Lawyers Head Jan 13

Lawyers Head. I have had my eye on it a while. Back in 2010 I got the idea in my head that it might be a very enjoyable trip to try to traverse the rocky headlands from Aramoana to Doctors Point. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it; it was just the right combination of climbing, jumping, swimming and dodging waves. I got to see parts of the coast rarely seen by others. The sea life was fantastic and so was the geology. After that trip I got it in my head that I wanted to traverse the entire Dunedin coast- that is from Blackhead to the south to Waikouaiti in the north. The subsequent kayaking and coastineering trips (including several I did solo) have been full of adventure, discovery and wonder. They were also a way of systematically searching the whole coast for sea caves. 

Now here in 2013 the only stretch of coast that remained was Lawyers Head, the short headland separating St Kilda and Tomahamk beaches. The headland has a unfortunate stigma to it in that it was formerly the sewage outflow for Dunedin, and has been associated with the occasional suicide. While with all the other trips I just went for it, with this one I had made two scouting trips just to be sure. All looked good so I waited for the next low swell when I could persuade someone to join.

I decided the best approach would be from the Tomahawk side. The tide was low and the sea looked good so we headed down between the sand dunes to the beach. Much of this first part of the headland had good ledges to traverse on but occasionally these gave way to steep rock climbing moves or a plop into the water between waves if the rock looked suspect. We saw across an open cove, then continued traversing. A neat feature was a two entrance sea cave that we swam and waded through then regained the rocks.

Travel was then easy until we got to the point of the headland itself. This looked tricky. Wave funneled into a depression and lapped up high against the kelp coated rock we were aiming to cross. We waited for a few minutes to study the pattern of the waves and to find the set waves we wished to avoid. I went first. It looked like we could easily get around the point before we had to start to swim so I signaled Lara to follow. Every hold we used across this stretch was biological. Kelp foot and handholds, although slippery, were effective and strong. Now we were staring at an obvious swim. It was over 100m to where we needed to get but it looked like there was a rock we could climb on for a breather about halfway. We both jumped in and swam at the same time. I instantly became envious of Lara's lifejacket and surf booties. I had heavy clog-like canyoning shoes that seemed to weigh down every kick I made. I was pretty short of breath by the time I reached the halfway rock and thankful for a few minutes rest.

We swam the second part to reach a flat-topped island where we carefully timed the waves to climb up through the net of kelp. Only a 15m swim remained between a surgy gut. We were fortunate the conditions were so calm. I went first and Lara followed. A continuous rock and bird-covered shore platform took us the rest of the way to the beach. We walked the short 10 minute walk through the golf course back to the car. The whole trip only took about an hour, but it was a very satisfying adventure with pretty good variety of coast in such a shot distance. It was also the end of a project three years in the making! Over 100 kilometers of coastline. I enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks to Lara for the company.

Zig Zag Creek Jan 8

For the last good day of weather at Haast Pass, Chucky, Pip, Joe and I set our sights on Zig Zag Creek, which was highly recommended to me as one of NZ's "must do" canyons. I was just excited to do something new in Haast Pass and not something I had been down 4 times already. We had a leisurely start setting off from Cameron Flat but we did not have far to go. The bushwhack to the top of Zig Zag was pretty thick and scrubby, part of the hazard with approaching seldom-visited canyons. We managed to find a very steep but manageable way into the canyon above its confluence, and then suited up.

The fun began right at the confluence with a graceful free-hanging abseil off of a tree. The drop ended at the side of a 15m abseil into a beautiful blue-green swimming pool. Next frothy whitewater tumbled over the edge of a fanning waterfall. I scouted so we could determine the best anchor to be able to pull the rope free. In the end the best option was a large log jammed vertically in the middle of the creek as we could get down two waterfalls from this anchor. Next was a very shallow jump, followed by a nice narrow section that ended at a c. 60m fanning waterfall over bedrock slabs.

After some more horizontal travel we reached a mellow 15m cascading waterfall. We then downclimbed around a frothy pothole and crossed over the top of a waterfall to find an easier dry bypass to this falls. Later I realized this falls could be one of the boldest slides in NZ. At its base was a large deep pool that spilled over an incredible horizon line. This was a BIG waterfall coming up! We staggered the team and waited to pull the rope out of this hanging pool, making sure we had an escape in case we couldn't safely get out of the pool to find a suitable anchor. Joe rigged a suitable tree and it was decided I would go first (the waterfall is the frontispiece).

        Epic slide???

