Popeye creek pops in and out of canyon sections along much of its course and it’s one I’d not done before.
A big Saturday trip had been foiled by thunderstorms and we just needed to shake out the cobwebs but couldn’t be arsed repacking ropes and stuff so thought why not have a look at some non abseil sections in Popeye.
Meeting at the crack of 10am, or there abouts we make our way in in no time.
We’d be entering the canyon a long way upstream of where the jamieson guide recommends but not too far from the increasingly popular Popeye falls.
The creek cuts a deep, promising looking cleft in the sandstone.
A short section of narrow u bends hide a pleasant little canyon.
There’s a bit of bridging to stay dry above the knees. But the water is a pleasant temp anyway
Not the figure 8 pool
It is very pretty.
Parts very similar to the Dumbano tunnels.
We are already impressed. the canyon opens up a bit and Waratahs line the banks.
Waratahs along a spur off Waratah ridge? Who would have thunk it
And soon we come to the falls.
Most visitors to here avoid the canyon bit and keep their feet dry by scrambling down the nose.
It’s a funky little waterfall through an arch in a side creek
We phaff about with photos for a bit, we have to pool all to ourselves., but then push on downstream to the next canyon section.
A bit wider and deeper it’s a nice walk through section
It’s nice
Again the canyon opens out. We believe it’s a 1km scrub bash down to the next bit so, happy with our easy day, we retrace our steps back up to the waterfall. A crowd of people are here now.
There’s an easier way in, says old mate sucking in a vape.
We came that way, replies Ellie very politely. We just had a look at some other stuff while out here.
We leave the guards and scramble out into the cliff top for lunch.
We were keen as mustard to give the new Alucab camper a proper test out and as luck would have it Kylie had organised a long weekend of adventures in and around Long Plain, Kosciuszko NP.
Rocking into Cooleman camp late Friday night it was so good to just pop the top and be able to crawl into bed
A near full moon blazed out potential milky way or comet shots.
We get a good night sleep but are up early for what would become and epic adventure in Landers Falls.
Doesn’t really need words but we road tripped out of Melbourne and made our first stop in The Great Otways NP for waterfalls and old growth Gondwana forests.
Glowworms. Always chasing glowworms
And then we cruise on down the road turning left at every opportunity to look at big rocks sticking out of the southern ocean.
We spend the night at Warrnambool and then make our way back on the slightly less travel inland route to check out the amzing geology of Victorias extinct volcanos and salt lakes
There’s one more geological marvel we want to see.
But before we get there we stop at a PDS to empty the grey water out of van and top up fresh water.
While there and another van pulls up and out jumps Debby Downer wanting a chat.
Moeraki Boulders? Says him after asking where we are heading. That’s a big lot of disappointment. nothing there, just rocks on a beach…
And he proceeds to launch into a general whinge about the world, life, and modern times intermingled with a racist rant or two. I curse at how slow the grey water tank drains and opt to just pretend it’s finished so I can move on quicker…
So what are the Moeraki Boulders?
Well old racist Karen was sort of right, they are rocks on a beach.
But not just any rocks, they are concretions, Septarian Concretions to be exact. Similar to the ones we saw in the cave tour only bigger. Much bigger.
What the hell are Septarian Concretions?
I’m glad you ask.
They are nodules of rock, typically spherical, usually formed in cabanate rich mudstone. They often “grow” around something, a crab claw or dinosaur bone for example, so often contain fossils in their centre.
So basically as dumbed down as I needed it explained to me, a bit of organic matter is engulfed in mud and a rock “crystal” grows around it before the mud/sand is rockyfied itself.
Time move son and the softer mudstone or sandstone is eroded from around the harder nodule leaving behind big marbles.
And if that’s not impressive enough to make you want to check them out. Well they are on a spectacular stretch of beach.
And, well
Just look at them!
There are other, similar concretions 20km south at Shag Point (Teheheh, Shag!) that contain plesiosaur fossils but we are heading north…
And that end’s our New Zealand adventure, for this time. The following day is spent making our way back up to Christchurch, we’ve a plane to catch.
