So.... "blah, blah, blah..... climbing this weekend, blah, blah." As far as "out of the ordinary" goes, the highlight(?) of the weekend was a truely unexpected and embarrising bouldering injury on my part. There I was, at Titahi Bay (a pleasent, oceanside climbing area just under 2 hours south of Palmy), goof ing around with my mates having a good ol' time. We decided we were sick of the ropes by mid-day, so we started searching out goofy little boulder problems.
After sending some hard, fun lines.... I spotted a cool "short but sweet," waist high, one move wonder problem and HAD to give it a go. I threw a boulder mat down to protect the landing (a few odd shaped rocks and a small woody plant of some sort) and sat my butt down on the pad to try the move. It basically involved a bad hold for the left hand and a worse hold for the right, pull down until my arse was legally off the ground, then throw my right hand to a decent hold up and right, then pull myself up and over the top of the rock.... like I said, short and sweet.
So as I said, the boulder was a bit more than waist high. There was one "big" move on the whole problem. The crux was pulling my scrawny little hump off the ground. Well I got that far, and tried to make the throw with my right hand. I failed. I fell back. The fall was a whopping 6 inches. The woody plant (remember the wody plant I quickly mentioned at the beginning of the story?) decided, in it's wisdom, that it was ready to fight back for my crimes against the environment.... It sent one of it's vial, nasty thorns (how did I not njotice the BIG ugly thorns?) clean through the 2 inches of open cell foam, the 1 inch of EXTRA DENCE closed cell foam, 2 layers (top and bottom) of heavy duty, rip stop nylon.... and into my arse!
"YEEEEEEEAAAAARRRROOOUUUUUWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!"
There are few things worse than having to get one of your bouldering partners apply direct pressure to a massive puncture wound in your ass to stop the heavy flow of blood, while another one gets alcohol wipes, a few bandages and tape to seal you bum back up! Well, crisis solved. I applied direct pressure by sitting on a nice cool rock while my "mates" packed up the gear.... giggiling the whole time.
I did survive both the mental and physical injury. Sunday was much more productive climbing and much less hazardous. It may seem a goofy anecdote.... but you are all worth it! I will be having a "battle scar" showing when I get back.... for all who are interested. Climb hard, fall soft. Luvs to all of ya!

First weekend in May- Drive to Napier in search of rocks. It is a beautiful seaside community, 2 hour drive from Palmy with no known climbing. Obviously the local gym rats NEVER leave the gym! Myt mate Claydon and I discovered at least 4 new spots (3 new bouldering areas and 1 MOTHER of a cliff) that were all clean, solid limestone. Sure, the areas need a bit of a clean up to make the access better.... but considering the lack of other stuff within 2 hours of home.... we are both TOTALLY looking foreward to the prospect of some cool new spots. It still baffles me that such good (virgin) climbing areas can be found here just by walking 30 seconds off a main road!
Second weekend in May- MUAC bouldering weekend. It was my "turn" to lead a trip for the MUAC climbers. Sure, I've instructed on them already.... but this was all me. I was able to book a hut on the same farm that "the airstrip" boulders are located on up in Waiotomo. It was a 5+ hour drive up on Friday night, and worth every kilometer. The weather was scheduled to be absolute POOP, but all 13 of the people signed up decided if nothing else it was a great exuse to go drink in a nice hut somewhere FAR AWAY from ol' Palmy. The gods obviously favored us on the trip as that when we finally got up there at 12:30am, the moon was out and the stars were shining. A handful of the "hardcores" and I were so exited that the rock was dry we each grabbed boulder mats and cold beers and went for a LATE night climb.... brilliant!
Saturday was a stunningly perfect day. People were happily climbing and falling and cursing and laughing. Bouldering is such a social acctivity as that everyone is right there at ground level more or less, and everyone is pushing one another to climb hard and have fun. I love it! After a full day, we headed back to the hut (5 minute walk.... ooooh) where I cooked up a massive feed of chili and rice, followed with cookies and ice cream. The evening entertainment was (besides a fair amount of beer) story telling, pictionary (drunk pictionary ROCKS) and various mind games such as word associations and other "think outside the box" puzzles.
Sunday rained. Not hard, but enough to make climbing not worth while. A few of us went down to "The Grot View Cave," which is a MASSIVE overhand 2 minutes from the hut for a last gasp attempt to get more climbing in on some very hard routes, then we helped pack up and clean the hut. We stopped in Taupo on our way back as that we had much more time than antisipated.... and went for a good 2 hour soak in the thermal river. Although the rain ruined the climbing.... the hot pool was definitely a welcome alternative.
So that's the update.... miss y'all!