The view from the top of this falls was pure intimidation. It was a 60m falls followed immediately by another 40m falls, but because I could not see straight down through the falls the ground appeared 200m below me. Below was billowing free-falling white water which I saw no way of avoid. Being the first one down meant I had the rope in a bag at my side to manage. If the rope was too short I would probably have to deal with it in the middle of the waterfall which would be unpleasant and potentially dangerous. I started down easily enough, but quickly realized I would have to enter the waterfall. The force was staggering! I braced with my brake hand and tried to find a position where the waterfall would not try to flip me upside down. Because I was constantly having to find the rope out of the bag, my concentration was on full alert. I gave up trying to resist the waterfall and took a hunched over fetal position as I slid down the bedrock chute of the falls. I was completely surrounded by water and because of its strength could only look down. The water sped in thick gushing drops continuously around me. The effect was mesmerizingly beautiful and is hard to describe. It was a bit like the warp speed streaking star effect in Star Wars, only in reverse, shooting away from me. For over 20m this was my view, enveloped in a small pod of terrifying powerful water with no end in sight. Just when I was convinced the rope wasn't long enough I could see the pool below. Once unhooked from the rope I swam half drowned across a pool with pulsing waves shooting out from the base of the falls. Whoa that was intense I thought. It was the perfect combination of intimidation, adrenaline and beauty which I crave. I had a quick check to make sure there was an anchor for the next drop, then yelled up at the top of my lungs and signaled for the next person to follow.

Chucky came down next no problem. But also felt pretty intimidated and was not very comfortable with Pip and Joe following. He tried to explain to them via charades that they should find another anchor that would bypass the force of the water. While I looked at him though I was a bit worried they would interpret his gestures as meaning the rope was cut or the next anchor was gone and that they should bail. My spirit sunk a little bit as I saw them pull up the rope. Here we were at this small hanging pool with hardly any escape from the cold spray of the waterfall, and no rope. We waited an hour, by the end of which I was getting a bit shivery. The rope then appeared again and Pip came down on abseil. No problem- she handled it like a pro and Joe after her as well. It all felt a bit silly waiting for that.

        The last two spectacular falls

We rigged the last waterfall and were home free. Just a short scramble back down to the river and then back up to the car. It was a very nice canyon and that second to last waterfall would have made the trip in itself. I have never been on such a wet, powerful and intimidating waterfall abseil before. A few well placed...anchors...on some of the drops would certainly make this one of the best Haast canyons. We still had plans for another week and a half of canyoning but the weather forecast was atrocious so we hung out in the rain in Wanaka for a day, then I decided I had to call it, and head back to Dunedin. Thanks to the team for a great trip.

Cross & Robinson Creeks Jan 7

We camped the night just above the banks of the very swollen Clutha River at Albert Town, hoping the rivers would be lower near Haast Pass. There were now twelve of us, all keen to get in some canyons! We drove for Haast Pass and were pleasantly delighted with the water levels - just the high side of normal flow - too high to think about doing a new canyon but just right for old favorites like Cross and Robinson.

We started with Cross Creek. Perhaps NZ's most classic canyon, virtually the whole canyon can be jumped or slide apart from one or two abseils. The jumps are all straightforward with clear drops and deep, deep pools. The canyon is pure fun and was just right for a social trip with a big group. Despite being my fourth time in the canyon, I still had a great time and found a couple new things to discover.

It was really neat to go canyoning with such a good group of diverse canyoners. The Frenchies quickly set themselves out as the bold and daring type. I marveled at their confidence in running slides on slippery surfaces. Seeing everyone's jumping styles was also quite neat. Although we were a large group we were also a confident and fast one and we reached the culvert under the road before I knew it.

After rinsing and cleaning gear for the invasive algae Didymo, Round 2: Robinson Creek. Despite being a short canyon, Robinson has some very impressive features including a big jump into a whirlpool, log jams, and "the cavern." Here a beautiful 22m abseil plunges in a dark and subterranean corner of the canyon. Mist billows out from the base of the waterfall. This cavern is definitely what sets the canyon apart in my mind. Beyond it are a couple awkward drops including one down a log jam.

        The cavern abseil

We stayed the night at Cameron Flat, excited to move on to something a bit bigger tomorrow. A highlight was watching a ridiculous film some of the Frenchies had made. It had some silly story that led up to a group of canyoners wearing ridiculous costumes running, sliding and jumping as fast as they could down the canyon to catch a bad guy. It was fantastic.

It is worth noting that less than a week later a major storm hit the area and completely stuffed Cross Creek. Now logs and debris fill many of the pools and for now at least the canyon is in poor shape. Apparently that has not happened since 1996. I feel fortunate to have had one last go before it turned. WHo can say how long it will take to recover.

