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
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)
Most people do Newnes ( or Starlight) Canyon as a round trip, climbing up the pipeline trail, working their way around the ridges and abseiling in. And don’t get me wrong that’s a great way of doing it but there is a lot to be said about doing it as an up and back from the bottom.
The canyon is off limits over winter as it is an important hybernation cave for bentwing bats and disturbing them during their sleepy time invariable leads to a percentage of them dying as there is no food around food them to replenish the energy it takes to come out of hybernation.
Anyhoo, I had planned to do this earlier in the year on the last weekend before the closure except in the week leading up NPs put out a notice that they were hazard reduction burning and all the canyons in the area were closed…….
Fast forward to the other end of hybernation season and we were good to go.
The plan was to ride down the maintenance trail from the locked gate, stash the bikes then make up way up to the cliffline and into the canyon.
I’ve done it this way several times and have always been able to get all the way up to the bottom of the abseil point (the top of the canyon) no dramas. However, last summer people were reporting deep swims in the tunnel and while that is normal after heavy rain the fact that the water hung around post rain had me thinking maybe something in the floor or blockage had changed.
Not tha I was too worried about long swims after the dry winter we’ve had but the thought of a deep wade through stagnant, bat shit filled water wasn’t that inviting. I needn’t have worried as the tunnel was as dry as a nun’s nasty.
But I get ahead of myself
While bikes arn’t necessary they do turn an hour long fire trail walk either way into the 20min ride and the ride down was uneventful, almost. Tina had a small off at the bottom of a loose down hill on a sandy corner and hurt her elbow. As a mad trail runner that didn’t bother her. a sore elbow would not stop her from running so no worries. We hide the bikes in the thick scrub and head across the river which is about as low as I’ve ever seen it.
A bridge over the wolgan
Up the hill we went taking a bit more of a meandering route than I usually take which made the climb up fairly simple, then we took in the views down the Wolgan from the base of the upper cliff before working our way around into the canyon.
Looking down the magnificant Wolgan Valley
Entering into the lower canyon is like entering another world. The micro climate is completely different to the scrub out on the exposed hill side
This is magical, Flynny, says Sav as we make our way up through ferns, coachwoods and vines so big that at first you think you are stepping over a fallen tree, only to realise its a living vine.
I smile to myself, this is just the appetiser and I think that is the reason I like doing the reverse trip of Newnes Canyon. The starlight section is so awesome that when you come through it from the top you are in such awe of the top section that you kind of over look how spectacular this bottom section is.
There are a few scrambling sections but everytime you would otherwise be blocked tree roots and vines have grown into the perfect pass up.
And then, just as you are thinking the walls are petering out and the canyon is about to open out the upper cliffs encroach and suddenly the canyon closes in
A lovely narrow section of canyon follows and again people remark how awesome it is. But again I know it gets better
Autal in the long section of deep, narrow canyon
Tina with head torch on as the walls get higher and the canyon gets darker
The canyon breifly opens out and what was dry, bare and sandy suddenly becomes damp, lush and green
Tina in the green section
And then we reach the Amazing Wallaby tunnel, better known as the Starlight section, high up the walls close in so much, become so twisted, and are jammed with chock stones that it forms a high narrow tunnel.
Autal and Rob entering the tunnel
I feel on previous trips the glowworms were far more abundant, maybe that has to do with the dry winter, maybe it’s just the time of year as I think it’s around mating season for the flies, maybe it’s just modern headlights are so bright now you don’t notice the worms unless you tuen them off and give your eyes a few minutes to adjust, or maybe the bats had a wormy feast when they awoke
After 300m or so of tight twisting tunnel the roof opens back up and just around the corner is the waterfall that is the normal absiel in point.
I have known people to absiel in here but be blocked by deep water in the tunnel so they had to prusik back out and abseil in further down. I also know of at least 1 group who pulled their ropes without checking the tunnel was passable and were forced to spend a couple of days huddled here waiting for rescue…. When absieling in the first person need check all the way through the tunnel before getting others to absiel or pulling ropes.
And after taking time to enjoy just being there we leave Ed and TJ to get about photo phaffing with their good cameras and the rest of us make our way back down
Autal in a narrow squeeze admiring the bats far above
Autal in the green section
We have a bit of lunch and then explore up a side canyon called Upside Down canyon.
Bottom section of Upside Down Canyon.
The bottom section of Upside Down involves some tricky climbs up through small holes. I made the first look far harder than it was mainly as I forgot had the go pro on a chest mount and had to do some contortioning so as not to scracth the crap out of it.
Rob squeezing up through one of the holes. It’s about 7foot straight down, if you squint you can make out Tina down below him
Ron in Upside Down canyon
Our path was blocked by this small waterfall
I remeber the water fall from previous visits and started brisging up, the walls were a tad slippery, I had no doubt we could get everyone up, what I did doubt thou was getting people back down safely without ropes… I’m sure there use to be a log or something here to make the down climb simpler.
Anyhoo despite knowing the top section has some pretty bit I decide it’s not worth the risk today so we turned tail and headed back down.
Ed and TJ are still phaffing so we sit back and just take in the surrounds
Honey comb walls. we sat and watched the bird dart in an out of pockets and holes
Supurb Lyrebird on the wing
Then it was time to head on out
I’d noticed this massive vine knotted around the base of the tree on the way up and was hope to catch it in the right light on the way back down. The light did not disappoint. Another advantage of doing the canyon as an up and back the changing light can be magical
And before long we are back at the Wolgan river
The ride back up the valley is a bit more difficult than the ride down but for a mountain biker it’s still better than trudging along a fire trail.
Party size: 7 mixed canyoning experience levels but all experienced outdoors
Timing: 6hr 20 with lots of photo phaffing and chilling out
People talk about their comfort zone as though it’s a place they want to stay don’t they realise your comfort zone is the most dangerous place to be
sleepwhenwearedead 