All in all we had a great trip. To recap here’s a list of links to all the awesome stuff we got to see and do.
From Lake Pukaki we back-track and little and head east. There is something we want to check out on the East Coast. On the way we spot tourist signs and make the occasional diversion to check them out.
One of the more interesting ones was Elephant Rocks near Duntroon.
Once again these are just in old mates paddock and it’s a honour system donation to enter.
What are they?
Well they are big rocks sticking out of the grass.
More specifically they are the disected remnants of the Otekaike Limestone formation sitting over Oligocene Koloamu Greensand.
That is. Big limestone rocks sticking out of the grass.
The site was used as a filming location for the film version of that famous fantasy book that was filmed in New Zealand.
No, not that one! The Chronicles of Narnia.
The rocks look nothing like Elephants, nor witches, lions or wardrobes.
But they are pretty cool.
From here the plan is to push through to the east coast
From Aoraki we head down the valley to Lake Pukaki.
One of the larger freedom camps we’ve come across to date, we set the van up with tremendous views across the expansive lake.
The reflections off the snow capped mountains made great photos with a grand view of the sun set.
This also gives me an idea. I do a few calculations and check a few things and work out that in the wee hours of the morning the Milkyway should be splayed out horizontally above the mountains.
Now I just need to decide if I really want to interrupt my sleep to crawl out of a nice warm bed and stand in the cold….
Milky over the lake with a truck passing over the spillway.
Another hour and it might have presented as more of an arch over the mountains but it was 2:30am and -6ºC. I wasn’t hanging around.
Lake Pukaki was just one of the amazing lakes we drove past / stopped at / were amazed by.
This might sound naive but the size and amount of lakes caught me by surprise. I mean, I knew the rivers and creek systems were a lot higher flow but kinda just assumed they tumbled off the mountains and flowed into the ocean. Coming from the driest habitable continent on earth the shear amount of lakes contained by our little cousin across the ditch, and their size, blew me away.
Below is a random collection of photos of just some of the ones we stopped at for photos.
Anyhoo after the epic nightscape shoot we sleep in a little then head to Elephant Rocks.
From the Clay Cliffs we make our way up to White Horse Hill campground which is nestled below the towering peak of Aorali/Mount Cook.
White Horse Hill is a paid ground. During the winter the main toilet/shower blocks are closed off as the frequent negative temperatures lead to burst pipes and what not. What you are left with is two of the smelliest drop toilets I’ve ever encountered, And I’ve done long weekends at Newnes Camp ground in it’s heyday.
Take the biggest breath you can here and hold it as long as you can, a young whipper snapper was heard giving advice to her younger brother…..
Don’t let that put you off though, the scenery is well worth a skinny loo or two.
We roll in late afternoon and set the camp up. The temperature is already -2ºC and falling. The little diesel heater fitted in the van is amazing.
As night settles in and the temp plummets to -8º we decide to brave it for the sake of the most amazingly clear night sky.
Clicky Clicky to see full photo
The next day we head out on the Hooker Valley Trail.
Normally this gives the closest access to the base Aoraki the general public will get and also views over the proglacial Hooker Lake, complete with icebergs, however only a short section of the trail was open at the time of our visit due to track work and a bridge being washed out.
the short open section did, however provide great views over the Mueller Glacier and it’s lake.
Next we return to the van and duck over to the village for a coffee. While there we dropped in to the Department of Conservation information centre.
Wow!!!
What an amazing free resource. If you were in the area and the weather was bad you could easily spend a whole day in here. There are displays and videos and more lots more.
But today was a blue bird day so we have a quick look and then head over towards the Tasman Glacier.
Here you can take helicopter tour or a boat tour on the lake. We opt to just do the tourist walks.
Sitting between NZ’s two tallest peaks the Tasman is New Zealand’s largest glacier, being up to 4km wide and 600m thick in places. It had remained a fairy constant 28km long through out its recorded history up until it starting to retreat in the 1990s. It’s currently 23km long and retreating on average 180m/year.
