From Hokitika Gorge we slip back into town and head to Sunset point for diner in the van.
I’d never seen the sunset over the ocean before, Unfortunately the cloud cover closed in an all but blocked it out.
Not to be discouraged I thought I’d try my hand at some more arty farty photos at the memorial and art works.
Driving into town I’d spotted a sign post for glowworms.
I know we had just done the most amazing cave tour but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I will never not be awestruck by glowworms.
Lucky Kylie shares my fascination with the little shiny slugs with their little glowy bums.
If a cave tour sounds a bit too strenuous or clautrophobic for you I have some good news.
The Hokitika Glowworm dell is literally (Literally babes) 50m off the main highway in a shady, fern filled gully. A concrete path leads you in.
Tip: either use a red light (even a bit of coloured cellophane or contact over your torch) or hold onto the hand rails turn your torch off and let your eyes adjust.
From here it was on to a highlight in a long list of highlights from this trip Franz Josef Glacier
Continuing on from Charleston we chug on down the coast calling in to the unsign-posted and little heralded Hatter Bay,
Then another beach
even the sea was frothing
and the push on to Punakaiki to check out the famous Pancake rocks.
We arrived late afternoon in drizzling rain but made a dash around the short circuit walk, before camping nearby and coming back the next morning in what we thought would be “better light”. TBH the rainy afternoon photos picked up the contrasts and colours much better.
New Zealand is a mountain bike and canyoning Mecca so it might come as a surprise that
I hadn’t been before
On my first trip there I had no intention of doing either
We also wouldn’t be heading to either Queenstown or Milford Sound
Kylie and I had been talking about a New Zealand winter road trip for a while and when the stars aligned where we both had time and opportunity we leapt at it.
We had 10 days to smash out a road trip where we’d nerd out on geology and climate, this meant some of the more well known spots got dropped off.
We also wanted to do it on the cheap so if you want to know where we went and what we saw stay tuned, I’ve got about 2000 photos yet to edit and cull so I’ll post them as I go in a little series over the coming days or weeks or whatever.
Anyhoo we flew into Christchurch at some ungodly hour and got a ride to North South Holiday Park where we had arranged a late check in. It was about 1am when we pick up the keys from the key safe and make our way over to the cabin.
Um didn’t we get a double? asked I as I open the door.
Yes says Kylie.
I’d walked into the wrong cabin…. Opsie
Finding the right cabin we settle in. We’d picked a basic cabin, it was basically just big enough for the bed, a bar fridge and a counter top. But considering we just needed somewhere to sleep for a few hours it was perfect. and surprisingly comfy.
And for $54NZD, which included a courtesy bus into town the next day, we couldn’t go wrong.
Next morning we get dropped off at Tui Campers. One of the reasons for flying into Christchurch was the amazing deals Tui do on their camper vans.
And all set up in a Ford Transit van we hit the road for the West Coast via the Lewis Pass. Destination Cape Foulwind, where we’d camp the night in a cosy little Freedom Camp.
Freedom camping in NZ has gone through a little change recently and now to do it legally in most places you need a certified self contained camper. Thus the Transit camper.
Now on the west coast it was time to take in the sights and sounds.
Our first stop was Charlestown for a river rafting tour with Underworld Adventures. Kylie had done this one before and raved about it as a must do.
Look, my home town of Lithgow famously boasts the Glowworm tunnels and the canyons and caves of the Blue Mountains host them by the thousands but this tour was something else.
After suiting up the trip started with trip on a funky little petrol engined train.
At the end of the train line we pick up our tractor tubes and walk up through the rain forest to the start of the Metro Cave.
we start in the upper level of the cave and are treated to some great limestone formations
Interestingly the little fella trapped in the stalactite is a fungus gnat. ‘Fungus gnat’ doesn’t sound real sexy but this is the adult that gives birth to the glowworms. As an adult they don’t have a digestive system. they just fly around mating wildly for a couple of days and die.
Our guide, Jess giving us the run down of this cool formation
the cave also contained some nice concretions. This one looks to have formed around a crab claw
The cave is quite extensive and we explore passageways and crawl-throughs before making our way down to the next level
The second level is a little wetter and I shine my light through a piece of broken limestone under a waterfall.
The second level is where we find the first of the glowworm displays. The following photos are promos from Underworld Adventures. Click to Enbiggen.
