Woolshed Creek Canyon, Mt Sommers

As the weather forecast looked rubbish for the divide, we escaped east to Woolshed Creek for our Sunday's canyoning.

Though the sky was grey and rain showers gripped the mountains to the south, we climbed up and entered the Canyon. The water levels were alread pretty low and since I'd been before in very high water levels and knew the exits I was comfortable to continue.

The Dave and John really enjoyed the Canyon, right up until the bit where John injured his ankle on a jump.  He scooped out on entry to the water and instead of going straight down, he went more horizontally and smashed into the opposite wall of the pool...

Thankfully, it wasn't busted and he was able to hobble down the rest of the canyon... 

Avalanche Canyon, Arthurs Pass NP

A great day's canyoning was had with Dave Smith and John Mclaren in Avalanche Canyon, Arthurs Pass.

Though it was relatively cool in the valley at first, the hike uphill warmed us up!!

We managed to core shot one of our 60m ropes on the third rappel, on an unseen sharp rock. More disturbing was that this rope had only been bought the day before :(

The rest of the canyon was done without incedent, in pretty low water levels. There were still anchors from our previous descent on most drops, though all required replacement of webbing and some mallions..

Chamberlain Creek, Tararua FP

Metservice promised a near perfect Waitangi weekend. Mother nature delivered a grey cold drizzly one..

But regardless, an adventure was had in Chamberlain Creek by Pip, Chucky and Lara. I'd done Chamberlain in 2006 as my 2nd ever canyon and was looking forward to seeing what I thought of this trip now.

Despite cold drizzle in the dark, we reached Herepai hut after a standard 2hr slog from the Putara Rd end. Someone had left a bunch of macaroni in the hut, so we took the liberty of a pre-sleep snack ;0) I was pleased to see that two other parties had passed through on thier way to Chamberlain, the previous one just last weekend!

Lara's optimism for the weather didn't match reality in the morning, but although it was grey, it wasn't raining..  We soon ascended into the clouds and made our way carefully accross the tops, 2hrs 15mins to the start of Chamberlain.

It was cold and grey, so our choice of shortie wetsuits wasn't the best, though we did stay just warm enough. Chamberlain was quite a bit mellower than I remember. The flows were really low, anchors were plentiful at each drop and none of the waterfalls required any particular management.

Between the beautiful sections of actual canyon, there was plenty of non descript boulder scrambling, which helped keep us warm.

The lower section of Chamberlain was definately the most beautiful and interesting. Here it drops through a true gorge, with some good downclimbs and a couple of wee jumps. The scenery here is quite spectacular.

We'd made very good time down the creek (4hrs30min from the saddle) so we elected to continue on down the Ruamahanga to spend the night at Roaring Stag Lodge. Though we were tired canyoners by the time we arrived, the cozy hut and monday's rain made it a good decision!

Ruapae Hut

Descending out of the cloud to the saddle above Chamberlain

Upper Chamberlain

Rap 1, 7m

R2, 15m

R4, 15m

Jump 4m 

Beautiful lower Chamberlain 

Last drop in Chamberlain, a 6m jump into a huge deep pool

At the Ruamahanga, 4hrs 30mins after beginning from the saddle.

Pip clambers up to make a sweet jump in the middle Ruamahanga Gorge

Tough stuff over! Pleased to be at Roaring Stag lodge!