Kaumira Canyon, Hunters Hills, Sth Canterbury

After one of Grant’s students at a SARINZ course mentioned some ‘beautiful waterfalls’ at Mt Nimrod reserve, he emailed me a photo of the drops.

I just so happened to be down that way for work in a couple of weeks so suggested we meet up and do the waterfalls for a bit of fun after work one night.

We met at the Hunters Hills under a cold grey drizzle and wondered what we were thinking. “Just a couple of 10m drops not far from a good track.. We’ll just take a couple of 25m cords.. we’ll be sweet..”

Solid bedrock looks promising...

The first little drop

An hour later we had reached the solid bedrock of the stream above the top falls. We hadn’t really expected anything else up there, but were pleasantly surprised by a handful of small obstacles that we rappelled, slid, jumped and scrambled around.

Grant enjoys a tiny slide


Scrambling down into a shallow pool

Beginning the double leap Arch waterfall

Arch Anchor

Grant had estimated the double drop fall to be about 15-20m high, but with a pair of 25m cords we were about 6m short of the bottom. Instead we rappelled to the curious arch halfway and used that as our rebelay for the bottom half. With a longer set of ropes, you’d have the chance for a rather unique rappel through an arch…

From the base of the falls we wandered a short distance to the crossing point of the Mt Nimrod Track. We weren’t expecting anything much down stream, so planned to just wander back to the cars via the watercourse as an alternative to sweating back over the hill.

We were rather surprised then, when a few minutes rockhopping later we arrived at the top of a lovely waterfall that lept into a very large deep green pool! Time was getting on, so we agreed to leave it and come back in a couple of days. I couldn’t resist going down for a look, so set a line to rap and jug back up on.

Top drop in Lower Kaumira Canyon

Returning for the lower half of the trip we were filled with excitement. The drops were all very beautiful and arrived in large deep pools. In several spots the rope could be rigged for “extra fun”, ie to access ledges to jump or rigged short so as to slide the lower half of some smooth drops.

This waterfall can be slid from where the canyoner is shown

Grant aims for the safe landing zone between the rocks and tree branches

There wasn’t much walking between drops, but there were a

nice handful of little jumps and slides into pretty pools.

Chucky sets off to Rap Slide the last major drop

The last major drop from below

A small bumpy slide to finish..

The gorge ended pretty suddenly, but we only had 15 minutes of rock hopping before reaching a 4WD track that lead back to the Carpark..

A fantastic beginners canyon, not too much water, not hard to get to, short beautiful drops and easy natural anchors..

Cross Creek, Aspiring NP

I just love this little canyon!! (four descents and counting..) Today I had another chance to take 3 new friends and one old mate down my favourite creek.

The weather was a lot warmer than yesterday in Jubilee, but we still moved through at a reasonable pace as Cross has a lot of pools, jumps and swims that sap your body heat.

Everyone seemed to have a great time in this great little canyon.

Nathalie Frost enters the Cross Canyon

Julie Burton

Mike Frost


Nathalie on rappel..

Julie leaps the first big jump (8m)

Nic takes the plunge on the second big jump

No one chose to jump the 13m leap today..

Nic (being a caver) found a cool little new

crevice to squeeze through in the lower canyon

Jubilee Canyon, Aspiring NP

This weekend I was hosting another Julie from Australia, though this one was a canyon enthusiast. Along with our new friend Nic from Dunedin, we traipsed into Haast Pass after the heavy rains to see what canyons could be done.

Surprisingly, some canyons looked very full and others rather empty, so choosing one of the latter we began the climb into Jubilee Canyon.

We got a little lost on the ascent, finding it a bit tricky to find the right spot to enter the water course. Eventually we arrived, suited up and began downstream.

First drop in Jubilee

Nic and Julie

One of the amazing pools

Although Jubilee wasn’t a continuous canyon, there were some beautiful pools and lovely waterfalls between the ‘stream walking’ The description I’d had from Alain wasn’t quite matching what we found and when a low angled series of cascades that stretched nearly 100m appeared, I thought it was possible we were actually in a new canyon.

Lots of beautiful downclimbing and scrambling

A little logjam in a horizontal bit of the streamway

Near the bottom we went around a couple of drops that looked a little nasty with logs and things jammed in rather sketchy spots.




A drop in the bottom half of the stream

Nic on the best rap that we did today

Trying hard to avoid the pothole...

It wasn’t warm that day, so we were pleased to reach the end after nearly 7hrs on the go. That evening we camped at Camerons flat and welcomed Nathalie and Mike who were to join us the next day.

Julie Burton, Nic Barth, Dan Clearwater

Mt French, Westcoast

From Kelly’s Shelter, we drove in the pre dawn through to Lake Brunner and the start of the Mt French track.

Ready to go at dawn

Initially it was pretty dark underneath the forest understory, but within an hour or so the sun began to peek over the mountains and begin to warm the air a little. The track was a little overgrown in places and climbed at a moderate gradient through stands of Rimu and granite sand pads. It took a couple of hours to reach a small knob on the ridge, where we found our first views of the foresummit of Mt French.

Above the bushline at last

Above the bushline we had amazing views, north to the Paparoas, Lake Brunner, Lake Kaniere and even Mt Cook! Not far below the broadcast mast, Julie announced that she’d pulled a muscle in her back. She wasn’t that keen to continue up, so we agreed that I’d continue quickly to the summit whilst she began descending slowly to meet up again before reaching the bushline.

The ridgeline to Mt French from the Tv transmitter

At my best pace, I continued up to the foresummit then down to traverse the ‘narrow low col’ that Pat Barrett mentioned in his route description. The col wasn’t too difficult, but finding a route up the bluff on the other side took a little careful route finding.

On top O' Mt French

At the summit 25mins from Julie’s turnaround, I was treated with one of the most amazing summit views I’ve ever enjoyed. Now I could also see deep into the heart of Arthurs Pass, the Victoria Range and the major west coast peaks. I could identify Mt’s D’Archiac, Elie de Beaumont and Whitcombe. There was not a speck of breeze and the sun shone with a delicious warmth..

'Ich bein ein baumfreiunde!'

Julie at Carew Falls

Sad not to be able to linger, I descended to meet Julie as planned and returned to the car. On the way home, we stopped in at Carew Falls to try to wash off 3 days of accumulated tramping funk. We also stopped at the Bealey Pub to see the Moa and at Castle Hill for a quick explore.

Moa hunting at the Bealey Pub

Julie explores Castle Hill

Kelly Hill, Arthurs Pass NP

The weather wasn't qutie as good as during yesterday's ascent of Mt Aicken, but the thick cloud cover didn't drop any rain on us.

Crossing a little side stream

Most of the way to Carrol Hut, Otira Valley below

We climbed steeply through some very 'Tararua' bush until we met the subalpine scrub and began to sidle our way westwards. A few views between clouds began to appear, mostly of the Otira valley and surrounding peaks.

We took about 1h45m to reach Carroll hut, and sheltered ourselves from the cool breeze whilst having a wee bite to eat.

Lunch time at Carroll Hut

Checking out the view towards the Taipo River Valley

After lunch we went on a little wander up toward Kelly Saddle and onwards to the NW for views into the Taipo watershed. We had a little Nana nap under the shelter of a few rocks before making a bee line for the summit of Kelly Hill.

Chucky working hard..

Julie at the TV mast on top of Kelly Hill

Cloud enveloped us periodically at the summit, but we were able to get some great views back toward Arthurs Pass as we descended slightly.

Descending back toward Carroll Hut

Julie found an 'Australia' shaped rock on the descent

Negotiating the steep bush track back to camp

Cheif chef Chucky