion (shaped like a turtle, above) to put some distance between us. After we examined this last major cluster of concretions we returned the way we came and drove on to Dunedin. Once back it was time to dry and organize gear. Dunedin was also bizarrely warm, which helped. Lara and I grabbed some takeout pizza and ate on the nice slope overlooking the lower gardens, which was a nice fitting end to a nostalgic New Zealand visit.

Ōpārara Karst Dec 5-7

It is always a long drive to Karamea at the top of the West Coast but with that comes a Shangri-La-like sense of isolation. The plan was to spend a few days up in the area based out of the newly renovated caver hut and to hopefully find some new caves. The rivers on the way (Mokihinui, Little Wanganui, Karamea) were all thoroughly flooded, apparently a very intensely rainy night through here. We picked up our hut key and special permit from the DOC office. Wanting to give Lara's painfully blistered foot a bit more of a break, we decided to hold off on rough West Coast cross country tramping and instead stick to the mellow Fenian Track into Fenian Caves, which despite having a DOC track to and through them, did not seem to have been surveyed. At the carpark we saw an impressively flooded Ōpārara River, a non-stop Class II+ conveyor belt that had me tempted to pack my packraft for the return. 

The track was a nicely graded old benched mining road that made for good easy travel. It was mostly in the bush but occasionally we could catch glimpses of scary Class IV-V rapids at moderate flood stage (OK yes glad to have left my packraft behind) and a few nice cascading creeks across the narrow valley. 

We turned off the main Fenian Track to start the cave loop which immediately became rougher and muddier. At the first cave, Miner's Cave, we appreciated the nice big entrance. The stream seemed to continue for a little ways so we decided to survey it. There was a little learning curve as I learned to calibrate my new BRIC (thankfully excellently designed procedures) and to train Lara up in being lead instrument as I crudely sketched on a not-precise-enough touchscreen tablet. The going was slow but the cave was not without interest- glowworms, bulbous stalactites, a descending stream, a couple side passages, a weird rift passage in the ceiling, but strangest of all, the cave was almost completely eroded into the underlying rotten granite and not the limestone which only formed the ceiling. Weird! We surveyed almost 100m of cave including two loop closures, losing interest in continuing down the wet belly crawl that almost certainly sumped, at least at the current flow. 

After Miner's Cave we continued on to Tunnel Cave which the track goes through. In the interest of time I used the BRIC to make a backbone survey as I walked through but didn't really bother to sketch or properly survey it. The length was only about 60m but there was at least one prominent side passage that went to an additional entrance. We continued on out the other side, eventually checking out a few of the entrances to Cavern Creek Cave (swimming to explore further!), then closed our loop and returned to the car. 

The roar of the Ōpārara River was already lessened and the view of the river at the car was considerably different now that rocks poked through and the river lost about a meter in height. From here we worked our way into the Ōpārara Basin to the end of the road and packed up for the short walk into Honeycomb Hill Hut for a nice peaceful night. In the morning the first instinct was to walk a few mintues over to the Honeycomb swingbridge as the level of the Ōpārara River would determine the day's activities. The river had dropped A LOT, but still was clearly up slightly, enough that it would be reasonably packraftable, perhaps with a few scrape-y riffles but no dangerous hydraulics. With a little convincing I got Lara to agree to a packraft trip through the arches with some lidar cave prospecting detours. If anything it guaranteed to be world-class scenery. We returned to the cars, packed for the river, and then returned to the hut. We followed the well-marked track past the hut to head to the north towards Honeycomb Hill Arch, with multiple confusing crossings of a meandering stream and a couple cave mouths that were too tempting to not check out. Less ideally the track actually spat us out downstream of the arch but we could use it to access the river easily enough and paddle up to the arch. 

The arch (natural bridge, really) was sublime as always- the multi-level ledges, stylo-bedded textures, amber honey waters, all draped in bright green mosses and ferns. I could not help but make Lara paddle around in my red boat for that extra pop of color to an already dreamy landscape. Photos abounded and then we worked our way downstream. 

There were plenty of logs to avoid but the shallow pool-riffle style meant that we could get out pretty much anywhere such that nothing was difficult to deal with. The quality of paddling was perhaps a low B with the shallows and nuisances, but this was more than made up by the A++ scenery.