Red Tarns Ditch Jan 6

This is one of those cases were the story is more impressive than the trip. I got up at the ungodly hour of 4:30am so that I could drive to Mt Cook to meet up with Chucky and the rest of the South Island canyoning crew. We had plans to do Sawyers Stream but I knew by the time I hit the Waitaki Valley that that was not going to happen. All of the dams on the Waitaki were flooding wall to wall over the top of the dams in an frothy white Niagara Falls with spray forming a low 200m high cloud. Regardless it was a warm sunny morning by the time I reached Mt Cook and I knew the gang would be keen to do something. I could see Sawyers Stream as I drove past- we were definitely not going in there today! When I arrived Richard was holding down the camp while the others were scouting a potential canyon (a ditch that is usually only a trickle).

The others returned and said that Red Tarns looked like it was probably a canyon and they could definitely see several waterfalls at the very bottom of the stream. All eight of us geared up for a first descent. Bolts, drills, slings, wetsuits, 200m of rope...this canyon was never going to know what hit it!

We went up the steep Red Tarns trail single-file like some sheep. After ten minutes of walking we crossed a small trickle and I bent down to get a drink of water. Someone joked that they hoped this wasn't our canyon and we all had a good laugh after we headed further up the hill. After another 10 minutes of walking it became obvious- that trickle was our "canyon" and we would not find anything else around. We walked back down the track and unenthusiastically bushwhacked along the creek. I got excited when I saw a small patch of actual bedrock. Eventually we reached a 10 m waterfall.

While everyone else suited up and began rigging the drop I traversed to the side and found a way to climb into the canyon a couple waterfalls below. I downclimbed all the other waterfalls to where I could see the end of the canyon and then climbed back up to the start with the others. Basically the whole canyon could be downclimbed. Trying to make the most of the absurd situation I went through the whole canyon in boxers. Going through the waterfalls was freezing but I warmed quickly once I was out of them. The best abseil was actually in the tributary creek so we found a place to climb out of the canyon and abseil back in. Then because I could, I climbed back up to retrieve the anchor and carefully climb back down. Three more downclimbs and we were out of the canyon. What shenanigans!

Then with nothing better to do we decided to walk up Sawyers Stream to the base of the canyon. Getting to the base required getting very wet and climbing through a waterfall so again I stripped down to boxers and climbed up to get photos and videos to show the others. Very impressive. It was not so much a canyon at the moment as one continuous multi-tiered waterfall. Between this trip and a previous one I have now done the full round trip of Sawyer Canyon apart from the 200m of actual canyon! Twice unlucky- bummer. Out of options in the Mt Cook area, we decided to drive on to Wanaka hoping the water levels were more reasonable there.

        Sawyers Stream. There's a canyon somewhere under all that water!

Simply Sumpless Dec 30

After spending so much time based out of the caving hut, I figured we should probably fit in some more caving before we took off! With getting Sara back to Christchurch on the 2nd, this would unfortunately be our last adventure of the road trip. I was keen for a quick cave trip into the Simply Sumpless entrance of the Riwaka cave system where I had been once before. This cave system drains a sizable chunk of Takaka Hill including the Middle Earth-Greenlink-Swiss Maid cave system. Despite a hydrologic connection, the link between these two systems remains an important and so far elusive goal for a small group of cavers. If connected, it would become one of New Zealand's most important throughtrips.

So far the Riwaka only has two known entrances. It was first explored by diving the Riwaka Resurgence where the Riwaka River pours fully formed out the base of Takaka Hill. Despite the dive at the entrance, there is well over a kilometer of very nice passage beyond. A local caver plotted up the cave diver's map and scrambled up the hillside to where he reckoned the cave was closest to the surface. Sure enough he found a small hole emitting a strong blast of cool air. Just like that the first couple sumps were bypassed and the cave was open to lesser breeds of cavers.

The Simply Sumpless entrance series itself is not very pleasant- loose rocks, awkward downclimbs, tight squeezes. I let Sara use my cave suit which meant I had to be particularly careful not to scratch or bruise myself. It seems to take ages what is really only about 50m! But then we turned a corner and saw a great dark void with the sound of a river beyond and it is all worth it. This enormous 25 m wide collapse chamber is still just the beginning. We checked out some of the nice flowstone formations before following the main passage up a large boulder scree slope. Beyond the passage forks, both sides forked with rockfall. I did not bring a map on my last trip and so spent a considerable amount of time poking through precarious rockfall squeezes looking for the way one. With map in hand I found the way on after maybe only 10 minutes as Sara snacked. The trip was to go up, not down as I had tried before. The passage opens up again. We followed the red tape paths to a nice grotto of cream-colored formations.

