seland

Mill Creek

| 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.

Epic vistas greet us ©Dave

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 be 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 dodge 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.

The roar of the water is intense

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
and gorgeous colours ©Dave
Kristo looking down to where the water disappearing into a deep slot
Into the jaws of the beast ©Dave
©Kylie
©Jason

So many smiles on this one

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

| 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.
Kylie and Hywaida all smiles

Next up

Hywaida on rope
©Kristo

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.

Kristo mid leap
Beautiful, deep schist
You can’t put into words just how insignificant you become when emerged in a place of this grandeur
beauty and power

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

cheeky monkeys

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

Cross Creek

| 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 a few fun little slides greeted us
And some easier features to be wary of
And natures artworks

It was a little bit fun

all on wonderfully grippy Schist
and crystal clear water

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

$10 funsicle kiddies pool!!!!
Say no to Didymo ©Kylie

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

Continued onto Wilsons Creek

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