Mill Creek

March 13, 2026May 15, 2026 | flynny101

04/03/2026

Kristo, Dave, Jason, Kylie, and me

3hrs drive to do a 3hr canyon? Are you mad?

Well, yeah, but there was a method to our madness.

And to be honest this one turned out to be a bit of a surprise highlight, partly because I wasn’t expecting much.

Anyhoo, Jason put it on his must do list for this trip and we all just went along with him. The description sounded cool and after Wilsons it was a bit of a rest day.

The diving would break up the trip a bit and give us a chance to restock supplies and eat out in Wanaka.

The pass up was steep but not too difficult and we make good time.

We are too high calls Kylie, We are a few contours above the trace

There’s marking tape here though, replies Jason

It looks like a rough trail, Says Kristo

we push on, or down. or sumfink

I’ve been down some goat tracks in my time but this was up there in the goat trackiness. And all the while the roar of the water is churning int he back ground.

still there are signs someone at some point has come this way.

It doesn’t feel right. Says Kylie. I’m sure this was run during the festival. the track should be fresh.

There’s a landline here.

The old hand line was possibly more a short abseil but Jason and Kris get down.

I start to hand over hand.

Whatever I’m standing on gives way and suddenly I’m free hanging on a skinny cord and can’t quite get my feet back on the wall.

Below nothing but steep scree, soiled underpants and a sense of dread.

No choice but accept a bit of rope burn and slide down.

I’ll say up front this little episode put the wind up me a bit.

Still we scramble down a bit more before coming to what looks like another small cliffline.

Below us Mill Creek Tumbles through a series of complex boulders.

According to the trace the start is 50m down that way.

Will we get past that pool? It looks horrid,

Maybe if we can cross above it?

Problem is we can’t see what the water is doing directly below us.

Phuk this say I, still shaken from my near fall. Let’s head back up a bit and cut across to where the trace is.

We ascend back up above the dodgy hand line and follow Kylie’s trace down over the next knob and pick up a much clearer trail, and less dodgey path down.

Reaching the creek we see that had we have abseiled in before a narrow ledge and bit of scrambling would have gotten us across to the first anchor.

Anyhoo, setting up an anchor and getting us all down would have taken just as long. So alls well that ends well.

We pause for a bite to eat, suit up and take in the surroundings.

What a spot.

We bypass the first anchor and traverse bolts which appear to be high-water options and set up at the first drop.

The guide wasn’t wrong.

Some of the drops are very intimidating from above.

Most end in deep pools.

Most of those pools have wash-over risks

But whoever set the route has done a fabulous job. shout yourselves a beer or two.

The anchors are in the perfect positions to get you into a safe spot to assess the eddie and choose your swim line before committing to the water.

It’s such a diverse canyon too.

The top is open, yet intimidating. And the further you descend the more the walls close in.

And it is just stunningly beautiful ©Dave

With plenty of options to jump and slide ©Kylie

Kristo looking down to where the water disappearing into a deep slot

And we make our way back across the flats, wade the river and meet back at the car.

More photos just because. Feel free to click on them

Mine.

Kylie’s

Daves

Do the thing. A Honnold

Back to the Canyoning page.

Or onto Mathers Creek

Wilsons Creek

March 13, 2026March 13, 2026 | flynny101

02/03/2026

Jason, Kristo, Hywaida, Kylie and meeeeeee

Woot Woot.

This was the one I was really looking forward to.

Spoiler alert: It didn’t disappoint.

Rated as an A5 in the Kiwi Canyoning guidebook and website a land slide in recent years has resulted in some of the pools silting up a bit. The Hydraulics are still there and you have to know how to avoid/deal with them but they’re possibly not as hectic as they once were. Coupled with stunningly good weather it may have been on the easier end of A4 but I think A4 is still fair.

Of course that silting up has also affected the jumpability of the pools too.

Anyhoo I get ahead of myself.

We had had (hadhad had, had) a lot of fun yesterday in Robinson and Cross Creek, the team had just clicked and was working together with barely the need for verbal communication (Other than jokes and taking the piss) so we were really looking forward to today.

