Waterfall Creek is visible from the back of our house and would be the view point from where I scoured the slopes of Roys Peak searching for David and Ben. Earlier that day they slogged up Roys Peak with the intention of descending down Waterfall Creek, all went well until David slipped down a waterfall and landed on his back, which resulted in two weeks of sofa bound action. The outing was abit of a disaster and a descent of Waterfall Creek laid low for a while.
By now David was back in the UK, Sam and I decide now is the time, lets hit it. We climbed Roys Peak via the more direct route along with Calla and Marsh and reached the summit within 2.5 hours. We made our way towards Alta Peak, down to the saddle then dropped into the head of the valley where the source of the Creek began. At the start the water was a mere trickle but the vegetation was thick, jungle like almost, a machete would have proved useful!
We eventually came to the point we figured was David's brokeback moment, a short 5m waterfall followed by a larger 20m drop...luckily he fell on the shorter drop. Well this time we had a rope to help make the descent a wee bit easier, Sam made the abseil on a single line while I scurried round 'the veg' to the bottom of the fall. From here on in the Creek continued to flow with several more vertical drops, none of which required ropes. On and on we pushed wading though the pools wondering where our get out point was, a fence line we had scoped on a earlier trip. We must have past it because all of a sudden Lake Wanaka seem rather close, and we were stood at the head of the bottom falls, a series of large drop flowing with water. A descent down the falls would be possible with the rope but anchors may have proved difficult so we sidled around the falls and dropped to the bottom of the Creek. We had done it, made a full descent of Waterfall Creek, the full outing may had taken 8 hours but we had ticked it off in style...now to tell David the good news
Enjoy the video
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQg_tEIipwQ&w=560&h=315]