(written on the 31st from notes taken previously)
I veged out a bit this morning before ever even getting out of my van. π And then I bid goodbye to the Welsh gentleman and began making my way toward Haast Pass.
It’s a beautiful drive. π
The mountains don’t feel quite as high, or at least you can’t really see the tops of the mountains from down in the canyon below.
I stopped for pictures at Lake HΔwea.
Then at Lake WΔnaka, taking a little bit of time to remove a bunch of peeling decals that people had put on a guardrail.
I stopped to avail myself of the public toilets in Makarora, toilets I recognized from my last trip to New Zealand. π
And then it was on to the Blue Pools. π
I think Chase and I went to the Blue Pools at least twice and maybe three times last trip? Lovely bridge jumping and then of course there was that beautiful but absolutely awful hike that was the precursor to my turning back on my first climb up Mount Earnslaw.
Like the bridge at Hokitika Gorge, there was a new bridge on the walk to Blue Pools as well, The really really long swing Bridge spanning the main river was brand new, by the looks of it.
Chase and I had jumped off the previous bridge into a tiny pocket of water barely deep enough to land in. π
The water was even more shallow today, probably because it’s later in the year, so there’s less snow melt.
For whatever reason, by the time I got to Blue Pools, I needed to use the bathroom again π, and I hadn’t brought Micro John, because I had just used the bathroom and didn’t think I’d need to.
Combine needing to use the bathroom again with really shallow-looking water (maybe just so clear that it looked shallow?) compared to normal and adding in that my left achilles tendon was bad enough to give me just the tiniest little limp, and that was enough of a recipe for me to decide to not jump in.
I’d also forgotten to bring my measuring rope to measure the height of the jump.
There was a lovely little spot on the cliff above the river that looks like it could be a fantastic jumping spot, but the water depth would need to be measured, and I just… wasn’t quite up for it today.
There’s a good chance I would have done it had I not really needed to use the bathroom again. But it’s a decently long walk from the car park to Blue Pools, and I wasn’t interested enough to do it twice– not with Hokitika Gorge just a few days away again. π
I spent a little while veging in the parking lot after using the bathroom before heading out on a sort of Haast Pass waterfall tour, revisiting a bunch of the places I stopped at with Chase last time.
The next stop on the list was going to that really cool slot canyon that Chase and I had explored last time. It’s a super cool little place that was just barely off the road but neither on the map nor visible from the road, such that the only people who would ever find it without it being made publicly known were explorers going on adventures simply to see what was out there.
So what was my surprise when I showed up to find cars parked all over the place and people coming back from and hiking into the slots. π
Though rather disappointed that this unknown gem was now a regular tourist stop, I still parked wandered in, waiting through the water, scrambling up a drop off, and just generally enjoying the beauty of the place.
Few went as far as even getting to the drop off that you have to climb up to go further, and no one else climbed it, so there was at least still a natural barrier that afforded some sense of solitude. π
I don’t remember if that mini cliff climb was there last time, but I do remember that above that spot, in order to go higher, we had to shimmy up a very large log that had washed down the slot canyon, with one end at the bottom of the next drop off and the other end at the top.
At that time, the water below the log was rather deep, and the log was super duper slimy, so it made for a nerve-wracking ascent. π
This time, however, that huge log was no longer there, having been washed the rest of the way through the slot canyon.
The water was also a lot lower, so instead of having to go in through deep water to get up to the next level, I think it was maybe thigh deep and then a little slimy scramble up rock that, if I slipped, would send me (and my cell phone π ) down into deeper water, so there were still a few nerves, but I knew the risks. π
I explored almost as far as I had last time, remembering that last time I had gotten to a place where the water was super deep, and I had to swim around the next corner to see what was after, finding that I couldn’t really go further. This time, knowing that I couldn’t really go much further, I didn’t take the time to try and wade through. I simply snapped lots of pictures of the beautiful scenery.
Perhaps I could have gone further this time because the water level was lower, but… as far as I went was good enough. π
I took more pictures on the way back, texted a little bit with my sister Heather, and then climbed down and out.
As I was walking away, I asked a young couple how they had heard about the slot canyon because it’s not named or labeled or anything.
Tiktok. π€¦
π
Ugh. The balance between wanting the little sacred spots to remain relatively unknown to enjoy them in solitude and… not wanting to be selfish.
[sigh]
Fantail Falls was the next stop, a full parking lot and a short walk, and… a less-than-impressive falls. π
Then Thunder Creek Falls, a few cars in the parking lot and another brief walk. I think maybe Chase and I skipped this one last time because we had been to so many waterfalls? Or maybe he stayed in the car and I walked to it?
I’ve got a vague memory of something like that.
And finally, Roaring Billy Falls, only a few cars in the parking lot and a longer walk. It was this falls that I had remembered from last time where there was a super wide rock wash between the roadside of the river and the mountainside where the falls is. Having already made the walk across the huge river bed, I just looked on from a distance.
It was also just a brief drive back up where I’d come from where Chase and I had our biggest sand fly hell experience, with maybe hundreds? of sand flies on the bug screen with a cloud of them visible flying behind it. π
So brutal.
If I remember correctly, the moment we got out of our car, we ran away from it in order to get the sand flies to follow us and then ran back to get everything back inside and drive away. π
Anyway, I backtracked up the road maybe a couple of kilometers to verify the location, as I’d been looking for it and had seen it just driving by, but I was driving too quickly to stop when I noticed it.
From there, it was on to the freedom camping area at Haast Public Beach. I pulled in relatively early in the evening, so as not to find myself without a spot. On the west coast, there is generally only a relatively thin strip of land between the ocean and the mountains and few freedom-camping places, so it’s not a place you’d want to risk arriving late to your intended staying spot, lest you find it full.
I spent the rest of the night just veging and sort of feeling… done? Like there’s not really much left to explore?
I mean, of course there are gazillions of places I haven’t been to yet in New Zealand, but I think my goal has sort of been to get a visual of the whole country in general? Be able to close my eyes and picture what that part of the country looks like, and then I can decide, having explored the whole place, where I want to spend my time.
Something like that.
I think I’ve entered that place where now I would just be comfortable hanging out somewhere and thinking/writing.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 