Ahurirri Valley MTB

An overnight MTB tour up the Ahurirri Valley. Initially the going was easy up the 4WD tracks, but once past Canyon creek, we had to work a little harder, make a few river crossings and hunt out the vauge vehicle tracks.

On arriving at Hagen's Hut, we found it occupied. Those in situ really didn't seem that keen to share so rather than make a scene, we kept going up the much much rougher track towards Top Hut.

The going wasn't much fun and the weather was turning, so we were very pleased to make it an hour later just before dark.

Next day dawned grey, but soon turned to sun.

Getting ready at the Ahurirri road end

Easy riding in the lower valley on 4WD tracks

Getting rougher above Canyon creek


A little bike carrying just before Top Hut

Dinner time at Top Hut

Sunset over Mt Barth

This kitchen needs attention...

Grey day for the return journey

And then the sun comes out!

Sawyers Stream, Mt Cook NP

Grant had partially descended this Canyon with some friends about a year earlier, but they chose to abandon the descent due to high water conditions.

Today the water looked a lot lower than Grant remembered, so we were all keen to possibly make the first complete descent.

It was quite a short canyon, but extremely beautiful. Back to back waterfalls up to 25m, a jump or two, super solid rock and gorgeous pools.. So beautiful infact, that we did another lap ;0)

Grant climbing steep slopes above Unwin Hut

Upper Sawyers Valley, before dropping off the ridge

It begins! Perfect, solid, carved Greywacke

Rope!

Toine bridges on the first pitch


The canyon had an impressive feeling of steepness and commitment


Part way through a 6m jump, mid canyon


Gorgeous pools, back to back drops

Grant, off to scout another pool for our keen (crazy) jumper..

Grant and Toine, havin a ball..

Penultimate Pitch

On our way through the 15 minute boulder scramble at the end


Practising partner rescues in Unwin Hut

Sharplin Falls, Mt Sommers

With a cold southerly and fresh snow on the foothills, we weren't exactly eager to start canyoning, but it wasn't forecast to rain and the water levels were managable so off we went.

Grant's son Sol joined us for a trip down Sharplin Falls. The water was a fair bit higher than my last trip, but this gorge has so many ways to be descended that you can choose to be dry through to very wet.

Despite moving quickly through the canyon, Sol wetsuit wasn't that well fitting, so he got very cold and we escaped just before the final drop. Still, an enjoyable few hours in canyon.

Grant downclimbing the slot section

Sol and Grant squeezing under the boulders

One of the dry options..

Followed by a very wet choice...

Grant deviates on the TR using a large block

Hester Pinney Waterfall, East Matuki, Wanaka

Its a bit of a mission, but Hester Pinney Waterfall is a top canyon and WELL worth the effort to get there.

Straight after Ore Canyon, we drove back to Wanaka, sorted our gear and packed our bike panniers.

Pip joined our team and we cruised out to Cameron's Flat in the Matukituki valley. Fording the river, we cycled along the DoC marked easement to Glacier Burn, dumping our bikes a little further up the river.

From here it was a delightful further hour and twenty mins up the river to junction flat. With perfect weather and a warm evening, we sat stargazing and marvelling at the Glacier in the Kitchener Cirque.

Toine and Pip tramping up the East Matukituki River

Next morning, we awoke (not that early) and climbed the track on the TR of the canyon. We sidled accross through the scrub and climbed steeply down into the Canyon, arriving 1 hr after leaving the flat.

Initial downclimbs in the narrow canyon

At first the canyon was really narrow (less than arms width),

with very fun downclimbs and a jump or two.

Jumping 4m into a great big pool

The canyon next opened up a little, with lots of downclimbs and a handline or two.

Nic after a down climb

The middle section involved a series of 3 falls up to 32 m that were back to back rappels. We discovered some 'historic' single 6mm compression bolts here. Where we could, we backed up the bolt to a natural anchor further back in the canyon, and put the lightest person last to rap without a backup. Scary stuff.. These bolts are going to need replacing if the canyon see's more use. One was no good, so we placed a nut anchor on the opposite wall to rap from.

Next was a long boulder scramble, with amazing views of Mt Aspiring and the Kitchener Cirque. The rock was very grippy and the scrambling quite fun.

Nic under a flat plate boulder

The final third of the Canyon was simply brilliant. The perfect combination of geology and hydrology created a series of 10 or so back to back potholes in amazing bedrock. With human anchors, we scouted all the potholes first and to our delight found that many of these were jumps. All required good jumping technique to smallish landing zones and some had very small and not that deep landings. We had to go around a couple that we chose not to jump.

Pip leaps in the Pothole section

Nic explores one of the bigger potholes

Warm sun, beautiful bedrock and crystal clear water

Yet more pot holes (didn't jump this one, but did the next two)

Making friends with the locals

After 4 hours in the canyon, carefully scouting drops and solving for new anchors, we emerged back at junction flat. We sat around in the sun for a while, absorbing the heat before making the 2 hour return journey back to our cars.

A fair bit of effort to access, but this is a top 5 NZ canyon...

Ore Stream, Haast Pass

With very low water conditions, great warm weather and a strong team, we made a descent of Ore Stream in the Haast Pass Area.

Being DIDYMO aware. Shoes off for crossing the Makarora River..

Jethro enters the slot

There are several difficult jumps in this canyon. Getting to the launch point requires careful scrambling above nasty water features. The launches are exposed and sometimes slippery. The landings are narrow and the hieghts are in the 5-8m mark. Tricky stuff, but always faster and safer than trying to rappel the waterfalls themselves...

Toine makes the first rap


Plenty of water on R2, and some delicate rappelling

Michi belays Nic whilst he raps to one side of the flow

This pool pours over the next drop, so even in low flow, you have to swim very hard accross the pool to make the eddy on river right... If you don't, you'll be the first to slide R3..

Scott on R3.

You end up in a cool cave behind the waterfall.

Toine jumped this one.. (mad europeans)

Scott in Ore Stream

Michi belays Scott out to the next anchor for the final rap.

Another spot to be careful, with potential for being flushed over the falls..

The last rappel.

I got a working 3/4 the way down the falls and got flipped upside down. Ended up behind the falls in a small pool for a minute or so whilst collecting my thoughts and figuring out what to do next... It doesn't look too bad, but still deserves considerable respect.

OR, you could just slide the thing on the TR like Scott did. Looks really sketchy, but turns out to be far more fun and probably safer than the absiel. Definately NOT for the faint hearted/inexperienced..

All done, wandering out back into the sunshine

Today's water conditions would probably count as 'moderate' at best, but overall conditions in the region had been very low for quite some time. Ore has a very large catchment area, and is only likely to come into condition in Feb/March. Even then, Ore has several very dangerous spots in normal water levels.