We were a little nervous about a couple hundred meter section of the river that was a narrow vertical-walled gorge on the lidar, but as I expected it was calm water the whole way through. Every time a little tributary joined (nearly every one from the right side of the river emerging from a cave), it was a deep blood red orange color that darkened the river as it mixed. It was a little bumpy and scrape-y (another 100 cfs would have been grand), but overall more paddleable than I expected.

Near Vilya Creek we pulled our boats ashore to check out a very promising lidar lead at the back of the limestone slab. The creek was definitely not the way to go and traversing through the bush was initially very difficult with lots of windfall until we got a lucky break intersecting a trapline track. We then made quick work to the limestone/granite contact, intersected my foamy root beer stream of interest and then followed it downstream until it inevitably would head underground. What we came upon was a beautiful classic entrance with an apron of hanging moss across its entrance. I did not see any footprints on some of the mossy slopes and my expectations were high as we followed the stream underground. A short distance on the ceiling lowered to a stooping height passage. It was starting to seem like this cave would soon sump when I spotted some directional formations growing off on some of the bulbous stalactites; directional formations meant a draft and another entrance so I continued on with a burst of optimism. Just as it seemed like we would be crawling the passage instead opened up. In front of us was a loud roar of a waterfall, a stunning sight. As we came on to it it turned out to be a beautiful 7m granite falls plunging into a subway tube with dimensions twice that. Down the tube I could see green daylight of a resurgence entrance. We worked our way down to this lower entrance. Unfortunately there were no major side passages but it was a nice enough 100m of cave. Just as we arrived at the lower entrance and I was about to suggest to Lara that we return tomorrow to survey this cave I spotted a large white tag on the wall that said "AR 102". Arrg! Instantly deflated, it turns out we had rediscovered a cave from the 1980s, the hard way, from its backside. The cave was nice and I wished I could have been the first to give it a nice map and a better name but oh well. Our consolation prize was and easy stroll down the stream to the river and then a good riverside trapping line back to our boats.

Almost immediately downstream of Vilya Creek, granite bedrock began appearing in the river. There were still some cobble riffles but now there were also a few granite ledge drops to contend with. Some were junky at this flow, others I could help Lara portage and then run myself. At one of these portages I dropped my phone into the river. After about 30 seconds of very cold fishing I was able to retrieve it. It was totally fine in its waterproof case but was instantly fogged and unfortunately meant the end of good photos.

A couple junky rapids slowed us down but we soon reached the top entrance of Ōpārara Arch (bridge), the 200+m-long stately tunnel. We worked our way down to the middle of the tunnel and then got out to scout downstream. The bottom entrance was not runnable in its current condition between log and rock sieves but looking further I decided it still would be more efficient for me to run it. So back at the boats the plan was for Lara to pack up and hike the [excellent, recently upgraded] trail back out to the road, while I portaged and paddled the final 800m down to the road bridge; from there I would quickly stash my boat, switch into running shoes, and run the 2km to the roadend to collect the car. 

I made good time, covering the 800m in less than 15 minutes despite a couple portages and an awesome closeup encounter with a majestic blue duck, king of New Zealand whitewater rivers. I got to see it effortless ride waves four times its size in a rapid, which was a definite highlight. Despite spitting rain it was a pleasant jog along the road and back to the car. Lara beat me back to the trailhead by just a few minutes so excellent timing after all. More gear sorting then we hopped in, returned to the roadend, and settled back into the hut. 

For our last half-day we decided to explore some of the karst just north of the Honeycomb special protected area, hoping that lidar would give us an edge on previous explorers. We crossed the Ōpārara River just downstream of its large swooping bend, quite near to the limestone/mudstone contact, and entered the broken limestone terrain. 

We found a few new caves including a throughtrip, but once again, mostly rediscovered Buller Caving Club finds from the 1980s (marked by the stenciled poker chips we found inside the entrances). The caves on the lower slope seemed to be mostly sediment filled and so we worked our way up the slope. As we did the going got very rough with lots of deadends in a a maze of vertical walled chasms. We killed lots of time working our way through these with less to show for the efforts than we hoped. Back on the lower slopes we came upon a cave with a neat archway at its entrance. Overall it was a frustrating lesson. Yes lidar is an invaluable tool for knowing where promising places to find caves are, but they don't tell you which ones have already been found.