The Glowworms here are Arachnocampa Luminosa close cousins to the ones in the Blue Mountains, Arachnoocampa Richardsae. Arachno means spider like, due to the silky stands they use to catch pray. Campa refers to them setting up a little hammock and wait for food to come to them. Luminosa refers to the fact they are Harry Potter Fans.
Next we descend to the 3 level which is where we find the river and mount our tubes.
It had rained for a week prior to our visit, the river was up but Jess was hyped.
Due to needing to paddle and hold on and stuff we couldn’t really get any photos of this section, let me just say it is mind blowing. You alternate from easy floating under a cavern of glowworms to quicker sections where it’s important to avoid being pushed into the undercuts.
But the fun isn’t over. We head out to where the Ananui creek meets the mighty Nile River, Waitakere. From here it’s hold on tight for a fun ride down some mild rapids back to the train.
Would recommend this to anyone, it’s a great trip. The cave system is quite extensive so there are drier options but even midwinter the thick wetsuits hold off the worst of the cold.
Continued on (and I’ll try to be less wordy and more photoey)
Our weekend plans had fallen through so we thought we’d go in search of some waterfalls neither of us had been to before.
Kylie suggested a spot and during research got a tip off that the fire trail out to them had recently been gated.
So we put the mountain bikes in to help eat up the kilometres.
Not only are the swimming holes spectacular this could now be my favourite fire trail ride (Did I just say that? what have I become?) I have a feeling the guy who did the road work is a mountain biker. Each waterbar seemed to be a perfectly shaped step down. Even though recovering from a shoulder injury meant I couldn’t take to the air it was still a blast.
Anyhoo, that’s not what we are here for.
20min later we are stashing the bikes in the bush and heading down a steep trail cutting through subtropical rainforest quiet different from anything you usually see in the upper mountains..
This brings us to a pleasant creek and we head downstream.
We have some lunch and a splash then make our way out.
The Haul up the hill is steep but interesting enough that I wasn’t in a world of suffering. And while I thought the ride back to the car might be tough it was just as much fun as it was coming in, with some pinches to keep you honest.
On the way back we spy some interesting mushrooms.
So of course we had to head back in the dark to see if they still had a shine.
It was faint, barely able to be made out with naked eye but some long exposures brought up their beauty.
Click to enbiggen
Ghost Mushrooms produce bioluminescence for around 22hrs a day. And for 14 of those hours you would think they are just another mushroom. People are like ghost mushrooms, if you can’t see their glow you are looking at them in the wrong light: C Flynn
I always enjoy discovering there’s hidden canyons in areas I thought I knew fairly well.
Suddenly finding ourselves with a spare day we organised a last minute semi exploratory trip to a little canyon none of us had been to before.
Vince had prepared the lidar maps which suggested the constriction would start a bit further downstream than the spot I had selected to enter.
The one source I had said the lidar hadn’t picked up a small cliffline near the creek. says I. I’d hate to miss something.
So we bush bashed in to the spot I had picked. Somehow picking a path to the only 2 cliff lines in that area, luckily there was a path down in-between the two outcrops that look surprisingly like a butt on the lidar. We went down the crack.
The first part of the creek was a bit of a scrubby dub dub with 1000 fallen trees to clamber over but then it opened up a bit
I’ve visited worse creeks
A nice spot for a dip on a warm day. Today was not warm.
and soon it dropped into something that looked very canyon like
A slippery scramble down brought us to a deep, crystal clear pool. Vince spidermaned across. Russ and Jas follow.
This is going to be a test for my shoulder.
I manage to bridge out but as I try the next move I feel the shoulder giving way….. In I go.
It was refreshing.
It should have been a simple bridging exercise.
Couldn’t support my own weight
Not overly deep or consistent but a canyon non-the-less
With some very noice sections.
the next pool looked less avoidable
Even Russ suited up and swam through
Jason decided to give traversing along the side a go. And very nearly made it.
And more pleasant canyon follows
Getting down this tangle of rotting logs and loose boulders was one of the biggest challenges of this little canyon.
And soon we came to the tributary we had planned as our exit.
A little bit of scrambling and a tad of scrub bashing and we were back at the road and quickly headed back to the car to pick up the ropes and harnesses then head off to visit another little canyon not too far away.
Everyone’s favourite squeezy canyon
Russ sitting on everyone’s favourite dodgy anchor
Jason on everyone’s favourite cheese grater abseil
Everyone’s favourite Go/No Go gauge. Don’t go down go over!
