Rugged Camping on the Spectacular Waterfall filled Canyon Creek Plateau after a Challenging Climb

It's a beautiful morning but it's very breezy. Cindy and I are here in the Southern Alps of New Zealand heading up the Ahuriri Valley to take you guys to a basin at the base of a glacier where hopefully we're going to be able to locate a rock bivvy to stay the night in. This is night two of four nights that we're spending in the Ahuriri Valley showcasing all the amazing things that you can do in just one valley in the South Island of New Zealand. You don't have to go to the really popular places. There are so many amazing places off the beaten track. Last night Indy and I were staying the night at a little tarn up by Hideaway Hut. If you missed that video, once this one's finished, I'll link the other one at the end and you can go back and have a look. Oh my gosh. Pups, come away from there. Good girl. There are very few places in New Zealand where you can bring a dog. We have very strict conservation laws and you absolutely can't bring a dog into any national park. But there are other places, other conservation parks that you can bring dogs. Sometimes they need to be on a lead or in the case of the Ahuriri Valley, under effective control. We're now moving from the track that's marked on the topographical map to some route finding. And now you can see where we're going. That's going to be a climb. It's not the best view because the iPhone doesn't do very well in these kind of conditions, but you can see that waterfall snaking down the mountain. We are climbing up around to the left of that. Let's go. Indy, don't go there. This way. Some big drop-offs. This is wild country for sure. It felt unbelievable that you could actually get up here, but I am nearly there. Not far to go now. Wow. Incredible. That's where we've come from. That's where we're going. Are you tired? I'm not surprised. It's been a big day, hasn't it? Do you want to camp there? Should we keep going? We'll go up to the top, we'll set up camp, and then you can have dinner. Do you want your dinner? Yes. Okay, we've got to keep going. Keep going. Come on. Not too much further, pup. Let's go. Are you coming? Good girl. I'll camp there. Quite honestly, you could camp anywhere around here. It's just stunning. There's no shortage of beauty. You just have to find a little flat spot. But seeing as we've come all the way, I'm going to push on and see if we can find this rock bivvy. Somewhere over there. We do have a very tired dog on our hands though. Every time I stop to take a video, she takes the opportunity to have a lie down. You know what? Pooch is pooped. I'm pooped. We have some incredibly beautiful places to camp right here. And I still have to navigate through all of this. I don't even know if the rock bivvy is worth it. By the way, there's a glacier up there. You can see those shiny patches where the ice is exposed. Isn't it phenomenal country? Okay you guys, I have decided the smart thing to do is to go and set up camp just back there, where I pointed out that really nice little camping spot. I want to camp there. I have brought with me a tarp, so we can just bivvy out with the tarp. And I will show you guys what the rock bivvy looks like. I have seen images of it and to be honest, it's a novelty to stay in a rock bivvy or rock shelter. But the shelter itself is not that amazing in my opinion, because a lot of people go to it. It doesn't have that untouched feeling. So as cool as it would have been to get there, hey, we've got something even better. I'm going to go and set up camp. First thing I need to do is feed Indy. She's exhausted. I'll get her mat out, a sleeping bag set up and she can have a sleep. Guarantee she'll be asleep within 10 minutes of getting there. Yes? Any chance you could just hold that one side? Would ya? Oh, forgot about this. Organic kombucha, mango passion. It is going to be quite shaken. Cheers everyone! My goodness, that was an understatement. I lost half of it, but it's still amazing. These are the little things that add joy to my camps. Sometimes like this, I forget about them. Then I realise, oh, oh, I've got a little treat. This spot is beautiful. I'm really happy. The only thing I'm aware of is that we do have a bit of a breeze. I've got the tarp up quite high at the moment, just so we can sit and look out. When it gets dark, I'm going to cinch it right down. I'll bring it so that the corners are right down to the ground. That'll help to keep us out of the wind tonight. Indy's eaten and it's my dinner time. Oh, yes. I've got scroggin for the walkout tomorrow and some nice butter shortbread for after dinner. Dinner tonight is going to be mince and onions. I've froze that and it's just been defrosting as I've walked in. With lentils, turmeric and brown rice. This is obviously a very high protein dinner because I knew that I would be quite depleted. I've brought some extra mince so Indy gets an extra bit of dinner as well. Do you want it? It might be hot though, just be careful. Are you happy? Happy we stopped walking? I've just brought with me one sleeping bag. My plan is that I'll put it over Indy and I. I've got my sleeping bag liner, so I'll hop into my sleeping bag liner and then have the sleeping bag open