We packed up and cleaned the hut a little after noon. At the carpark we detoured for a quick stroll through Box Canyon Cave then drove on to Charleston Cave Base. We had miraculously good drying sun overall and strung out a throw rope to hang everything out to dry. It took hours but by the end of it all my gear apart from some dirty clothes were dry, which was going to make packing at the end of my trip smoother.

Buller River Dec 4

We awoke to better weather than expected but still with wet tents and slightly lethargic sandflies, then ate breakfast on the holiday park's excellent riverside patio as we examined aerial imagery of the river on our phones. Even though we had thoroughly scouted the 11.5 mile section of river from Owen Tavern to the holiday park (at 45 cumec/1600 cfs) the previous day and there were only very minor features that we could anticipate well in advance (perfect mellow training run), Lara was still feeling quite anxious about getting on the water with her limited whitewater experience. We drove up the valley to the Owen Tavern campground, which was a pleasant and quiet grassy spot to set up right next to the river. We got in our packrafts and I talked her through signals and maneuvers, and we started with some ferrying and eddy catching to build some confidence. Generally the river moved nicely in a pool-riffle style with the rapids visible enough that I could boat scout and announce the best lines to take. Only once or twice did I need to get out of my boat to be completely sure of our line, something I would not have done solo. At Claybank we pulled into a small eddy that we had scouted before to demonstrate that the river was less scary (and we were more maneuverable) than when we scouted the previous day. I don't think Lara ever fully relaxed but she did quickly get the hang of it and had no real issues.

The water was beautiful blue-greens and wonderfully clear. The weather had moody clouds and the water was a pleasant temperature. The river cut through some interesting sedimentary gorge sections that were surprisingly scenic for a roadside run. Waterfalls and tributaries joined at intervals. The whitewater was engaging but very low risk with minimal hazards. The trickiest rapids were some that T-ed into corners but we soon got the hang of those. We stopped for a snack and then looked for some Miocene leaf fossils just downstream of Nuggety Creek Bridge, finding many excellent examples. Particularly neat was that some modern native plants nearby seemed to be close relatives of these 10 million year old leaves and Lara could identify some of the likely species. The following photos are an amalgam of those I took the previous afternoon when scouting and fossil hunting and on our river stop. 

From the Nuggety Creek Bridge looking towards the fossil site

We continued on after our fossil stop. Generally the river gradient was decreasing and the rapids were becoming more straightforward as we progressed. The river continued to have some nice gorge sections past the highway bridge with a couple waterfalls and some nice sculpted rocks. The minor (but most notable of the run) rapid at Mangles seemed slow to arrive but when it did it arrived quick and rather than our plan we improvised and Lara ended up running the sneak route with no issues. From here on it was a mellow float and lots of active paddling to arrive back at the holiday park. 

I quickly got out of my drysuit and left Lara to sort and dry gear in the nice sun as I walked the 800 ft up to the highway to hitch a ride. It was a perfect hitch spot with two long turns in the highway coming out of Murchison such that I was quite visible and there was a nice long turn lane and wide shoulder was I was. I had my split paddle to further illustrate the purpose of the hitch and suggest that it would not be far. Within the first 5 minutes or so a nice St Arnaud bloke stopped and gave me a ride right to the Owen Tavern (we had nice chats about the river, DOC, and the Alpine Fault on our short drive). Effortless! I grabbed the car, returned to Lara and we sorted our wet didymo gear from the rest then piled into the car. After a stop in Westport for groceries (rainy!), we drove up to the Charleston Cave Base for a dry place to stay before we ventured into the Oparara the following day. I rather enjoyed our impromptu river trip and was glad to get Lara in her packraft in some whitewater.  

Owen Massif Dec 1-3

With my last trip here back in 2006 (pre-blog!), a visit to the magical alpine karst massif of Mt Owen felt long overdue! This is one of two major alpine marble areas in New Zealand, boasting some of the longest and deepest caves in the country with its true potential only barely scratched. Additionally the maze of holes, rock outcrops, and tussock basins lend some of the most varied and interesting topography in New Zealand, making for interesting route finding and far-stretching views. Fortunately Lara was also quite keen. The plan was to take the unofficial caver's route up through the Bulmer bluffs to Bulmer Lake and to use the rock bivvy there as a base to find and examine Bohemia Cave and to cross-country up to the summit of Mt Owen. We ended up improvising on this plan (to be explained), probably for the better. 