Everyone’s favourite helpful team mate
Everyone’s favourite return to the big wide world.
a noice ramp back up through the cliffline.
Then all the was left to do was to bash some more scrub to the main trail and a 3km walk back to the car.
Searching is half the fun. Life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt: J Buffett
Saturday dawned clear but heavy rain was predicted to set in late in the day.
All the comforts of home or sumfink
Today we would leave the camp gear behind and head to the canyon we came out here for. We navigated our way along the, well you can’t call it a ridge but lets say “convoluted yet connected spur” and down to our target creek, which soon canyoned up.
Doesn’t look like much yet but just down there…
It was as specularly beautiful as I’d imagined
Many times throughout the day we would, once again reflect on similarities to Carnarvon Gorge and some of the remote slots we had explored well upstream of the usual tourist hikes. Just all rolled into 1. And greener.
it was grand
Deep, narrow, and twisty
and it went and went
Before opening into a cliff lined oasis.
We wondered down through remnant Gondwana rainforest, in that moment we were content and complete.
There is not enough superlatives to do it justice.
Mini Hunks fist
But the day wasn’t done with us yet. We wound our way through lush coachwoods and ferns to the jaws of another deep and impressive slot.
We wasted no time roping up to drop in
Once again we are dwarfed by moss covered walls
and still it drops
and once we reach the bottom a beam of sun lights up the spray of a side waterfall. The photo does not do it justice but Magic happens.
It’s hard to feel anything but humble out here.
We explore side canyons, again struck by similarities to side slots in Carnarvon Gorge.
We go slow, carefully pick our footsteps not wanting to damage the thick, spongy moss carpet and just soaking in the experience.
And of course before the canyon was done with us it would give us one short swim.
A ways downstream we refill our water bottles and quit this creek via an easy pass onto another convoluted but connected spur.
The sky is ominous so we punch up the spur back to camp.
just over six and a half hours after we left we make it back to camp and attempt to dry things off a bit while cooking diner before retiring under the tarp just as the storm hits.
Sunday
We had some canyons planned but it had rained hard all night and was not letting up. The dump was predicted to get heavier through the day cumulating in a thunder storm after lunch. So we opted to retreat down our first spur back to the pretty creek. The flow had definitely increased since yesterday and by the time we waded upstream to the bottom of a canyon that would lead us back up to the fire trail we had walked in on the rain was getting heavier.
Knowing this canyon was deep, narrow and long and still expecting a storm we reluctantly decided to slip up a pass beside it instead. The ridge I was hoping to use to avoid dropping back into the head waters of the canyon proved to be far more complex than the topo map suggested but it eventually got us to the road via another spectacular knife edge.
With empty heads and full souls all that was left to do was to follow the trail back to the car and the long drive home.
At the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair messy, and your eyes sparkling: Shanti
One of the less visited canyons in Mt Wilson beckoned and we headed the call.
The section we did is more or less a creek walk with an abseil but it had some pretty bits and was a relaxing way to spend a rainy morning out.
The theme song for the day was that song by The Presidents of the United States, Leeches. “Millions of leeches, leeches for free. Millions of Leeches all coming for me”
We start down an old tourist trail, cross a small creek then spear off into the scrub, cutting below a parcel of private property. The scrub was nowhere near as bad as expected but the rain had turned the ground into a slippery mud slide.
We had a Grid reference in the main creek below the next tributary upstream and while we doubted we needed to go that far up we also knew there was only 1 main feature in this section and we didn’t want to miss it.
Skirting the private property we optioned to stroll down the nose of the ridge rather than battle our way down the creek line. It was easy going and brought us to a small cliffline over looking the junction of the trib and the main creek.
We roped up and made short work of the 10m drop then scrambled down to the creek.
Waterfall creek itself is a tributary of Bowen Creek and has that lush beauty about it.
She is fernalicious, pondalicious and delicious
H, not on the phone, honest.
The creek tries to canyon up. But we are too high in the strata for a consistent slot.
A fun little abseil in the most canyony bit
And before long we come to the pool known as “Happy Valley”
The rain had turned the water a little murky but the greenery of outstanding
We could have kept exploring down stream but know this is an easy exit option and for today, that’ll do.
A lot of work has gone into the trail in and out of this little pool. It might be a nice spot for a swim on a hot summers day, though it’s a steep haul out.
If leeches ate peaches instead of my blood, then I would be free to drink tea in the mud: E Autumn
sleepwhenwearedead 