Southward Bound (Auck to Wellywood) 3-7 Jan

[.chris]

So its been a while, about 20 years to be presice since I was at Lillybank and I'm wondering what is the likely hood of getting bikes and gear up the Macauley hut (outside bath that you light a fire under sounds interesting). It's probably not the best time of year to go exploring up there with the all the melt water but that obviously wasn't bad enough to put you off, or should it have been?

I had planned to get up to the hut for a look, was going to return trip it, but have planned a fishing trip with my brother up there on the bikes which we shall stay a night or two. This one was a recon trip.

The river levels were ok, I would not have called them particularly hard crossings, I just completely stuffed up.
I had already crossed 4 crossings which were deeper than the one that caught me.
Rest assured I shall be trying again in mid feb, but this time I think I might do a bit of baby walking my bike through the crossings.

I have had a fair bit of advice about river crossings from various people, but it can all be summed up as "when you are crossing, dont f**k it up"

[Waihou Thumper]

Good news then Chris..... I guess there may be a moral to this story or maybe Aesop has a Fable....
Anyway, glad it all worked out....Could have been a tad catastrophic! Phew....

[alane]

I had planned to get up to the hut for a look, was going to return trip it, but have planned a fishing trip with my brother up there on the bikes which we shall stay a night or two. This one was a recon trip.

The river levels were ok, I would not have called them particularly hard crossings, I just completely stuffed up.
I had already crossed 4 crossings which were deeper than the one that caught me.
Rest assured I shall be trying again in mid feb, but this time I think I might do a bit of baby walking my bike through the crossings.

I have had a fair bit of advice about river crossings from various people, but it can all be summed up as "when you are crossing, dont f**k it up"

Yea! I know all abought dunking a bike up the Lillybank. I took my F650 funduro up there with two mates for an evening ride in Feb. a couple of years ago.We got to the hut/bath alright,but had some trouble finding the track @ the mid section,among the braided river bits. That made us a bit late,& your truely did the submarine act after hitting a bigger boulder in one of the crossings ,i blame failing light.Luckily fairly well upstream(smaller flow) but had to take the plug out & clear motor.
Thought I was right ,but headlite had water in ,& of course bulb blew ,getting dark by this time,so had to ride beside mates KTm 950 back to Tekapo.
Journey shure turned into an adventure.
One thing that was amuseing----the rabbits scampering across in front of the headlights,looked like they were leaving vapour trails ,with the dust they kicked up.
Cheers AL.

[cooneyr]

I had planned to get up to the hut for a look, was going to return trip it, but have planned a fishing trip with my brother up there on the bikes which we shall stay a night or two. This one was a recon trip.

The river levels were ok, I would not have called them particularly hard crossings, I just completely stuffed up.
I had already crossed 4 crossings which were deeper than the one that caught me.
Rest assured I shall be trying again in mid feb, but this time I think I might do a bit of baby walking my bike through the crossings.

I have had a fair bit of advice about river crossings from various people, but it can all be summed up as "when you are crossing, dont f**k it up"

Sweet thanks for the info. Re advise the one bit that worked really well when in a 4x4 and has served me well on a bike as well is that when the water is flowing fast try and run down stream when you cross. This way the water helps push in the direction you want rather than push you over if you are crossing perpendicular to the flow. Only problem is your need to find a good spot for this as you take longer to cross. I've seen somebody (who shall remain nameless) try to cross perpendicular to the flow of a swift river and had his back wheel spin up. Loss of traction on the rear wheel mean the water pushed it sideways and he was very quickly pointing upstream for few seconds then went under water.

Cheers R

[.chris]

I certainly used the pushing the bike downstream technique when I was pushing the bike back down the river, cause damn it was hot, even balls deep in the cold river.

I will definitely get some photos and a gps track log of my next attempt.