Down a scree slope and back up another we emerged into the largest chamber yet. Here I attempted to take a few photos to show the scale of the place. Very impressive! I briefly headed down the Coffin Slot to scout the continuation of the passage but could tell Sara had enough. Another time, someday.

 

I put Sara in charge of finding our way out. It might of taken a bit longer and there were a few contemplative pauses, but she managed to navigate us back to the entrance without much trouble.

Blue Creek Dec 29

Miraculously, the streak of good weather sounded like it would hold for another couple days so I was really keen to check out Blue Creek on the north side of the Mt Owen massif. This canyon has one of the rare distinctions of being one of New Zealand's few dry slot canyons. The canyon is carved in marble. In normal flow the creek disappears underground above the canyon and emerges at Blue Creek Resurgence just below. This resurgence drains a significant portion of the Mt Owen area (>20 km2), so when it rains and pours and the water becomes too much for the cave system to handle, it floods spectacularly down Blue Creek canyon. Fresh logs and old bolts (now inaccessibly high up the walls of the canyon) are testament to the punctuated activity of the canyon. The lack of water (apart from two pools) means the canyon can be comfortably done without a wetsuit. It also means the smooth, algae-coated, water-sculpted rocks are incredibly slippery!

We found the access trail easily enough thanks to some good directions and made it to the start of the canyon in good time. Certainly one of the shorter approaches for a NZ canyon! The fun began right away. The canyon has lots of downclimbing and depending on skill and confidence many things some would consider a rappel can be downclimbed with care. Nevertheless the rocks were slippery so we treaded with care. I knew the canyon's two longest abseils were 15m and 18m (and a dozen of about 10m or less) so rather than take my longest rope I opted to take my 22m rope and get creative with my pull cord. With care I was able to tie on webbing as a pull cord (photo above). It worked like a charm but the webbing was much more prone to tangling and knotting than rope so I certainly wouldn't want to use it if water was around.

Almost from start to finish the canyon is a true slot. We passed through a beautiful section with particularly sculpted dry waterfalls and fluted walls. The walls were greater than 20-40m high for much of the length. Rather than just a dull black, the canyon walls were lined with ferns, moss and other foliage which transmitted light and gave the canyon a green glow.

Many of the abseils had false floors. This happens when sediment and other debris gets trapped behind wedged logs or rocks and builds up the floor of the canyon to make a drop. We saw several places where out of reach bolts indicated places where false floors had collapsed. Many of the old bolts we used led to awkward abseils. For a change of roles I let Sara rig several of the drops.

When we got to the first waist deep pool at the base of a drop I heroically tried to give Sara a guided abseil to avoid the pool (I was partially successful). I gave her a piggyback ride across the second waist deep pool to spare her the dead creature-brewed freezing water. Sara was getting cold, and admittedly I was too after the wades, so we carried on at a steady pace.

Something like 16 abseils later we exited the canyon and scrambled down past Blue Creek Resurgence. From here we had a cruisy walk back on a good quality track which past several interesting mining relicts. Really glad I got to see this canyon.

Wairoa River Dec 28

When asking a Nelson caver for advice on cool things to do in the area, kayaking the Wairoa River was right at the top of his list. The river is one of several tidally-influenced rivers that drain into the Whanganui Inlet. It was therefore imperative that we go at high tide to avoid paddling through mud. It was a dreary, drizzly day, but at least the weather was offset by a cheery elderly couple that wanted to hear all about what we were up to as we readied the kayak. We paddled up the wide mouth of the Wairoa inlet until it gradually narrowed down to the normal width of a river valley. The bush we past was beautiful and appeared completely pristine. Tree ferns, kiekie, nikau palms. Ratas were in full bloom, painting the green hillsides with red splashes.

After a long straight stretch, we turned a corner and continued our exploration, not quite sure what the river was about to do. During one heavy fall of rain we ducked under an overhanging tree which served perfectly as umbrella, and watched the drops bounce of the tannin-stained waters. Eventually the river narrowed down to 5m wide and the river turned a rich tannin brown. We were now out of the realm of tidal influence.

The trees now stretched over the river, forming a tunnel to dissipate the rain drops. We continued to where there was a log jam across the whole river. We called it good and began our paddle back. We found a shallow spot in the middle of the river where at least a dozen large eels congregated. We spent several minutes searching out the biggest ones and Sara carefully took some underwater photos. We had paddled about 4 km up the river which made for a nice relaxing round trip. It was a wonderfully peaceful place.

Thanks to Richard for another great trip with his kayak.