Clay Cliffs

I have always been fascinated by the clay cliffs that you see on the trip from Murchison to Christchurch, but they are on the other side of the Waiau River and inaccessible.  Last time I was down in MacKenzie country I spotted a sign to Clay Cliffs but didn't have time to go there, so I made myself a promise that next time I was here I'd go and have a look.

Wow!  Well worth the drive and walk!  10km up a gravel road and then a walk up to the cliffs.  The sign said a 100m walk.   It lied!  The last bit of the road is for 4WD only, so I had to park and walk quite a bit further.  Someone had said to me that although they were great to look at the best thing to do was to go up a dry wash and actually into the cliffs themselves.

I took them at their word, picked a dry wash that looked reasonable and then boulder-hopped and scrambled up it.  Yep.  It was worth it.  I walked right into the gap (the dark shadow that goes to the bottom in the centre of the photo) and came out INSIDE the cliffs.  What an amazing experience!  Like being inside a natural cathedral.  I'd have to highly recommend it to anyone travelling in this area.  

I took lots of photos but it was a struggle to get the right exposure between the cliffs all around and the glare of the sun overhead, so my blip is of the view from half way up the dry wash.

This afternoon I had a soak in a hot tub - another great experience.  An outdoor hot tub to myself looking out over a pond and the dry brown and gold MacKenzie hills.  

Driving back to my camp site after that, it suddenly struck me that I don't want Blaze to be dead.  That sounds weird I know, I never want him to be dead, but sometimes it strikes me harder - he would have been fascinated by those cliffs.  And would have explained to me all about how they were formed.  He'd have sat beside me in that hot tub reading, and we'd have read each other particularly good phrases from our books, or argued over who the best fantasy author is (I used to opt for Robin Hobb and he opted for Robert Jordan or Raymond E Feist, but to be honest nowadays we'd probably both agree on Patrick Rothfuss).

I want him back.  But I guess that's not going to be in my Christmas stocking.