We got an earlier start, wanting to try to get most of the 800m elevation gain done before the heat and humidity set in. We started across a mixture of forestry with blackberry brambles and dewy grass clearings until we put the farm station behind us and had some nice beech forest to walk through. We crossed and recrossed the Owens River several times, appreciating the near-baseflow that made the crossings easy. The track sneakily bypassed the Bulmer Creek confluence so it was not until we started heading uphill that I consulted my GPS and realized we had to backtrack a couple hundred meters. I was surprised and delighted that the caver's route was exceptionally well marked with blue markers with reflectors (suitable for tired cavers to travel at night), much better than it was nearly two decades ago. Despite this it was still slow going. 

About halfway up the valley we came across a tramping couple heading down. It turned out they were dropped off at the Sunrise trailhead (south side where our car was at) and they had intended to traverse across the tops to their car at Courthouse Flat (north side where we went to Blue Creek) but had got lost in the potholed karst terrain trying to get up the south face of Mt Owen and so had to return the way they came. They seemed crushed by the logistics they would now endure of likely having to walk 13km of gravel to the highway and then probably a complex hitch to get to their car. We wished them well and headed on up the track. After about 15 minutes a possibility hit me: we could offer them Lara's car to leave at the north side and then we would get to do the traverse across the tops. I wasn't thrilled to be carrying caving gear the extra distance but it did seem like a rare opportunity to do a traverse with great weather and minimal logistics, all while making a couple people's day. After considering the options, I grabbed the car fob from Lara and after listening to her full instructions of where the car was in the car and agreeing where to leave it, I dropped my pack and jogged my way down the uneven track, occasionally yelling and finally catching up with them at the creek. Long story shorter, they were ecstatic, very appreciative, and agreed to leave our car at Courthouse Flat. As I said goodbye and looked back I could see an extra spring in their step like a considerable weight had been lifted.

I rejoined Lara and we carried on, meeting a group of three cavers coming out from what was clearly a hard exploration trip, a younger generation I did not know. I can't imagine this route is ever this busy! When we rejoined the creekbed it was now dry, the water diverted into the marble plumbing. From here we got a great view of the overhanging Bulmer bluffs, imposing walls we would threads our way through with ropes, narrow ledges, and a rope ladder. This slowed us considerably as we slowly worked through obstacles and gained elevation. The ladder was thankfully in good shape and I was able to shuttle both our backpacks up one at a time. Once up the terrain rolled over into open forest but we still had 300m elevation to gain up to Bulmer Lake. The day was becoming sweaty! 

On final approach I could see the clearing through the trees and then the perfect shallow cirque lake of Bulmer Lake. It was quite low but with a stunning reflection and guarded by a duck couple. We set up at the rock biv, which like the trail, had also clearly evolved for the better to be more spacious with two sleeping areas, and rocks stacked into kitchen counters and seating. My memory failed me here as I remembered the rock being on the east side of the lake not the west side. The view was better than I remembered too. The kea-chewed foam pads left behind were also much appreciated. We organized our gear and ate a late lunch as the sweat dried and we generally recovered from the hike. Around 4pm or so we packed up our caving gear and set off to look for Bohemia Cave. Following our noses we did well to sniff out the trail and with very little effort found the entrance spewing out shocking 43 degree Fahrenheit winds.

Bulmer Lake

We explored a few of the main passages at the start of Bohemia, including the breezy belly crawl slope that eventually led down to a pitch head. Back in the entrance chamber we poked in all the holes until I was thoroughly convinced that the ladder we were expecting to find that would lead us into miles of nice walking passage cave had, contrary to what we had been told, been removed. This was later confirmed the next day when we received a text telling us as much! I saw a whole lot less of Bohemia than I had hoped for but it was nice to at least confirm where it is for a hopefully future visit. The upshot was a more relaxed evening hanging out at the rock biv and enjoying the view. 