Wilsons Creek has an almost mythical status as the quintessential Haast Pass canyon. Last year, on a road trip in the depths of winter Kylie and I had stuck our noses up the exit chamber and were blown away by the beauty. Finally we were back to do it from the top.

The entry track goes up, and up and up (over 9000! (not really)) then we descend the landslide of certain death to cross a side creek. Then it’s down, down, down a steep razor ridge between the side creek and the Wilsons. At times I wondering if we should be using a rope, or a parachute, but it goes easy enough.

And finally we arrive at the top of the canyon.

Nervous excitement.

Grins.

We suit up.

eat eggs.

and get into it

Jason sets the first anchor.

I head on in

Looking back up to the start of the canyon. Already it’s an awe-inspiring place to be.

Next up

And soon we get to our first hydraulic challenge, the roundy roundy pool.

With the dry weather it’s not pumping too hard but you can still see it would be an issue if you drop into the wrong spot.

The advice is to jump over the swirl, problem is with the silting up of pools we don’t know how deep it is for a safe jump.

Kristo set the rope. Jason lead the way, abseiling part way down before making the leap,

He makes it look simple.

The rest of us follow.

You can’t put into words just how insignificant you become when emerged in a place of this grandeur

And soon we get to the “Julie Pool”

Hywaida and Jason showing how it’s done.

Being a little taller is definitely an advantage for bridging out across this one

Next up is the boil. Jason set the rope and I head on down.

I’d watched the Coalition of American Canyoneers video that discusses this hydraulic (16.11 mark) and it wasn’t looking anywhere near as nasty, but still I aimed for their suggested line and dove out with Leo’s voice ringing in my head “Now Swim hard!”

Once again, at these water levels it was fairly straight forward and everyone got across no worries. Still no one got a photo…

It’s then through Star War alley, a truely beautiful section of canyon, before 1 more tricky traverse line to the final abseil.

And then it’s on to battle the tourists in the exit chamber.

all in all an amazing experience with a great team.

more photos below. Click to enlarge them

Mine

Kylie’s

Hywiada’s

Surround yourself with awesome people. Experience Awesome things.

Back to the Canyoning page.

Continue to Mill Creek

Robinsons Creek

March 10, 2026March 11, 2026 | flynny101

01/03/2026

Dave, Jason, Hywaida, Kristo, Kylie and meeeeeeeee

A canyoning trip to New Zealand has been on the wish list for years but just hadn’t popped to the top of the priority list.

Until now.

The lead up was a bit chaotic and at various points it was looking like not all of us would make it but somehow the stars aligned and, thankfully, all 6 of us found ourselves making the acquaintance of every sand fly in Haast.

With the flies in a suitable frenzy over the taste of our blood we started our adventures off with a bang in Robinsons Creek.

a 15min walk up the hill and we are straight into it.

and some abseiling to check the depth first. This one was a bit too shallow to jump

The patterns and colours in the Schist was beautiful. Haast Schist is a metamorphic rock formed from sand and mudstones that have been reheated and placed under pressure then subjected to folding and uplifting to give it the patterns and swirls.

All good, gentle fun so far. A couple of small hydraulic features to be aware of.

The route is really well set. Unlike the typical Blue Mountain canyons we are use to there are times where you need to set traverse lines to avoid the hydraulics at the bottom of the waterfall, or loose log jams that act a sheives part way down. We are not unfamiliar with high flow canyons and practice this stuff a lot but it was a lot of fun putting our skills into practice in an easier canyon on day 1.

Then we come to the cavern pitch.

Jason sets the rope and I jump on, peering over the void.

It looks epic.

Then I notice a guy in board shorts below…. He’d scrambled up from the bottom but doesn’t hang around long. It was cold enough in the 5mm wettie.

Anyhoo, this pitch was amazebalz

Kylie at the top. The roar of the water beside you is awe inspiring.

More photos of this glorious little canyon. Click to enbiggen

Mine

Kylie’s

Hywaida’s

We scramble down the next drop on true right, walk around the corner and lo and behold there’s the car!

