Max drop approx 45m
9hr
Public Access
Waterfall tramping trip. Low volume, several 30-45m drops.
This canyon is fully described in the Canyoning in NZ guidebook.
Below is a video from Tony Gazley, from a Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club trip to the canyon. WTMC does a few canyoning trips in the area; get in touch with them to get involved.
Another big day out to finish the upgrades that we started last trip.
If you get in before the tributary there is a 5m abseil with natural anchors on the TL.
We placed a single bolt on TR before R1 on a slippery section to get around a dodgy downclimb.
Existing double bolts on TR of R2 are in good condition.
R5 natural anchor is undercut after slip so double bolts have been installed on TR.
R6 anchors were removed as the rock quality was terrible. New double bolts were installed on the TR.
Existing double bolts on TL of R7 are in good condition.
We were surprised by how faded our webbing was from our last trip after 8 months in the sun. This has all been replaced again but future groups should be prepared to do the same.
An awesome fun (and reasonably long) day out.
Removed a few kgs of old webbing, maillons, and rusty carabiners. Replaced everything with nice new webbing. I will try to add some photos here or on the Facebook page.
The slip debris from 2020 has largely been washed through now as can be seen from the video on this page. We placed a single bolt at the top of R5 as the tree originally used as the natural anchor is precariously undercut by the slip. The anchors at the top of R6 (where the slip was) are currently safe although the rock quality is not great. We replaced the hangers and linked them with webbing but these should ideally be moved to the other side when someone next has the capacity to do this.
All in all, it was a great day out. I would definitely head back there.
We set out to do the canyon today, but turned back after reading this in the Waiorongomai Hut book from May 2020:
“2nd 40+ m abseil not safe after recent slip. No safe anchor pts. We used 2nd TR to exit”. No further details available.
[A post transfered from Facebook, made by Martin Wilson, 22 Mar 2016:]
“We recently descended Eager Beaver (wairapapa) and placed twin bolts above each of the 3 big abseils. These reduce the risk of abseiling off rotten log jams over rock edges. We found an abandoned rope on the last abseil trashed by the water. The abseiler had used a fishermans knot, which always jams on edges, and then failed to move the knot past the edge!
Our new bolts take the rope just out of the flows reducing the hazard of high water decent and smoother pull throughs.
Great canyon, thanks for the discovery.”
Hit this canyon up just before winter, it was absolutely Adrenalin pumping. I’ve done a lot of caving and climbing but this was the first canyon. No problems finding it with the instructions, actually entered into the top stream further up and had another 7-8 m abseil. All the log anchors were still in place, look pretty sketchy but there solid.
Took a bit longer than expected and it got dark at the top of the second major waterfall, and then on the last major abseil our ropes got stuck (50m 9ml dynamic and 50m 11ml static) the ropes were probably crossed but the two of us couldn’t pull it down and it was pitch black by this point and we couldn’t see what was going on even with head torches.n knowing we had a few shorter abseils left we had no choice but to pull as much rope down as possible and cut them (very, very soul crushing/tears in my eyes) thankfully we got just enough to get out of the canyon get back to the cabin and enjoy a few brews.
You really do need alot of sling we sacrificed 5.
all in all was an awesome day and we will be back in there after winter to do it again maybe with some footage this time.
chur