over both of us. That's another reason why I'm going to cinch the top right down because I think the wind could zap a lot of our heat sleeping that way. I have my bivvy bag here but because I'm sharing a sleeping bag with Indy I can't put everything inside the bivvy bag so I might just get inside the bivvy bag with my, inside my sleeping bag liner and then put the sleeping bag over the top of Indy and myself in the bivvy bag, if that makes sense. I'll show you later. Even though it was really warm today, it is supposed to get down to, I think about 3 degrees tonight and that's the forecast for down in the valley. So it will be colder up here and that's the reason why I have brought with me my big winter weight sleeping bag. Are you cosy? I think you're very cosy. Hello sweetheart, you've worked very hard today haven't you? There you go, you can sleep now. I'm going to eat my dinner looking out at that beautiful view. Well, goodnight everybody. What an incredible day and tomorrow I'm sure is going to be just as incredible. I want to try and get away from here by about 10am. It's going to start raining around about 1pm and I want to make sure I'm down through that really steep, slippery rocky part of the track before it starts to rain. I don't want to get going too early tomorrow though because I'm going to look around the area a bit. I'm going to finish my hot chocolate bring the tarp down and head off to bed. Bindi's already snoring. Oh my goodness! I wonder if that's the moon just shining off the clouds or if that's actually a bit of a small aurora. It's just the iPhone but can you see the stars? It's a full moon. What are you doing? Are you pushing me out of the bed? Excuse me. It's a beautiful morning but it's very breezy. Just taking my earplugs out. But it's absolutely beautiful here. You won't be able to hear me. There's no close up shots this morning because I had a terrible night's sleep. I'm sure I look like a disaster. It's the reality. If this holds up it'll be ok though. Thanks mom. I'm not sure if the wind has died down a bit or if it's just the fact that I don't have the tarp flapping around reminding me about how windy it is. But it's actually a whole lot more pleasant than it was a little while ago. It's freezing cold though. That wind is really cold. And I can feel that there's a change in the air. There are clouds rolling in over the top of the mountains. So there's no time for dilly dallying. I want it to be gone by 10. It's 9.15 and I think we should go. What do you say? Right. I'm going to pack the big camera away and we're back on the iPhone and the Insta360 for our journey back down the mountain. Even though it was really hard work climbing up, hard on the thighs, I think the climb down is going to be quite technical. I'm going to really have to keep my wits about me. I think if you want to come here, if you fancy a trip up Canyon Creek, if you want to do better than me and make it all the way to the rock bivvy, good on you. But I would definitely say that for that climb up there you need strength, you need flexibility, fitness, and probably good balance as well. It's not the easiest of climbs. Make sure you've got good footwear, make sure you're well prepared for the weather on the top of the mountains because we are within sight of a glacier. It is not for the faint hearted. That being said, this is one of the most beautiful areas I've been to. It's just stunning. I mean, New Zealand has some amazing places. I'm hoping to get down to Fiordland soon and you'll see how incredibly beautiful that is. There are off the beaten track places you can go that are just phenomenal and I think this is one of them. My son is really keen to get to that rock bivvy. He actually wanted to do this trip with me but he's not available at the moment and so I'm not that disappointed that I didn't make it. I'm going to come back here with him and get ourselves all the way there. I think the key is going to be not having just walked in and out from another night out before tackling this. Loads of people could do it but I'm a bit of a weakling. Says the girl that goes out in the mountains every week. I don't love extremely long days. I like three or four hours of walking tops. Anyway, we've probably got a good five to get back down. We'll be quicker than we were getting up but it's still a long day and I want to beat this rain which is due in this afternoon. So let's go. Goodbye beautiful valley. Goodbye beautiful camping spot. I'll be back. Somebody's absolutely naked and it's not surprising. She does about four times as much walking as I do. Back and forth, back and forth. Alright, time for us to get back to the car, have a bit of a rest, charge everything up and then as I mentioned earlier, this is only night two of four nights out here in the Ahuriri Valley. So Indy and I are going to have a bit of a break, have a bit of a rest and then head out on our next trip. I haven't even yet decided what we're going to do. It'll be a surprise. Make sure you tune in. And if you guys didn't catch last week's video where I was in this area and headed up to a little hut called Hideaway Hut and slept up by a little lake then have a look. I will link the video up here. Take care you guys. See you next time. Bye.