Hey y'all. So a quick recapp of recent adventures...... Last weekend (feb 16- 20) Cristin and I hopped a ferry with some of my climbing mates Tomasz and Jenna and went down to Takaka on the South Island. There is a climbing area there known as Payne's Ford, which consists of oodles of limestone cliffs of varying heights, angles and colors. Due to the nature of the rock (ripples, slopers, pockets and flat out slab) most of the climbs are protected by bolts. It is kind of like Rumney, NH in that there are so many different areas all of which have there own flavor. As that we were there for a LONG weekend, we got lots of opertunity to see quite a lot of the variety and play on most of the areas as well. I even put up a few trad first ascents (sad that just because most people don't bring a full rack there they ignore some stunning trad lines!). Besides the 1st ascents, the highlight of the weekend was getting to do some deepwater soloing, where you could climb on some very steep lines directly over the river. If you fell.... oh well, you just went splash. It was definitely a cool experiance.
Last week was REAL short as far as work goes. I didn't start back until Tuesday around lunch time, and the week finished on Thurday. Friday AM the crew (work crew) headed up to Mt. Taranaki in New Plymoth for a company "get away" with a bunch of members of the NZAA (arb. assosiation). The trip was planned as a) a get away b) an educational event (we did 3 seperate hikes all of which were guided by local botanists and c) a cool adventure and chance to meet some fellow tree guys.
The weekend was based at a really well equipted hut about a third of the way up the mountain. On top of the refridge, stove, running water (hot showers!) and fully equipt bunk rooms, it was also accessable by car. On Friday we did a "quick" 3 hour hike downhill the whole way, looking at the flora changed as we decended. From here a bus picked us up and drove us back to the hut. Saturday we started hiking at 7 AM and bagged the peak a bit after 11 AM. After a good feed (and some "emergancy" burbon shots) on the top, we headed down and were back at the hut a little after 3 PM. After showers and a bit of loafing about, we went to the Mountain Cafe at the visitors center just down the hill from camp for a BIG feed. Sunday was a slow start and a small hike, mostly designed to loosen up some of the nasty knots lodged in peoples legs! All in all it was a hell of a weekend!