Port Hills Geocache

Put the headtorches on and wandered up the farm track toward's Mt Vernon and found a couple of cache's on the way.

It was Jodie's first time Geocaching, so she was in charge of the GPS, resulting in some straight lines across paddocks and walking in circles, but we found 'slog' and 'loopy Llama' none the less.

Nice warm, still night..

Jodie finds her first cache "Slog"

Finding "Loopy Llama"

Two tired Flatmates..

Ryde Falls, Mt Oxford

I'd spied the falls on a previous tramping trip and thought they might be worth the effort to come back and canyon through.

Murray Cullen joined me for the day and was very pleasant and interesting company. Thankfully, we had plenty to talk about during the slightly tedious approach. 1.5hrs of easy well graded track brought us to the base of Ryde Falls.

Handy hints..

We ascended the scramble track on the true left to get in above the canyon and got suited up. From previous recce's, there didn't look to be a lot in the way of natural anchor options, so with only a hand drill, we took a bunch of short cords and fixed all the drops so we could ascend our way out of a no anchor situation.

Murray enters the gorge

Thankfully there were sufficient natural anchors in the form of trees and flood debris to descend all 6 drops without fuss. As expected, the canyon only took about 30-40 mins, even on the first descent, so we climbed back up to make another two trips through.

R2, that can be slid/jumped with a push away from the rock halfway down

Despite being rather short, it was rather pretty, with some lovely pools and enclosed passages. With a few bolts in the right places, you could have lots of fun with the light flow, but we were forced to rap where the anchors allowed and missed out going straight through the flow of the big drop.

Murray on R3, which has a clear line down 3 drops,
(15, 2 and 8m) giving about a 35m rap

Sadly this one ain't a slide.. just too shallow

Having done 3 laps and clocked up 18 pitches, we felt that we'd had a worthwhile amount of canyoning for our walking. Still, this would be an ideal beginners canyon were it 10mins from Road access...

Benmore Hut, Korowai/Torlesse Tussocklands Park

My flatmate Jodie was the only keen bean who was up for an adventure this weekend. After scanning the guidebooks for some inspiration, I settled on a trip to Benmore Hut in the Korowai/Torless Tussocklands Park.

The original plan was to use two cars and come over Ben More from the Lake Lyndon Rd, but in the end we just used the one car and came in from Benmore station.

30 mins on a 4wd track to the start of 13 Mile Bush

There was a spur just on the park side of the farm/public land boundary and this was where I was aiming for, but I got a little misplaced and ended up setting us off up a very long, very forested ridge instead.

Jodie with a grimace; we've just realised our mistake..

Identifying this error after nearly an hour of smashing uphill, We figured we were sorta 'committed' to this spur if we were going for the top, so kept failing upwards. There were some hideous sections of bushlawyer, scrub and regenerating beech to bash through and it was pretty trying. Jodie didn't complain once (to my surprise).

Jodie 'embracing the bush'

Eventually we popped out the top only to encounter some equally scratchy sub alpine shrubbery. Now we were beginning to get a bit fed up, so we plonked ourselves down on an open bit of ground to eat some lunch, drink some coke, enjoy the view and have a rest.

Out of the bush and into the scrub..

There was still 500m of vertical to go till we could reach the tops and traverse around to get back to the spur that would lead us back into the bush (yikes!) and Benmore Hut. Both of us were pretty exhausted from the bush bashing and had to dig pretty deep to make it up.

Not too far from the top now

No more up hill..

Rather relieved to be at the top, we paused for a break, looking over Ben More to Mt Hutt in the back ground. Out towards Banks Peninsula, a huge blanket of low stratus covered Christchurch. Foggy Peak and Castle hill attracted a few puffy cumulus and Mt Oxford stood clear and bathed in sunlight.

It was after 2pm and I was a little worried about the prospect of bush bashing in the dark, trying to reach a hut that was delicately placed on a subtle bush saddle… We made quick time across the tops and reaching the bushline again the compass, map and GPS were all made ready to ensure navigation was a priority.

Time for accurate navigation

However, we spied a plastic bag in the trees, then another and another. Following this make shift route through the storm damaged beech forest was actually rather easy. However once the bush began to thicken there was actually a good ground pad and clear track to follow. 2/3 the way down the hill, we rounded a corner and nearly tripped over a deer hunter on the track.

Getting over the shock of finding someone sitting in the bushes with a Gun, we made introductions and wandered down the hill with Phil on a good track to Benmore Hut. The dinner was welcome and plentiful and for me, sleep came easily.

Benmore Hut, NZDA, Built 1975 with 3 Bunks

Airborne Pancakes

On Sunday I woke shortly after dawn. I’d read the hut log book last night, especially the entries bemoaning the lack of ‘hut ettiqutte’ shown by some. So I spent 30 mins sawing and splitting firewood to add to the hut’s supply.

Jodie joined me for pancakes for breakfast, still half asleep after not getting much shut eye during the night. We placed a Geocache before leaving the hut and strolling the easy track back to the car under warm sunny skies.

Benmore Hut's cozy interior

13 Mile stream

Stone Fly

Cask Canyon

Brendon, Chucky, Jodi, Pip and Pete

Stream walking to the start of the slot

Pip enjoys the worlds smallest hydroslide

There were a handful of small jumps into often shallow pools


Jodi log slides the first drop as the canyon commences

Jodi considers the feasibility of surfing the log downstream

Sending the 'depth checker' down to see if we could jump this drop

Brendon (above) and Chucky (below) make the most of Jodi's scouting

The beautiful bottomless pool

For most of us, the only rappel in the canyon,

down through the very narrow (1.5m) slot

Pete enjoys his rappel

Chucky under the spray on the only rap

The final drop in the canyon, a very nice 5m jump

Pip enjoys the last jump

Time to change back to tramping mode for the walk out..

Glen Canyon

Brendon, Derek, Jodi and I begin our night canyoning trip

Brendon on R1

The first drop descends straight into a 3m wide, 20m deep slot.

Jodes tries to look calm and collected...

Chucky jugs R1 to find why the rope wouldn't retrieve..

Canyon fish.. Some sort of native Kokopu

"I do this all the time... Honest"

Chucky splashes down from a 2m jump halfway along the canyon

A final swim before the canyon is complete