Happy New year all!!! Although for all of the crew back home I was a good 18 hours ahead of y'all, I hope everyone had a great time. I ended up in Taupo for the big countdown, after spending the past 6 days travelling around central north island, climbing. So far, me and my travelling buddy Claydon have hit 6 different climbing areas, sent countless cool routes and boulder problems, and met heaps of cool new people. I am slowly bumping my climbing grades up and Claydon, who is fairly new to the sport is SREAMING up the technical ladder. We have also been hanging around with a travelling German gal we met at on of the climbing spots (actually also a Palmy resident) and she has decided that climbing with us for the next week is her best option..... cool as.
Anyways, we met up with a few of Claydon's mates in Taupo on New Year's eve, did some GOOD drinking, smoked stoggies at midnight, and then went to hang out in one of the local thermally heated rivers until 3 AM..... not a bad night! We then scored campsites at on of the city's FREE campsites and went to bed. Today (Jan 1, 2006!) we woke up and headed to a small ryolite crag just 15 minutes from town. There were both bolted sport lines and traditional climbs, but as that we were all pretty beat from the past week (and last night) we spent a lot of the day just goofing around.
Tomorrow is our first scheduled day of rest. I have never had to actually FORCE myself to stop climbing for a day, but all of us need it. We are sticking around Taupo and I plan on treating myself to a massage and a good nap! After tomorrow we are heading back towards the southern portion of the island, though we are really just winging it day to day.