A fantastically fine forecast for the weekend saw Chris and William heading away with a long wishlist of things to do and places to explore. After spending a frosty Friday night at Lyell we headed down the road to scope out the kayaking potential of Pensini Creek. We had spotted this creek the previous Sunday while mountain biking the Mackley Pylon road and thought it might be worth a look.
We started at the old coal bins just before the road climbs steeply away from the Pensini. Heading upstream it wasn't long before we came across the 1st small waterfall. This was followed by a further 2 waterfalls and a short narrow canyon before a major steam confluence on river right (after a little over 1km).
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| The 1st waterfall |
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| The 2nd waterfall |
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| The 3rd waterfall |
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| Short canyon above the 3rd waterfall. The log partially blocks the entrance. |
We carried on further upstream for another 1.5km to the confluence with Slug Stream before heading cross country for 500m and linking up with an overgrown 4WD track (marked on old topo maps) which took us back to the Pylon road.
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| In the upper Pensini |
In summary the Pensini has the potential to be a worthwhile class III/IV run with some of the bigger drops possibly being a bit harder and more committing. It will require medium to heavy rain and should be a great addition to the kayaking runs in the
area. It will be interesting to see what some of the rapids look like with a bit of water in them - especially the canyon. The section from the coal bins down to the Buller confluence also looks like a reasonable class III run.
Some large
tree issues on the lead in to the 1st and 3rd of these waterfalls will
require clearing before a full descent is possible - and these may prove
too difficult to remove. Some tree portages are also required in the
upper Pensini
(above the waterfalls), but there is more than enough clean river at the
moment for us to return with boats when the opportunity arises. There is plenty of
wood in the upper Pensini waiting to be moved downstream during floods.
The best access has yet to be determined but it involves driving to the
top of the first hill on the Mackley Road (possible in a 2WD) before branching off down the
old 4WD track on the terrace above the gorge. Some bush bashing will be required to get to the creek unless you carry on all the way to Slug Stream. Alternatively heading down the first creek you cross on the 4WD track might be the best
option (shorter run). The confluence of this creek with the Pensini is immediately upstream of the narrow canyon and above the 3 waterfalls.
After crashing at Williams grandparents place in Reefton on Saturday night we headed for a jaunt up Mt Haast on Sunday morning. Perfect weather and fair dinkum hot in the sun.
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| William on Mt Haast |
Next on the hit list was to check out the Rahu River. We had a look at the Lock and Rocky Creek confluences before walking the Newcombe to Rocky Creek section. We found amazing beautiful gorge scenery, gradient 50m/km with continuous small features and very few tree hazards requiring portaging. Looking at the map the steepest sections are above Rocky Creek and below Newcombe Creek (up to 65m/km and still to be checked out). The Rahu River is looking like it has the potential to be a great class 4 run with medium to heavy run.
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| Looking up the Rahu just below the Rocky Creek confluence |
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| William getting excited about the kayaking potential |
Rain is forecast for later this week and the weekend so crossing the fingers we get enough to kayak a few new runs.
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