· TYPE OF ACTIVITY- Bouldering
· TRIP NAME/LOCATION- Castle Hill
· DURATION- 2hrs
· GRADES OF ACTIVITY- relatively easy
· NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS- 1
· ACCOMMODATION- n/a
· VARIATION IN DAILY CONDITIONS- n/a
· WEATHER CONDITIONS- n/a
· INCIDENTS/ INJURIES - n/a
While hitching back form Christchurch over the Arthurs Pass, the weather cleared as we were approaching Castle Hill. So i departed from my warm hospitable ride, and headed towards the cold slightly damp rock of Castle HIll. As i was by myself i decided to head to this awesome mantle that wasn't to high but it's great to work on technique without great consequence if I fell. After about 2-3hrs the rain came back and it was time for me to stick up the the thumb again and head on my merry way home.
· TRIP NAME/LOCATION- Extreme edge, Panmure
· DURATION- 3hrs
· GRADES OF ACTIVITY- grades 14-18
· NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS- 2
· ACCOMMODATION- n/a
· VARIATION IN DAILY CONDITIONS- n/a
· WEATHER CONDITIONS- n/a
· INCIDENTS/ INJURIES - n/a
Whilst tuck in peak hour traffic on the way home form Auckland, not an enjoyable journey. Megan and and I conjure up a plan to go for a indoor rock climb, we navigaste to extreme edge in Panmure. And arrive to a huge climbing gym with a huge range of overhangs on top ropes. Once i taught Meg the basic gregri for belaying device of we started. It was great passing in my skills to meg and her climbing improved greatly by the end of 3 hrs. I managed to do some rather difficult overhangs which i hadn't had much exposure to which was great. Awesome way to bypass Auckland peak hour traffic.
· TRIP NAME/LOCATION- Punakaiki
· DURATION- 7hrs
· GRADES OF ACTIVITY- grades 14-18
· NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS- 8
· ACCOMMODATION- n/a
· VARIATION IN DAILY CONDITIONS- fine
· WEATHER CONDITIONS- fine
· INCIDENTS/ INJURIES - Cut to leg
Chris and myself left early Saturday morning to try and get a surf up the coast, to find somewhere new. Well finding somewhere new was achieved, in a stunning huge dense bush ampithetre that ran all the way to the surf, hopping along boulders the size of mini's, and charging through bush we finally got to the beach, only to find it nowhere as good as seen from the now distant car. 15 min later after getting pushed down the beach in a gnarly sweep I jump out and tell Chris that it's not worthwile as he's pulling his wetsuit over his waist. We decide to try and take a short cut and head straight up the steep ampitheatre as we charge into the oh so dense bush summon all our sense of adventure and drag our surfboards upwards and onwards. An hour later we finally reach the road, me sweating profusely in my 5/3 wetsuit, we leave for the Punkaiki crag to meet everyone else.
Thinking that i was just going kayaking and surfing this weekend I didn't get out a harness, so after a top rope was set up on a relativly easy climb i built an improvised harness out of a sling an caribiner and climbed on it quite successfully the comfort factor was bearable. I then swapped harnesses with people and did a number of lead climbs including the long 16. As the day drew on i climbed on top rope an 18 with a solid overhang, the pump set in and my forearms no longer felt like my own. I finally scaled over the overhang, and cleaned the top of the climb of quickdraws, changed over the rope and abseiled down. This was day over for me, I was kaput, pumped to the max. I retire to the car and look forward to the Cobden fish and chips everyone is talking about.
· TYPE OF ACTIVITY- Rockclimbing and surfing
