Cross Ck Three

Canyon Crew: Cedric, Jodi, Mack and Chucky

After relentlessly telling my friend Jodi how wonderful canyoning was, she finally caved in to the pressure and booked a trip down from Jafa land to give it a try.

With Mack from work and visiting French Canyoner Cedric, our crew of four met up in Wanaka on friday night, ready for Cross creek on Saturday.

Though levels were down just a little from 'optimum fun' we still had plenty of smiles through the trip. Wearing various assortments of borrowed and rental neoprene, my canyon mates were a little cold at times, but all toughed it out well. (think the warmth from continuous smiling helps)

Despite being the third trip through, I still had a great time in the canyon. Truely a classic Kiwi Canyon.

Jodi in upper Cross

Cedric enjoys a downclimb

Mack perfecting his 'Blue Steel'

Showing French style on the 8m jump

While Jodi shows how Kiwi's Canyon...

Doubtful River Fishing, Lewis Pass

Made the most of a perfect weather day to take the fly rod for a stroll in Lewis Pass National Reserve.

The Doubtful river was beautiful, clear and low. Durin the day, I saw about a dozen rather large Brown trout, trying unsucessfully to stalk and fool them into eating my fly. Though I didnt hook any, I did get better at spotting the fish, maneuvering to a casting position and dropping the fly in just the right spot.

I tried Nymphs, drys, even pulled out the spinning rod to wave a black and gold toby past thier noses.. Simply weren't hungry.. But they were spooky and on several occaisons during the stalk i'd grind rocks underfoot or flash my fly rod in the sun and they were off...

The moderate breeze did make casting much trickier, but at the end of the day coming home with no fish didn't matter.. the amazing scenery and challenging fish made for a great day.

Confluence of Doubtful and Lewis Rivers

Having a break on the Doubtful River

Mt Herbert Walkway

After weekend trip to packhorse hut and a little look at the map, I hatched the idea to find a suitably crazy buddy to run from Gebbies pass to Diamond Harbour via Mt Bradley and Mt Herbert (the highest point on Banks Peninsula). Steph came to mind as the most suitable (crazy) but she was working on the thursday evening earmarked for the trip.

Found an equally crazy buddy in Murray, who jumped at the chance to make the run.

The weather was simply perfect as we dropped off cars at Gebbies pass and shuffled ourway upwards. Despite leaving the cars after 6pm, it was still very warm when we popped out from the forestry onto the tussock slopes beneath Packhorse hut.

Murray high above the Kaituna Valley

Above packhorse hut the tracks relentless switchbacks beat us down to a walking pace and we stopped to 'admire the view' on several occaisons. All of Lake Ellesmere as well as a hint of Akaroa was visible.

Once we began sidling Mt Bradley, we encountered a sustained section of gorse that was very unpleasant to go through. The track was still there, but there was no way you could avoid being stuck. Better than going straight through the gorse, but not by a lot..

Gorse!

Once past the shoulder of Mt Bradley we emerged from the gorse and were able to see back towards Lyttleton Harbour and began admiring the tiny looking port hills from an unusual angle.

Chucky enjoys the view (and is glad to be done with the gorse)

We paused at the day shelter for a quick bite, sharing our rest spot with dozens of butterflies and a setting sun.

Mt Herbert Walkway Day shelter

The final grind up to the Summit of Mt Herbert wasn't too bad, but we were relieved to have finished the 900m uphill for the day..

Chucky on the summit of Mt Herbert, 920m

All that remained was to enjoy the dusk lightshow as we hopped down the farm track to Diamond harbour, arriving at our cars shortly after dusk.

Murray pauses to look over Lyttleton

Run Stats
16km
900m climb, 1000m descent
3h15 including stops

Geocaching Rapaki

Beneath building thunderheads Geoff, Sarah and I strolled up the Valley Track in search of a few Geocaches.

Manage to find 3 caches, Ttractive Track GC1JZGE, Post a Cache GC1951A and Mountain Goats Delight GC4A38.

That afternoon Steph cycled by and convinced me to join her on a ride to Ferrymead then up into the Port Hills.

We arrived at the summit road just as the thunder lightning began.. We beat a hasty retreat, but still got pummelled by hailstones, torrential rain and surface flooding.. Just a little exciting on our mountain bikes!!

Ttractive Track Geocache

Thunderheads brewing..

Post a Cache geocache

Getting rained on at Rapaki

Packhorse Hut, Banks Peninsula

Weather forecast wasn't looking that flash for the mountains, so went for a stroll up the Kaituna Valley to Packhorse hut in Banks Peninsula.

About 1hr worth of uphil over farmland to the lovely little brick hut and great views over to Lyttleton, Lake Ellesmere and the Port Hills.

Was a little windy so we took a quick look at the 'Remarkable Dykes' rock formations before scuttling back to Chch and onward to a little indoor rock climbing.