Fully psyched and eager for more we leave the wetsuits on and head down the road to Cross Creek

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. Will I Am Shakespeare

Back to the canyoning page

Cross Creek

March 10, 2026March 13, 2026 | flynny101

Buzzing from Robinson Creek we make the short drive down to the Cross Creek Bridge.

Now I may have been a little over hyped.

I may or may not have mis-read the notes to say “From the Bridge Walk 10min back toward Haast to find the obvious trail.”

Well we walked toward Haast for 10min…

What the notes Actually said was “Walk 10m (As in metres everybody) back towards Haast Pass (As in toward Wanaka- away from Haast, like der Fred ) You would have thunk the friendly guide having a chat with us while suiting up his clients might have said “Hey Bros you’re going the wrong way. It’s just there aye”

Anyhoo, we correct our (my) mistake.

what’s a Flynny trip with out a slight navigational hiccough anyway?

The warm up walk curbed our enthusiasm slightly so we opted not to go all the way to the upper sections and dropped in to the middle section a little early to get the jump on the guide group.

and we are pretty much straight into it again.

while the canyon was a little more open the colours were even more vivid.

And once again the canyon finishes pretty much at the car. We change and eat and swap tall stories about our first 2 NZ canyons then make our way back to our rented house at Haast where the lovely flies had told all their friends just how tasty we are.

Unfortunately the Haast river itself and some of its tributaries, including Cross Creek are infected with the invasive Didymo slime, AKA rock snot.

And while we didn’t see any it’s important to do the right thing, this means cleaning all our gear in diluted detergent and drying it off each day. Most parties we spoke to suggested we get a plastic tub each for this.

But Jason had a better idea

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. — Helen Keller

Continued onto Wilsons Creek

Back to the canyoning page

polblue

February 5, 2026February 19, 2026 | flynny101

25/01/2026

Kylie, Jason, David, Wisey, Rakesh, Tanya and meeeee

We had been tossing around what canyon to do today before settling on 1 none of us had done before.

We all pile into Jason’s ute and head across the range.

Ah shit, I meant to reach out to Tanya and Rakesh, Says Kylie. They are up here somewhere.

We pull into the car park.

Hey that’s Tanya and Rakesh…

5 become 7 and we waste no time suiting up and making our way down the creek to the first abseil.

I set up rope and everyone by passes it and scrambles down beside it.

I pull the rope up and follow.

The next couple of drops are a little lame. I’m starting to feel bad.

We had convinced Jason to do this one rather than one of his favourite, high adrenaline, high flow trips and this wasn’t really shaping up. but then we came to the first of the “Spicy Slots”

Kylie and H opt to take the less spicy line ©Kylie

And the rest of use follow.

It’s a tricky start into the white noise.

Just as you are able to see again you realise you are about to drop behind a chock stone and you most defilately don’t want to drop down behind the chock stone.

It’s a battle to resist the push and swing yourself over.

You emerge back into the light then drop off the chockstone into the noise once more.

It’s a fantastic abseil

Everyone one is grinning.

there’s an 800m creek walk to get to the next bit. lets just go back up here and do that again. someone suggests

hmmmm we are here now let;s at least check out the bottom section.

Lucky we did.

The 800m creek walk isn’t too bad and goes quick and the bottom section is the best bit.

The creek has spit into 2 channels. A sloping abseil (New anchor has since been installed closer to the lip) brings you to the edge in between them

You step over the edge and both streams recombine.

On your head.

Hello Spicy Slot 2

Jason helping to retrieve a stuck rope for the party in front ©Dave

The next 2 abseils come in quick succession

I scramble down the next one but signal up to the others that it isn’t worth it as there looked to be a nice exit from the ledge they are on.

The exit began on a steep loose scree slope but soon got steeper and looser before getting looser and steeper….

Other than the steepness and the looseness it was fairly easy going. The notes said to get to a certain elevation and then traverse around. While that would cut off some elevation gain it looked long and convoluted so we just went straight up and over a minor nose then dropped down onto the road not to far from the car park.

I nodded, pretending to be a hundred times more courageous than I felt. Lisa Tawn Bergren.

