Pip and I walked in via Te Araroa (Burttons Track) through and up to 'Scrub', then down via the Banana Track to sidle into the head of the canyon.
We quickly traversed the upper section of the canyon, soon arriving at the spot where we turned around. The first little drop was downclimbed, whilst the second provided a nice 4m jump. Another 4m rap into a slot and a couple of short pitches over more open waterfalls led to the 'big' fall that I'd been told about.
It was only about 26m tall, but was still beautiful and fun. Beneath the larger pitch there was some boulder scrambling and a long section of steep downclimbing interesting bedrock slabs to the main confluence of the upper tributaries of No 1 creek.
Below this junction, there were only a few short sections of gorge, with lots of non descript boulder hopping. We were pleased to make it to Burttons track again, but not so stoked with the long slog up hill to get back to the car.
Not too bad a trip, but at 10 hrs its a long way to walk for a mediocre canyon. Still, the adventure of the unknown was half the fun :)
Arriving in the watercourse 
Pip downclimbs a log in the upper canyon
A lovely little jump in a nice canyon section
Downclimbing under a big chockstone
Tributary on the true left, mid canyon
Chucky makes a fun 4m leap
Pip raps into a slot
Same pitch from below
Nice gorge swim
The 26m pitch
One of the downclimbs (made on the true right slab, not the boulders)
More nice gorge near the end
More nice gorge near the end
1 comment:
Nice!
Maybe I should get back to Palmy!
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