Bush and Baths

Almost a year ago to the day we had attempted this route in reverse, going up Rocky Creek and descending Griffin Creek. An hour before darkness we stood less than 40m vertically below the saddle between the two valleys at the base of what I recalled to be "a 15m waterfall, at least vertical and probably overhanging". We'd had enough and headed back to Rocky Creek Hut, not sure if we were even on the right route. All we knew was that it had taken us far too long to get up Rocky Creek and that crossing to Griffin was now out of the question.

We were still keen to see Griffin Creek and Hut however as well as complete the circuit so a fine Saturday morning saw us parked once again at the Rocky Creek end together with three Nelson based trampers who were walking up Rocky Creek.. We however were going to do the trip in reverse, so all being well we would see them at Griffin Hut later in the day.

Walking in to Griffin Creek was more straightforward than we expected. The track is well marked and although very steep in sections there are plenty of tree roots to pull on. The bush is the beautifully lush West Coast type.

Only the scrub zone is overgrown which takes about 10 minutes to negotiate and we stopped for lunch just off of point 974m where we had lunch with an inquisitive weka.

The descent from here is pretty narrow, but the trees block out most of the exposure and pretty soon we were at Griffin Creek. This is a lovely valley with deep river pools and Blue Duck. We counted 8 in total, but maybe 2 were the same and following us up the river.

It's only 45 minutes up to Griffin Hut which is a real treat with many homely touches. The best past is that a bath has been installed down by the creek. This is heated by making a fire under it. Sitting it a warm bath in the bush whilst a weka tries to steal your clothes is a wonderful experience.

The other trampers that we had seen at the Rocky Creek entrance didn't arrive until gone 8:00pm so we went to bed expecting another big Sunday.

The track over the saddle is pretty overgrown. It starts off OK and then you walk in a creek for a bit, but after that it's a fight to make progress. The 1km from the hut to the saddle took us 2 hours in total. We couldn't see much from the saddle itself as the cloud had come down, the saddle is just high enough to reach the scrub zone.

The initial descent from the saddle is better and pretty soon we were crossing the slip mentioned in all of the route guides.

We then found ourselves at the top of the waterfall that we had been below a year previously.
On closer inspection, it was more a waterslide than a waterfall, with three flat sections in between three short steps. Maybe in total 5m. It's funny how your mind plays tricks on you.

The waterslide was easily negotiated and an hour later we were back at the turning to Rocky Creek Hut, on the route we had walked last year.

Rocky Creek is much prettier in its lower sections than the confined and overgrown creek head. With the knowledge of several shortcuts on a lot of the bends we are getting much faster at this section of the route and pretty soon we reached the start of the route to sidle across to the Taipo Valley.

For the second tramp in a row we bumped in to Frank and Honora. They were busy cutting the track on the descent to the Taipo Valley and had done a great job, especially on the river flats which were no longer a maze. We arrived back at the car after having taking 8 hours from Griffin Hut, which we thought was quite a respectable effort.

Penguins and Round Rocks

So we went penguin spotting down near Oamaru.
There are two colonies. The 'Yellow Eyed' penguins are viewed on a beach from a cliff top and are free to visit. There was something on the beach that looked suspiciously penguin like but it was hard to tell without binoculars. See if you can decide from the photo below.

You have to pay to see the Blue Penguins and sit quietly in a large shelter so as not to disturb them when they arrive ashore and photos aren't allowed. We saw about 120 making there way up the beach in the twilight and running across to their nests.

On the Sunday we went to see the Moeraki Boulders. Had a great breakfast in the cafe which overlooks the beach and boulders first. Managed to get down there just before all the other tourists turned up too, which was a big bonus.

East Hawdon Stream - Mt Valiant - Casey Saddle Circuit

This was another weekend tramp with a long second day after an easy Saturday start. We left the car at Andrew’s Shelter knowing it would save us a few kilometres on the way back and headed across the flats to walk up the Hawdon Valley.

The river had changed course since we had been here last and now flowed though the gate giving access to the valley. After an early lunch stop we made good progress to the East Hawdon Stream, where we were on to new territory.

This branch is much more confined than the main valley and there are quickly good views of Mount Valiant. Carolina managed to keep her feet dry most of the way up but was eventually thwarted by a small outcrop that required crossing the stream at a deeper pool.

About 30 minutes after arriving at the East Hawdon Biv, a thunderstorm came hurtling in across the Savannah Range, it then proceeded to hail heavily for about half an hour. The sun stayed hidden for the rest of the day though and it was a bit clagged in for a while.

A 7:00am start on the Sunday saw a mixture of brighter spells together with some lingering fog. This followed us all the way to the small saddle between Smooth Peak and Mount Valiant with the amount increasing at an impressive rate and the blue sky disappearing just as quickly. When we were there it was impossible to tell whether we were going to be in cloud all day.

Just as thoughts of heading back down were springing to mind the sun started trying hard again and then within the space of 10 minutes it had cleared completely and we had a blue sky day.
From the Mt Valiant ridge we sidled on it’s north side across scree and boulders to regain the NE ridge before following this all the way to Green Hill.

The views on this section were outstanding starting with Mount Hunt, The Worsley Pass and the head of the Poulter River and then later the Minchin River , Lake Minchin and the wide open flats of the Poulter Valley and range upon range of tops beyond.

We continued along the ridge and were on Castle Hill at 2:00pm, but then progress slowed considerably. A fairly unpleasant scrub / low bush descent to the Casey and Surprise Stream confluence seemed to take forever, however the pleasant creek walk up Surprise Stream made up for it and took us to Casey Saddle.

It’s a long way back from Casey Saddle at the end of a big day. Much further than it seems when you walk in that way and you even have to climb above the gorge. In fact the gorge sidle above the Andrews Stream is higher than the saddle itself. Its amazing how much of this climbing goes unnoticed when you are fresh and walking in rather than heading back.

We were lucky enough to be caught up by Frank King and Honora Renwick on the walk out. In fact they walk so quietly that I didn’t even realise they were behind me until they spoke, quite unexpected as I hadn’t thought we would meet anybody late on a Sunday afternoon. Carolina had met them on Stewart Island several years ago, but I never had, despite seeing their names in just about every hut book in Arthurs Pass. They had been in to Ranger Biv and still looked as fresh as a daisy!

So, all in all a great weekend weekend trip , but a bit of a longer day than anticipated on the Sunday. And we still have the Savannah Range to traverse from the East Hawdon Stream next time.