Upper Tutaekuri Gorge, Kaweka FP

Brigid, Chris, Pip and Chucky had a fun day cruising through the Upper Tutaekuri Gorge. This is a non technical trip; the two small marked waterfalls are easily jumped or slid, so there's no need for rope (except perhaps a throwbag). We encountered the stream in pretty low flows. A fair bit mor water would make things much more interesting. In the lower section, it was a bit rocky and hard to float, so more water would make it much more fun and a lot quicker..

Check out more info about the Upper Tutaekuri Gorge on KiwiCanyons.org

Doom Creek, Mt Richmond FP

Toine, Bernat and I were joined by Bruce for todays trip, which was intended to be nice and mellow after a long day in Whiskey Falls on the first descent.

Doom Creek is a fantastic little canyon, with several jumps, beautiful narrows and very simple access. After the big drops and lack of jumps in Whiskey, the trip through Doom Creek was a welcome change in pace.

My first trip through Doom Creek was in a bit of a hurry, but now that I knew what lay ahead, we were able to spend more time searching out and scouting jumps and slides. In the end, we must have done about 3 times as many jumps as the first trip, making this trip a whole bunch of fun!

Check out Doom Creek on KiwiCanyons.org

Whiskey Falls Canyon, Nelson Lakes NP

After walking all the way up to the top of Mt Robert and then turning back in moderate rain a few days ago, we were stoked when the weather turned good for us to have a second crack at this first descent.

Toine and I were joined by Bernat, a Spanish Canyoner for the day. It took us a bit over an hour to climb the 500m up and over Mt Robert and down into the headwaters of Whiskey Creek.

We put on our wetsuits and began down the first little gorgy obstacle, but afterward, the stream proved to be nothing by storm damage, slippery rocks and no canyon for several hours..

However, just as the stream reached the steep slopes indicated on the topo map, the action started, with quick fire rappels that became more and more enclosed, beautiful and challenging.

Initially, anchors were pretty straight forward to rig, from all the trees and debris in the stream way.  However, it soon became a bit more tricky. At one point we had to lasso a tree about 5 meters up and out of the gorge to be our anchor. At other points, we had to resort to belayed climbing round the unstable edges to reach solid tree anchors.

Just as the canyon became more more committing, Toine descended a drop and peered curiously over the next horizon line. He was obviously impressed with the next pitch, and when asked about the length, he made a '1' sign... Followed by 'O'  and 'O'... 

When Bernat and I joined him, we could see that indeed it was a rather large pitch. The problem was solved by Toine however, by descending on rope for 20m on the true right, through off vertical vegetation to a solid tree that was all but overhanging the water fall. Here, he was able to rig an anchor and confirm that our 60m cord actually reached.

This drop turned out to be Whiskey falls itself, and measured about 45m from the tree, so about 65m from the lip. Most of the absiel was completely freen hanging, with incredible views out to Lake Rotoiti and over to the falls themselves.

All re-united again at the bottom of Whiskey falls, we were well pleased with our 7 hours in the stream. The stroll back around the lake to the cars was straight forward, if a little endless after the long descent. Eventually, we arrived back at the car elated but exhausted 10 hrs after leaving.

This trip would be worth repeating, but should be accessed by the spur leading south from Bushline hut, rather than from the upper section of stream, (which is little but walking and the occaisonal waterfall). A water taxi would be well worth the $$ to make the trip a little shorter.

Check out the information about Whiskey Falls on KiwiCanyons.org

Blue Creek, Kahurangi NP

Toine and I decided on a more chilled out day after a long effort hunting for Canyons in Golden Bay. So we opted for the deep dry confines of Blue Creek, Mt Owen, Kahurangi National Park.

We entered at the normal spot, which is not particularly far above the resurgence. Toine was quite impressed with the Canyon, even though it was virtually dry. We enjoyed plenty of raps and downclimbs and more than a few photos. Looking back at my notes from the first trip I did here, we only rappelled from bolts in the lower canyon, so the short rappels I recorded were actually down climbable with care and a temporary belay.

Tiropahi Canyon, Paparoa Coast

Thanks again to Nic Barth for his trip report and info on this Canyon.

Tiropahi/Four Mile Stream is basically a small river which has quite an impressive slot canyon, just downstream of the main road bridge. Though the actual form of the canyon itself is very straight forward, the water makes it quite a challenging Canyoning trip.

Firstly, the water is so stained with tannin, that it is pretty much like going canyoning through Coca-Cola. Even with a diving mask on, you can barely see your shoes when you peer under water. This makes it impossible to assess any pools for jumping without actually getting in them first.

Second, there is usually quite a bit of water flowing downstream. Our trip was done at 0.7m on the second (fully intact) stage gauge on the true left, about 50m downstream from the road bridge. At the end of our trip, we calculated the flow to be about 3.0 cumecs, which is quite a lot for a Canyoning trip.

In the slot, there is a lot of tree debris, which makes for quite of lot of objective hazard with regard to strainers in the significant flow. Also, there are two drops in the upper slot which need to be jumped, but you can't inspect the pool due to the opaque waters.

We solved this problem by creating some tricky temporary anchors which one of us used to absiel into the pool. That person then swam around to check the pool for depth and rock/tree obstacles before the other jumped down.

Despite having to be very wary about strainers and hydraulics, the canyon was impressively deep, narrow and beautiful!

Tiropahi running at 0.7m stage

 

Toine contemplates yet another nasty log jam

 

Toine carefully looks for strainers and hydraulics before committing to the current

This is just above the second (last) small drop in the upper slot. We were able to rig a human anchor, backed up by a temporary nut placement to rap the drop on the true left in order to scout the pool for jumping.

Toine seems happy to be out of the main slot: Celebration leap!

Once clear of the true bedrock slot section, the river turns back into boulder garden rapids, but the stream walls are still very steep and usually inescapable. The walls here on the true left are actually slightly overhanging the stream!

Carefully crossing the rapid above the 25m drop.

Inspecting the pool below the 25m drop

Chucky on Rappel. It doesn't look like much water from this angle,

so check out the angle below...

From the pool below the drop, you get an impression of how much water there is in this canyon!  The waterfall was so powerful that it was creating 2 foot high waves in the pool beneath it. Definately a tricky and intimidating swim, to avoid the huge eddy that would quite like to keep you in the canyon...

Once clear of the main drop, it was just a fun boulder hop/swim down to the ocean, still keeping a careful awareness of logs and snags. Like Nic says, the return track starts on the true right, about 100m before the Ocean. it is directly opposite the very last significant (20m tall) stone bluff on the true left of the river. We found the track pretty straight forward to follow until it flattened out. We kept moving in the direction of the previous track accross the short plateau (60m) until we hit the base of a small bluff, which we followed round to the left to where the track markers begin again.

About a 4 hour round trip, though certainly NOT a trip for beginners or those without developed white water skills and awareness.

Ford Creek Canyon, Blackball

Thanks to Nic Barth for the hint about where to go for this one! A really neat slot canyon, very pretty and rather curious.... A short trip in and out before Toine and I headed up to the Paparoa's to descent Tiropahi Canyon that afternoon...  Check out Nic's report and photos. See Ford Creek Canyon on KiwiCanyons.org