Area: Ahuriri Valley / Canyon Creek

Obeying instructions to the letter that the Ahuriri Base Hut is immediately after the locked gate found a group of 13 trampers peering though the gloom at a sign read­ing 'Canyon Creek'. What locked gate?

 It's a big valley the Ahuriri and an even smaller Base Hut and playing find the hut on a moonless night at 11pm wasn't on my plans. But find it we did (thanks to Ann and her trusty vehicle) and so three groups bedded down in their respective departure places. One in the hut from where they planned to climb to the ridge overlooking the Dingle and the other two at the turn off to Canyon Creek. Both groups planned to head to the upper basin with one planning to camp at the tarn at 1650m. Plans to do the traditional round trip were on hold because of mustering.

 The next morning dawned still but foggy with the sort of fog that looked like it might outstay its welcome. But tramping is nothing if not the sport of optimists and picking up a well‑marked track on the true right of Canyon Creek we quickly climbed to the vantage point above the Canyon. After taking in the views of the sheer drop below, it was a quick trip down and an equally fast trip up to the cirque and the waterfall above which is the Upper Basin. Passing the accepted route up this face, we headed towards the grassy slopes where on an outcrop we ate our lunch and took in the views. We were not alone in using this route as several cairns were passed and after some creative route finding (shortcuts) by she who shall remain nameless. We found ourselves with our heads literally in the clouds. The fog was showing no signs of departing. It wasn't cold nor windy as we tramped through the murk and postponing plans to go higher the two groups decided to stick together and before conditions got worse make camp.

Moir refers to this basin as 'a great place to be' and he is not wrong. It is a beauti­ful basin (What we could see of it) even in the fog and considered ourselves particu­larly lucky when in the early evening the fog broke giving tantalising views of Mt Barth and the Thurneyson glacier. Brief but perfect. Sunday morning with Greg's assurances that by 10am all would be revealed we set off to explore the head of the basin and to see if the scree slopes were as good as they looked. They weren’t and not a lot was revealed but the grey added to the Gothic atmosphere. It could have been the set of one of Mervyn Peak's novels. Damp glistening grey walls; the only thing missing was Swelter.

We clambered up rock outcrops to get better views, slid over frozen avalanche de­bris and posed for photos at the double sided rock bivvy before reluctantly heading back to break camp. No short cuts on the way down as we were ably guided by Barry and his party who carefully accentuated the cairns at the bottom of the cir­que that we had so nonchalantly walked past on the way in. (They were hard to see!)

Viewing the mighty Ahuriri Valley as we drove out in the daylight was a final bonus.

 Robyn Bridges for 'the rest' (sorry guys I've lost the list)

Back to 2001 Trip Report Archive - Back to OTMC Bulletin Archive

This site copyright 1999/2005 Antony Pettinger. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the OTMC Committee or other OTMC Members.