Metro, Te Tahi, B52
For my second trip with the Caving Group, I headed to Charleston as part of a family weekend aimed at getting kids underground. I decided that dealing with some kids would be worth meeting some more local cavers and finding out where more caves were in the area, which certainly paid off.
On Saturday we went into Metro cave, a large cave which is gated, with entry by permit or tour only. We had two groups with permits, but having kids meant we had to stay on the marked trails through the cave. Metro is very dirty due to the large amount of traffic it gets, but it was still a nice walk through cave with many stals, gloworms and we saw one cave weta.
Stals in Metro
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Profanity and Golf Course
Recently I went on my first club trip with the Canterbury Caving Group. Caving is something I had been meaning to get myself into for a long time, but for some reason I never made it happen. The itinerary for the weekend was to head up to Reefton and go through a cave called Profanity on Saturday. We would then head to Charleston for the night and go through a cave called Golf Course on the Sunday.
We arrived at Profanity a little before lunchtime, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. I had been through a few caves before, but nothing longer than an hour or two, and nothing that was particularly squeezy. When I saw the cave entrance, I knew that I was in for something a little different. The entrance passage was long, skinny, and reasonably tight but manageable for someone of my size. After climbing a small waterfall, the cave got skinny in the other dimension, with a bit of crawling and wriggling, eventually leading past the alternate exit to the cave (our intended exit) and into the section of the cave known as the maze.
Entrance to Profanity
Mt Rolleston Crow Face
Continuing the trend of recent weeks, and making the most of the outrageously and uncharacteristically good weather window that had been hanging around for some weeks we decided to head up the Crow Face on Mt Rolleston. It would be a pretty tight timeline for me, I would arrive back from Australia at 9pm, had to pack my gear by 11pm, and get a couple hours rest before heading for Arthurs Pass at 2.30am. We were a party of four heading up Rome Ridge, with two continuing direct to Low Peak, and two of us heading for Crow Face.
With a 5am start we made casual progress up to the gap; the views were superb and so many photo taking sessions ensued, as well as a certain member of the party continuing his usual tradition of high altitude al fresco cable laying. We were very excitable about the near perfect conditions for the trip - there was a solid boot pack all the way up Rome Ridge which made for effortless travel, and the ice on the face was the best I have ever seen it.
Mystic conditions on Rome Ridge
Aicken-Blimit-Cassidy Traverse
After the outstanding success of the Ice and Mixed Festival the week before, I was psyched to get out into the mountains. Unfortunately nobody else wanted to come play despite the outstanding weather forecast, so I was stuck with a solo mission. I set my eyes on the Aicken - Blimit - Cassidy Traverse in Arthurs Pass. The route description almost put me off:
"From the summit of Mt Aicken the long tortuous ridge that encloses the Punchbowl Falls Creek catchment is visible. Continue along this ridge. Towards Blimit the ridge rock rises in 30-60 degree slabs, some with extreme exposure. Protection is sparse, but the rock grades are easy."
I set off at 5am up to Aicken.
Moonrise above Aicken
Southern Alps Traverse in Poetry
Late spring of 2013
four young men all so keen
headed out on a month long quest
traversing the alps separating east from west.
Following the footsteps of many before
we started off with a hiss and a roar
but, alas, on the very first eve
the keas came down, ready to thieve.
When we awoke, early next morn
a sock was missing, and a tent was torn
but though we'd been savaged by the feathered critters
we stomped over Whitehorn without any jitters.
A formula for pit suction
As seen in Murchison Hut:
Day 2 of hut based activity due to the rising measurements on the clagometer (currently 3.96). We have finally calculated a formula for 'pit suction':
where
where
Apathy can be calculated by:
where
Important alpine calculations
Te Manga Peak, Rarotonga
Te Manga Peak is the highest point on Rarotonga – it is a great half day climb featuring great views, steep climbing on dodgy ropes, and usually the company of local dogs. This guide is based off a trip I did in 2011.
Te Manga Peak
Hot Pools Bonanza
I write this tale from the very pleasant Mackenzie Biv, on a page ripped out from a DOC hut book, with the fire on its way out (no dry wood left), dinner on the cooker, in a state of mild but bearable pain after a day of the toughest walking I have done for some time. But where are my manners, I should start at the beginning.
I have for the last several long weekends done bugger all with myself, so this Implausible Resurrection Festival (or Easter as it is more widely known) I decided to undertake an epic solo mission (because nobody else wanted to come) to Lake Sumner and surrounds where I would attempt to visit the Tope Hope, Mackenzie, Hurunui and Hurunui South Branch hot springs over four days. Now I have a habit of not completing many of the solo missions due to being over ambitious and getting sick of the shit weather, but I was confident about this one, even though I knew the weather was forecast to be less than optimal for more than half of the time and the distance I had to cover was about 80km, with at least a day of it being untracked. It was a bad start, leaving well after the 6am I was aiming for, partly due to a party I had thoroughly over-enjoyed the night before.
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Mackenzie Biv poetry
Found carved into the wall of Mackenzie Biv:
I came in on a sunny day
thinking of the deer I'd slay
in piles they would lay their dead
and with these thoughts I went to bed
I woke up and I cast an eye
around the hills & around the sky
storm clouds up there overhead
guess I'll spend the day in bed
I ate & slept & sat around
while huey up there sent her down
creek was running kinda high
firewood wet, in short supply
For several days this was the score
eat & sleep & eat some more
and still the bloody rains came on
grub & baccy almost gone
I had another look outside
though I'd make it if I tried
to get back out to No 2
Mackenzie Biv to hell with you.
PS This took 2 wet days
signed: SUDDEN DEATH
Mackenzie Biv