Cascade Caves (Canterbury)
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A very interesting spot involving water at the end (or part way through if you want) of an interesting walk.
The Woolshed Creek area is a very easy overnight tramping trip – or you might just want to walk in and out the same day. The carpark is off the road inland from Mt Somers, and you can walk up to the old coalmine, viewing the historical mining relics on the way. Read the signboards. Past the coalmine, the track follows a ridge over to Woolshed Creek Hut, a grand structure with many bunks and mod cons. The sign at the carpark says 3 hours to the hut via the coalmine, but you can do better if you are travelling light, or you don’t want to stop and enjoy the wonderful views westward to the Arrowsmith Range. The track in to the hut has some serious cliffs very close to the track, so take great care. The hut is at S43 36.070 E171 19.555
From the hut, you need to walk another 30 minutes over a little rise to the Water Caves, where enormous rhyolite boulders have tumbled down long ago into the stream, forming some interesting caves and pools. You can wade through these pools if you wish to get slightly wet. The cache has been placed beside the small track leading down to the caves, so you don’t need to cross the river.
If you are there in winter, be very careful near the rivers, as icy boulders are extremely slippery and very hard to fall on.
The alternative route from the carpark to Woolshed Creek Hut is via the Rhyolite Ridge Track and the Mt Somers Circuit Track. It climbs to about 1100m altitude and takes perhaps an hour longer each way.
If you haven’t been into this area before, there are a number of other caches to find on the way. Look out for GC17MF1, GCTEGY, GCVJ75, GCVFKR. There are also two caches higher on Mt Somers, and a series of puzzle caches in the general area.
The cache is a 500ml black screwtop with logbook, pencil, and a couple of relevant trading goodies. Please replace the cachebox upright under its cover.
Additional Hints
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