stalactite

New Zealand South Island road trip 2025. The launch

| flynny101

New Zealand is a mountain bike and canyoning Mecca so it might come as a surprise that

  1. I hadn’t been before
  2. On my first trip there I had no intention of doing either
  3. 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.

Toot toot!!!

©Jess the wonder guide
Codi, the big Canadian was over the moon that we rang the previous day to book as there’s a minimum of 2 for the trip to go ahead and until we rang he was told it wouldn’t be offered. ©Kylie

All Photos from the cave are ©Kylie unless stated otherwise as the second half activities meant I didn’t take my camera.

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.

It was hella fun

And then we reach the end of the cave.

©Jess the wonder guide

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)

Stalactites and Scrub fights

| flynny101

Kylie, Jason, Jen, Kirstie, H, and meeeeeee

Anyone want to come on a trip that might be a big day of scrub bash to a poor quality canyon? Say I

Hell yeah! says the above awesome folk.

It’s been a hot minute since I’d organised a semi exploratory trip to a canyon I’d not visited before so it was about bloody time I got out of my funk and Kylie might have gave me a bit of a nudge.

The entry in the Jamieson guide labels it “Ashcroft Ravine” with the description it includes the best bit of Wentworth Creek. There was a reference elsewhere of “Cut-throat canyon.” None of it was clear on what was what and where was where but anyhoo.

The little information we could find suggested the first part of the creek (Variously marked on maps as “Franks” or “Franki”) was a viscous scrub bash so we substituted that for a slightly less scrubby bash down a ridge to drop in right at the start of a canyony bit via 2 short abseils.

Straight away it was more impressive than I was expecting and every bit as slippery.

No scrub in sight and a pleasant bit of canyon greeted us
It was dark and cool but pretty
The canyon section only went a short way before opening into a beautiful, more open gorge

And that would be the theme of Franks(i) short, South Bowenesk canyon sections and more open ravine.

With some tunnel sections and squeezy bits along the way
And it kept going
Very South Bownen like in spots
With tunnels
And happy smiley faces

We made it to the junction with Wentworth creek and had Elevensies.

Wentworth creek put me in mind of the end of Bell creek or sumfink big and grand.
And soon we came across one of the features that when I heard about them really piqued my interest

Tucked away in alcoves along the walls are a series of Stalagmites and Stalactites. In sandstone! I’m assuming there is a drip line passing through an ironstone layer high in manganese or some such, but if any geologist out there have a better explanation please leave a comment.

Older flowstone covered in moss and algae
They were awesome and more numerous than I had expected
On we went and the gorge continued to be impressive

The banks opened out a little and we alternated between traversing high on banks and wading down the creek depending.

Just before the tributary we had marked as our exit Jen and Kirstie spotted a ramp leading up in roughly the right direction that looked like it might bypass one of the 3 climbs Jamieson described.

Kylie and Kirstie scouted up while the rest of us got changed.

It’s bit dodge but it looks like it goes, Called they.

Be careful, called us.

Before long the agreed whistle blasts came to inform us it did indeed go.

We were now in the exit creek but soon came to the small waterfalls that would be the main challenge of getting out.

Reports I had been able to find described a climb on the right.

Jason running out of handholds and grip on the left while Kylie tries the tree roots on the right. ©Jen

Kylie gets up to a series of fractured ledges that looked doable but sketchy and dropped a rope down. Jason and I ascended up to her.

The next section looked shit and we weren’t sure what was above. Kylie stood on a log to step up to the next ledge but the log snapped with a thud.

In the meantime the rest of the group were looking for other options.

Back to the left might be doable. Called they

The lidar looks better on the left. Says Jen

I’ll drop back down and check the left option. Said I

Kristie leads me back around bulge and across a very narrow ledge. A short slab climb (maybe grade 7 or 8 but very exposed) presented itself. Up I went. A narrow ledge ramped up below the cliff line.

It goes. says I.

We got a rope up and the rest followed.

It had taken us about an hour and a half to work this puzzle out but once solved it was simple enough.

From there is was a trudge back up to the top of the ridge and back to the cars.

William Charles Wentworth, Billie C-Dubb to his mates, was a statesman, pastoralist, newspaper editor, politician, author, reformist, and advocate.

That’s the type of stuff people could achieve before TV or social media.

That and having 10 kids (Seven daughters and three sons.)

Who Frank, Franki or Ashcroft were I have no idea.

But the creeks named after them are both worth an explore.

BACK

Wee Jasper Caving

| flynny101

05/10/2024

Gadget, Leo, Madie, Russ, Gibbo and Vince with cameos from Aleasha, Random Chris, Pippa and Oban.

To be honest caving hasn’t really been on my bucket list. I had worked as an underground miner so time off in the sunshine appealed more than spending my time off in another hole in the ground.

