Middle Waipara Gorge 

Saturday 12 April 2025

The day dawned with a brilliant blue sky. A quick check on the ECAN site for river flows, less than 0.5m3 per second, so the trip was on!

Following the description from the AllTrails app, we arrived at the river side car park.  The idea was to walk up stream as shown on the app and then downstream to the gorge. There was a large display at the car park explaining the various features that we should look for as well as information about some of the sea dwelling dinosaur fossils discovered in the area. This included a layer of soil containing Iridium which is found in meteors, which is thought to be from the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. We criss-crossed the river multiple times as we proceeded up river between high steep hills on either side. About 30 minutes from the car park, we met the first concretions being spherical rocks much like Moeraki type boulders. These had formed and had tumbled down the steep eroded cliffs into the river over time. Graeme was keen to see what was around the next corner, and the next etc., until we came to a grassy bank in the sun which made for a morning tea stop. With the valley becoming increasingly rocky and closed in we decided to walk back to the car. After lunch at the car, we proceeded down-stream with the river being more open but still with some very high eroded cliffs on some of the rivers turns. Two further groups on, spherical boulders were observed but the gorge we were looking for could not be seen. Wanting to get a coffee at a cafe on the way home we decided to turn around after an hour walking with the river seeming to flatten out rather forming a gorge. 

A pleasant easy walk with a refreshing river to keep the feet cool!

Graeme (leader), Kathryn, Mary and Jaimee.  GN