Bohemia entrance chamber

At the cavers' Bulmer Lake rock biv

The last time I stayed here I was completely drained and exhausted at the end of a four-day Bulmer Cave exploration trip and awoke at the shelter of the rock biv to a white wonderland of snow. This time it was a shifting patch of fog localized on the lake with blue skies beyond. We packed up and set off, heading roughly for the main entrance of Bulmer Cave at the base of the prominent fault-controlled cliff band that would be the first of many obstacles on our cross-country journey. The marble slickrock platforms made for good travel. I did my best to avoid the painful acupuncture of the speargrass that dotted the tussock slopes. We had a stellar day as we traversed the complex maze of sharp blue marble and had views of endless ranges stretching out in all directions around us. Once above Bulmer's main entrance we headed roughly towards Sunrise Peak, then up its basin and a nice slabby ridge. The flowers were excellent and seemed to be at their peak, probably the best I have seen in an alpine environment in New Zealand.

Looking into the unstable maw of Bulmer's main entrance

Sunrise Peak at distant left

As we traversed, the lighting was just right such that I noticed that nearly every peak in the area was composed of recumbent isoclinal folds in the marble (like Pt 1732 seen below).

Mostly in the interest of time we eventually steered away from the wildest south slopes of Mt Owen and instead sidled around the eastern edge of Castle Basin and dropped into the head of Poverty Basin. 

Looking into Castle Basin towards Bulmer Lake

Sidling across Poverty Basin with Replica Hill beyond

We crossed the saddle between Replica Hill and Mount Owen, and then continued on through some faulted gaps in the marble (including a steep tussock clinging slot) to gain the well-trodden trail from Granity Pass Hut to Mt Owen's summit. We dropped packs and jaunted up through some more nice karst to the glacier swept plateau summit. The views south over the way we had come earlier in the day were particularly satisfying and at this distance looked hard if not impossible. 

Mt Bell on the horizon

Mt Patriarch at right distance

View south from Mt Owen over the wild landscape we traversed

Back at the packs the day was getting on but we had another half-kilometer of rillenkarren sculpted marble and flowers to traverse before we broke out onto the glaciated schist tussock flats beyond. We stopped for water at the twin tarns the trail goes between, the first drinkable water we had seen since we left Bulmer Lake.

Leaving the tarns it was mostly easy going on a trail downward through soggy tussock towards Granity Pass. The home stretch was down a neat medial moraine nicknamed "the railway embankment" that formed an interesting graded path between barren marble peaks on three sides. 

Medial moraine approaching Granity Pass

Granity Pass Hut

A couple older women greeted us as we arrived at the quite tidy modern hut. I was thrilled to take my boots off and chat away the evening while numerous wekas provided amusement. In the morning we set off in light drizzle. The narrow footpath through the glistening bizarre subalpine vegetation, moody weather, and grey crags was particularly magical.

The rest of the hike went without incident, though our knees and trekking poles worked hard with over a thousand meters of net descent from the hut. Once again it was sweaty and warm by the time we reached Courthouse Flat. Happily the car was waiting there for us without issues. All in all it was a fantastic hike through some of my favorite terrain in New Zealand, if not everywhere. We drove back out the Wangapeka a second time with a vague plan to head towards Murchison to check weather and regroup. As we drove I investigated beta on the Buller River, which sounded quite promising as a good whitewater training packraft for Lara and a potentially good thing for us to get up to the following day. We stopped and scout about a half dozen river access points along a 19 km stretch of river, deciding (me at least) that it looked worthwhile and friendly. Of particular note we stopped at the Nuggety Creek Bridge and walked along a gated road to scout the river when I spotted some leaf fossils on the ground. A quick internet search and it turned out that only 50m further down the road was an amazing site with at least a dozen different species of well-preserved Miocene leaf fossils. We couldn't help but kill an hour marveling at the many excellent fossils. Truly a very neat thing to randomly stumble upon! After more scouting we had a very tasty pizza at the Cow Shed in Murchison and then settled into the Riverside Holiday Park at the end of town that would be where we would hopefully take out the following day. We ended up running into a couple Alpine Fault students at the holiday park (that I had met a few days before at the conference in Dunedin) and had a science chat for a while poring over lidar (yes, a small country). We had primo grassy campspots right at the river's edge, only marred slightly by eager sandflies.