Sure I’d done the touristy ones and crawled into some Glowworm caves but that’s different.

I’ve since moved to an above ground role but being a little on the portly side full on caving made me a bit nervous.

Anyhoo, I asked the crew, do you have any plans for the long weekend?

Wanna come caving at Wee Jasper, they replied

why the hell not. I thunked. Time to push my comfort zone a notch or two.

The hills around Wee Jasper are riddled with limestone caves. Some, such as Carey’s are paid tourist caves. Some are wild and technical. We were aiming for somewhere in the middle. Well explored holes requiring rope work for access and optional squeezey sections.

First stop was the Dip series.

At the car park we run into Chris who shall forever more be known as Random Chris. He is heading into the Gong Cave, which is connected to the Dip series but the connections are too tight for human passage.

We chat briefly and go our separate ways.

Dip is a series of 5 parallel caves with interconnecting passages. 1 and 2 are usually walk throughs but some low life dumped asbestos at the mouth of 1 so it’s temporarily barricaded up.

4 and 2 have openings to the sky so we set ropes in them.

About now I’m starting to think it’s a good day for fresh air and sunshine or sumfink

I absolutely do not bow to peer pressure and we drop into 4

Kylie in the first cavern of Dip 4

we work our way over to explore 5

It’s quite nice.
We play around crawling through passageways and poking around holes. In the immortal words of Garron Noon: this one is tiny and it has spikey things. It doesn’t want you in there sir!

There are all sorts of mnemonics to remember the difference between stalactites and stalagmites but the best one for me is to think of a ballerina dancing on a termite ridden stage.

When the mites go up the tights come down.

Anyhoo

Back to 4 and more exploring.

Then rather than abseil into 3 and be committed to whatever squeeze is required to get from there to 2 I opt to jug back out and Kylie joins me.

We meet the others a short time later as they ascend out of “the day light chamber” of 2

Of course they regale us with tales of magical chambers, wide, crystal filled passageways and a super easy ascent and sparkling unicorns farting fairy floss…

A quick bite to eat and we head into the Gong

We’d read the entry to the Gong was harder to find but it wasn’t. Grotty clothing back on and in we go.

I’d heard this one was a lot more straight forward with less crawling so I take the good camera hoping to get some pretty stuff. I did, but then somehow formatted the memory card 🤦‍♂️

The others go off exploring while I snap away.

A trail of fresh blood has us worried Random Chris has done himself a mischief
We explore on.
Before ascending out.

we head for the camp showers which were gloriously hot and clean.

Luckily we run into Random Chris and enquire about the blood. Seems he cut his finger on a shard and hadn’t realised it was bleeding so bad.

Day 2 and we go looking for the Devils Punchbowl and find it just as Random Chris arrives.

You might as well share our ropes if you want. We offer.

He has done the cave before and tells us the must do chambers. And we sort of just absorb him into the group.

Looking back I’m not 100% sure it was consensual.

Gadget dropping into the Punchbowl

I’m a little more comfortable after yesterday’s introduction but still not overly keen on the tighter stuff.

Luckily it starts with a massive chamber

There are passageways heading off everywhere

We crawl down a few before taking Random Chris’ advice and head for a great adventure

We get to a squeezey bit.

I baulk.

Common! It’s a short squeeze then it opens out and keeps going.

I suck in my gut, think thin thoughts and shimmy on through. It’s actually not too bad. If you are a bean pole.

Back into a passage of sensible dimensions I round a corner.

Manic laugher erupts. The crew is hiding with lights out. It’s a dead end but they knew I’d be able to do the crawl. it’s their way of safely encouraging me to push my limits. I laugh with them.

They are laughing with me not at me. Maybe.

The crew at the dead end. Random Chris at his rightful spot as a semi captive in the middle. Stockholm syndrome has well and truly kicked in
A more sensible sized crawl.

We explore more passages. Squeeze through gaps and clamber up and down ropes.

We are in a side circuit that’s quiet pretty

Um this is a bit tight says Russ

Um is it Flynny size asks Madie

Sure says Leo.

Hmm says Vince. Not sure if forward or backwards is best.

This is awkward says Gibbo

Hmm there use to be a wider passage up there says Random Chris. I don’t remember this.

Seeing them squeeze into a narrow hole. I’m out of here says Flynny. And I back out like Iggy Pop out of a shirt.

Gadget accompanies me back the way we came and we meet the others back at the start of the circuit.

Some more bats. More exploring and we head back for fresh air.

Ascending out. A largish scout group was coming in thus all the ropes.

And with that me and Gadget bid the others fair well. They were going to visit Signature cave in the afternoon but we decide to hit the road.

Another fantastic adventure and over due catchup with these awesome peeps.

Surround yourself with awesome people. Experience awesome things.

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