Looking up the lake from the tourist lookout the glacier is’t much to look at. Compared to the white snow and crystal blue ice on the Franz Josef, the Tasman crunches up and contains a lot more rock and minerals (Glacier flour), giving it a dark, almost dirty appearance. Without the information sign at the I doubt most people, me included, would pick it out in the distance.
The lake, however is stunning.
The Blue Pools. When named they were connected to the glacier and very blue. Now they are cut off they are more a stagnant green.
Back at the van we start heading back down the valley.
On the way in I’d caught a glimpse of Wakefield Falls. It caught my eye on the way back out.
Is that waterfall frozen?
Looks like it.
It’s difficult to come to terms with scale here. That waterfall tumbles 230 vertical meters.
We pull over for a better look.
Na, it’s flowing. Looks like a cracker of a slot it’s tumbling into.
Should we go for a look.
hell yeah.
I grab the camera and off we go.
There is what appears to be a former tourist trail that comes and goes through the scrub and scree.
Did I mention it is hard to come to terms with scale here? It becomes apparent it’s further than it first looked.
Belatedly I realise in my excitement to get going I failed to grab my puffer jacket and beanie. This is how silly tourist get themselves on the news kids. Luckily not today though
Halfway up we meet to Russian(?) guys coming back down.
Did you get to the waterfall? ask we
Yes yes. Beautiful. Very careful. Very careful.
We push on. We reach the end of the flatter basin and the terrain gets steeper and looser. We had been yeeting up but slow here. A rolled ankle, rock fall or dislodging the scree here would be bad indeed.
There is still a fair way to go. Says Kylie. We should set a hard stop point.
Good idea.
It had been about 2:15pm when we left the van. We decide at 3:15 we need to turn around to get back prior to loosing the light.
I think we gained about 200m of elevation from the road. A bit after 3pm we get to a point where we had a a reasonable view into the slot where 3 streams of the falls converge.
We are so close. Another 10-15min and we’d be at the base of the falls. but hard stops are hard stops and but I know by the time I get the camera set up and get some shot we’d be close to time so thats what we do.
I’d guesstimate the bottom tier you can see here is about 50m tall
We get the shots and video in and scoot back down.
Part way down we come across this old information sign. Weird spot but I guess the old tourist track came up to this vantage point.
Explaining how the moraines pushed up by the glaciers formed dams in the rivers as the glacier retreated. or sumfink
Back at the van we chug down the road making for a freedom camp at lake Pukaki
From Wanaka at the end of the Haast Pass we head up to Omarama for another geological wonder, the Clay Cliffs.
We miss timed it a bit and got there pretty much at noon which meant the contrasting light made photography difficult but hopefully the epicness of the landscape still came through.
The Omarama Clay Cliffs are on private land and there’s a honesty system donation to enter.
Formed from millions of years of sediment deposit at the bottom of a lake then uplifted and tilted, the Clay Cliffs are a classic example of what is termed “Badlands erosion”
They really are spectacular.
Kylie has a much better and more scientific explanation of these formations.
Here’s what she said
“I still remember the first time our lecturer brought us here and told us to “run wild and free” as he explained to us this magnificent example of tectonics in action. The Clay Cliffs are sedimentary deposits that were once the base of river bed. Due to the position of the Ostler Fault line under the South Island of New Zealand the river bed has been uplifted overtime and then eroded to form these strikingly alien planet like features.
New Zealand is an amazing country to see Earth in motion, similar to Iceland where tectonic forces are still very much at play building the landscape as we speak. Unlike Australia that is so ancient it only erodes now.
Anyway the Clay Cliffs are totally cool, I’m still finding new parts of it to explore every time I come back.”
Click to make the photo go biggish
it was still a little chillyIce
After spending most of the afternoon here we jump in the van and make tracks up to Aoraki aka Mount Cook.
sleepwhenwearedead 