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GLOUCESTER

February 2, 2026February 5, 2026 | flynny101

24/01/2026

Jason, Dave, Wisey, Kylie and Me

Dr Forster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain.

He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle

and never went there again.

Ah English, where Forster rhymes with Gloucester and neither sounds like how they are spelt.

Anyhoo

What better way to pop my Barrington cherry than with a run through the upper section of Gloucester canyon.

Jason and Kylie had done it numerous times before at much higher water levels so today was shaping up to be fairy chill.

We had met Jason and Dave at camp the night before.

H had rolled in sometime through the night and we were all up early and eager.

It’s a short walk in and in high spirits we suit up and make our way down to the first abseil.

Kylie sets the rope and H leads the first drop

Jasons declares ropes are for the vanquished and jumps from a slippery stance

The next one is fairly basic down beside a smaller fall

A short hop skip and a jump down stream and we arrive at what we are here for.

The Famous chock stone abseil.

But to get there requires a short abseil and traverse

On their previous trips the water levels had been too high to attempt this one and there is the option to scramble out and do a dry line from high up just down stream of the chock stones.

Conditions today however are perfect so Jason sets a line and I traverse out and set the main drop

Jason follows me out and leads the big one

There are two redirects in place on this drop. The first gets you out, away from a sloping ledge that forms just as the water funnels into a ferocious torrent, the second keeps you out of the hydraulic that forms in high flow at the base. Jason sets them both for us to follow

it’s a stunningly beautiful waterfall.

And the view back up to it from just downstream is iconic

It was still early in the day. We were tossing up the idea of continuing downstream and completing the lower section. Jason had done it before and thought it was interesting.

The other option was to play around here.

It would be cool to get on top of the chock stone say Wisey.

There is the dry line option, said some one.

We scrmble up the start of the exit track and find our way across to the dry line.

It’s a bit down stream of the chock stones but I manage to swing across to the upper stone to help the following party with a stuck rope (Notes say to throw the pull cord over the chockstone. This lead to the stuck rope. If the flow isn’t too high just bring the pull strand down with you. it pulls fine.)

then drop in.

Jas, Wisey and Dave follow me. It’s a surprisingly fun abseil and we opt to run repeat son it for funzies.

Then we head on out and enjoy a relaxing afternoon at Camp

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people: WC Fields

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Warrumbungles grand high tops walk in Summer

January 22, 2026February 19, 2026 | flynny101

After the heat of Waa Gorge and Mount Kaputar we decide our best plan would be to get up super early and get the bulk of the Grand High top walk done before the heat of the day.

But first we have to get there. There was another feature just out of Coonabarabran we wanted to check out.

We pull into Hickey Falls, never seen them this dry before. Says a local lady we bump into.

The side trip to Hickey Falls meant we’d enter the Warrumbungles from the eastern side and the drive in is spectacular.

View after view.

We pull into the visitor centre to book into our camp we are thinking they are going to say we are nuts but when we mentioned we we planning the Grand Hightop Walk in the morning they just smiled and said, Oh lovely. You’d be best to start early in this heat.

Oh yeah we are going to start about 5 and try and get up to the breadknife for sunrise.

Oh that would be awesome…

Ok so we aren’t nuts. Or not as nut as when thought.

We pull into camp. We had picked our site based around the morning view

It took about an hour, though for the shade to disappear and we begged a change of site to find afternoon shade.

The afternoon is spent having a short section of song echo over and over and over and over.

It was a bit weird, at first I thought the grounds keep really likes his teeny bop but I go for a walk and there’s a K-pop or TikTok or whatever the kiddies call themselves these day <Old man shakes fist at Cloud> perfecting their dance moves to the song.

We are pretty much the only ones in the entire camp ground so good on them say I.

Still, I do my best to get into their background and ape their moves. It’s how I roll.

Anyhoo

We were up at sparrows fart and hit the trail at about 4.45am

It’s a lovely morning for a walk.

and the first of the pillars pops into view just as the sun lightens the sky and Kylie some how turns into Dicky Knee

Are you thinking what I am thinking?

yes, I just made a Hey Hey its Saturday reference…

I apologise.