Wandering up the Kaituna Valley

Looking Back to Lyttleton Harbour

Sophie outside Packhorse Hut

Brass Monkey Biv, Lewis Pass National Reserve

The final adventure for Christmas leave.

The weather forecast promised us a clearance by midday saturday and perfect weather for sunday. Armed with this wx window, we planned a trip into Brass Monkey Bivvy. By taking a leisurely start to the day and hiking up through the bush of the Rough Creek track, we figured we'd emerge on the tops just as the clearance came through. The second day was a long one along the tops to take full advantage of the great weather.

I dropped Ira and our packs off at Rough creek then drove back to the Lewis Pass summit to park the car. I then rode my mountain bike back downhill to start the walk.

It was threatening to clear as we began up Rough ck, but soon the rain returned. We ate lunch not far up river, under an overturned log that gave a little shelter from the rain. The track had seen a reasonable amount of storm damage, but there were enough little orange triangles to make following it straight forward.

We made the bushline in 1:40hr, a good slice cut off the 2:30hr track time. Under cloudy skies and passing low vis, we took a direct compass bearing for the main ridge that we'd gain to reach Brass Monkey Biv.

Ira enroute to the ridge top

Once properly on the tops, the cold wind had us pausing to recalibrate our clothing choices. Rugged up in storm gear, we began carefully onanother compass bearing along the very slippery snow grass ridge.

Windy, cold and slippery; great fun on the tops.

As we progressed, the cloud lifted slightly, allowing us good views of our intended route. Several intimidating rocky buttresses guarded the route onwards. On a pleasant day, they would have made an interesting and fun challenge, but today with high winds and extremely slick underfoot conditions, it would be foolhardy at best to attempt.

We picked an alternative route, sidling and crossign ridges low on the northern side of the main ridge. The route was reasonably straightforward apart from the numerous loose scree chutes we had to cross.

Crossing endless scree's

The orange dogbox bivvy was a welcome sight at the end of a solid day. We sat in the biv, eating dinner and chatting whilst the rain returned outside..

Snug as a bug in a brass monkey bivvy



Cheesey-Tuna Pasta goodness :)

Chucky 'spreads out' on the top bunk


The 'Brass Monkey'



In the morning, we'd hoped to wake to a perfect day as promised. But alas, the same rain, wind and low vis continued to lash the tops. A plan was hatched to exit down One mile creek.




Ready to run away bravely


We followed the outlet of the bivvy tarn north and
descended easy beech forest to the valley floor.

The creek was quite rough going, with lots of tree fall and pools to negotiate. I managed to go for a swim and smash my knee into a submerged rock in the process.

Impromptu Canyoning

We weren't moving very quickly, so opted to climb out on the true right and sidle via the bush at about 800m. The going alternated between fast and very slow, but we were very reluctant to drop down back into the stream, given our look at it higher up. The contour lines looked rather close together; the last thing we needed was to discover a canyon

A magnificent speciment of Bracket Fungus


Finally back to the bed of One mile stream

After a bit of a mini epic bush bash, we finally made it back to the stream, very glad indeed to be back on flatish ground again.

Once at the road, our final task was to hitch a ride back to the car, which took about an hour of thumbing before it was achieved.

We basked in the sun in Culverden and ate an unhealthy serving of fish and chips.. Though I think we deserved our indulgence..

Twin Creek, Arthurs Pass NP

Time for a bit of Wheetbix canyoning..

The weather was a little iffy when we arrived at the car park. There had been heavy rain only 12 hours previously and the skies still looked grey and foreboding. Where there had been a mere trickle two days ago when we had checked the water levels now ran a significant flow. The bottom waterfall was cranking, but we figured we'd go have a look anyway.

It took 45mins to climb as high as the entry point and then more than an hour to scout around, find the entrance, absiel in, find the real entrance and arrive in the canyon.

Exploring upstream of the first bolted pitch

Anchor Station inspection

The canyon had been commercially guided many years ago, so all the drops had been previously bolted. We inspected all the bolt stations and all but one were completely solid, with two 12mm expansion bolts. The one rouge station had a little movement in one bolt, but the other was solid.

The first drop was the largest at 50m

First drop was the largest, at 50m, then the other drops hovered between 15 and 30m. At several spots you could escape out some rather steep tussock/scrub banks, so the canyon was not completely committing.

Downcanyon of the first drop

Ira tries to avoid a pummelling


Today there was a fair bit of water flowing and we made use of rappel guides on two drops to make life a little safer and more pleasant for the second rappeller.

Chucky on Guided Rappel

During the descent we had wonderful views accross

the valley to the Otira Face of Rolleston.

Ira and Chucky exit the canyon

We escaped on the true right before the final large drop and traipsed our way back to the car, satisfied with a good day out.

Trying an experimental shoe drying method..