It’s actually really shit at cutting bread

We spend a bit of time here and a bit further up just watching the changing light and taking a gazillion photos

We are not sure how or why Kyle dressed as a school girl

We scramble up to the tops, the last 100m or so of trail is under construction so it’s still a bit of a scramble.

Topping out the wind is intense.

We take the short cut back down past Balors hut and get back to camp just after 9.

Another hot day poking around town and that brings a close to our epic first road trip in the Alucab

sawn Rocks

January 22, 2026 | flynny101

After spending the night at the Glacial Rocks camp we get up early hoping to catch sunrise light up the cliff face.

Sunset would potentially cast a better light onto the rocks at this time of year but it’s a spectacular feature at any time of the day and a short, wheel chair friendly, walk from the car park.

Like a pile of chopped and neatly packed logs you can see where it gets it’s name.

As is our usual we push beyond the formed tourist trail on a rough but well used foot pad to explore the creek beyond.

And more of the amazing shapes

The cliff lines soon peter out and the creek snakes it’s way cross the plateau so we retrace out steps and head into Narrabri for coffee and a bite to eat before deciding to drive up to Mt Kaputar for a look.

We decide it’s way to hot to do any of the walks in the middle of the day but the road up is outstanding and well worth the drive.

The road itself is an adventure and the views with in a 5min walk from the car just keep coming

But the temperature is pushing into the high 30s again so we make track down to Coonabarabran where we decide to splurge on a motel room with air conditioning.

Cranky Rock

January 17, 2026January 19, 2026 | flynny101

Leaving Girraween and dropping back into NSW we are aiming for Warialda but decide to take a bit of a detour into Kwiambal NP for a look at Macintyre Falls.

Macintyre falls are located about an hour out of Ashford, near the Ashford limestone Caves (which at the time of writing were closed to the public).

The falls aren’t massive but they are impressive none the less, check out the little whirlpool near the top of the main falls in the top view. hate to get stuck in that in high flow.

the view from the lookout is impressive and a tourist trail leads down to the pool below

large Murray Cod could be seen swimming in the waterhole and fishermen are setting up so we opt not to swim and disturb their hunt for dinner

We spend a bit of time rock hoping and exploring then head across to Lemon Tree Flat for a swim in the Severn River.

This is a beautiful little camp ground I got zero photos of…

Then it was onto Warialda and the very cool little council run camp ground at Cranky Rock.

At $20 a night for a powered site it’s a great low cost campground with hot shower and clean toilets.

Now I have to be honest, being spoilt in the crystal clear waters you find in Blue Mountains canyons the water hole here did have that agricultural run off look and slight whiff but on a stinking hot day with no better publicly accessible swimming holes within cooee it’s an oasis.

Sure, I wouldn’t drink it but there is no hesitation at jumping in and cooling off.

and the colours in the rocks pop at sunset

With the battery in my head torch now charged I thought I’d have another go at spot lighting.

The creek and waterhole was weirdly devoid of frogs and their predators. I spent a bit of time poking around but was giving up and heading back to camp when this little guy came out to say hello

Spotted Black Snake, **Pseudechis guttatus**, aka the Blue Belly Black snake

this species comes in range of colours, from creamy grey to shiny black but how good is the camouflage of this speckled version against the blotched granite.

Back at camp Kylie had luck with the furries. Spotting several sugar gliders running amuck in the trees behind our camper.

and also managed to

1. find this little burrowing frog

and

2. find it a second time to show me

But it is getting late. We are mindful of our fellow campers so call it a night.

we also have a long drive tomorrow.

Our next stop will be Waa Gorge (It’s pronounced “War” not “Wah”)

	new Zealand South Is… on Imp Grotto
	flynny101 on Bells Line of Road Canyoning
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	Magnifying Glass Can… on Yileen Canyon
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blue, mts, canyon, canyoning, mtb, mountain bike, gardens of stone, Lithgow

Adventure

Mill Creek

Wilsons Creek

Robinsons Creek

Cross Creek

polblue

GLOUCESTER

Warrumbungles grand high tops walk in Summer

sawn Rocks

Cranky Rock