The Past Month

The past month has been an exciting one. First, I forgot to mention last time that, while hiking the Kepler Track, we decided that Brian would look good with a mohawk. So when we arrived home, we got to work immediately. Brian wanted the sides to stay somewhat long in case he did not like the style, but when he brought his beard trimmer over to my flat, he realized that he forgot the attachment. He refused to go get it, so we started without it.

It ended up turning out all right, and when he put it up he was almost as tall as me.


For the rest of break, we just hung out and went up to Castle Hill a couple times.

It ended up snowing on us when we tried to camp there. It was a little cold for Brian. He wasn't used to the lack of hair yet.


The next couple weekends saw a lack of planning so we hung around Chch and went to Castle Hill a few more times. My friend Adrian brought his video camera one of the times and put together this little montage. As of right now, it's the clip of the week on Urban Climber Magazine's website.

Look Here


Two weeks ago Tuesday the University of Canterbury Climbing Club had its annual library climb. The library, being 12 stories, is one of the tallest buildings in Chch.

Monica and Sarah climbing next to each other.


Me.


Meanwhile, we got bored with Brian's hair so we gave it a trim.

It stayed like that for a few more days and then we shaved it completely.

Last weekend Monica, Sarah, Brit, Brian, and I drove to Nelson Lakes National Park on Friday night. We were trying to find another group of kids we know and camp with them for the night. We knew we were about an hour or two behind them and that they should beat us there. They didn't. They never showed up. It turns out that their van Tina (which they had obtained by trading their broken Subaru to a car mechanic) had broken down in the pass on the way to the Park. The cell service in the mountains is nearly non-existent so we didn't find this out until we drove to the West Coast the next day. We were counting on their group for a tent spot for Brit; we only had two two person tents between the five of us. So while we were sorting that out, Brian discovered that he had forgotten the pole for his tent. We now had one functional two person tent between the five of us. We found a couple sticks and rigged up Brian's rainfly so that it provided a bit of shelter. Thats where Brian slept. I squeezed into the working tent, and Brit took the backseat of the car.

Brian didn't sleep too well that night. Not because he was cold but because he was worried he would roll over, knock the sticks over, and have the wet fly on top of him. The rest of us were warm and comfortable, and we woke up to an amazing view of the lake.

That morning we headed towards the West Coast to do some climbing at the sea cliffs in Charleston. The cliffs were about 30m tall and dropped more or less straight into the sea. It is a trad climbing area, so there are not bolts in the wall aside from the anchors at the top. I do not have gear for this type of climbing so we just toproped.

Monica climbing.

Sarah belaying.

Brian and the blowhole.

Monica climbing again.

Me climbing.


That afternoon we heard from the people we were trying to meet. They had rented a house at the hot springs near where they had broken down. Brit and Brian wanted to go meet up with them. Sarah, Monica, and I wanted to climb more and see the Pancake rocks. So we gave Brit and Brian the car and they went off to the Hanmer hot springs. We camped about 10 mins from the cliffs and got an early start the next morning.
Look close: Monica climbing, Sarah belaying.

Again: Look Close.

Me climbing.

Me climbing Monica belaying.


Later that morning we got a ride with an off duty policeman to Punakaiki to see the Pancake rocks. He was from Nelson and was going to see his parents who owned a hotel in Punakaiki.
Success.

Pancake Rocks.


Trying to get to Greymouth.


It took us almost an hour to get a ride to Greymouth. Eventually a woman picked us up who lived in San Fransisco for most of her life. She was also from Nelson and worked as a chiropractor. She was on her way to Greymouth to fill in for the only chiropractor on the entire West Coast of the country. From there an art teacher/soccer coach from one of the local high schools was on his way home from a game and took us to Kumara Junction (effectively a roundabout in the middle of a field) where we could flag down people going over the pass to Chch. A lady with her son, daughter, and a dog squeezed us into her Subaru and took us to the town of Kumara 7km down the road. Then, right as the sun was setting, a couple hunters who had been hunting a type of mountain goat up in the glacial country gave us a ride to our flats... just in time to get some rest before class on Monday.

This weekend I went to Quail Island for a volunteer program. Quail Island is in Lyttelton Harbour just on the other side of the hills from Chch. We were supposed to be planting trees and doing conservation projects to help restore the island's natural vegetation, but due to inclement weather, we ended up not doing any of that. In fact we just hung out in the hut around the fire reading and playing cards all weekend.

After that relaxing weekend, I have a week full of essays to write. Three to be exact. Wish me luck.

Nick

Fall Break

So I am a week and a half into my three week fall break. Last week Monica, Brian, Brit, Lindsey, Sara and I drove to Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park.



We did a bit of climbing around the area and then did an overnight tramp to the Muller Hut. It was a fun tramp and was also quite steep. We gained about 1000m in 5.2km of hiking. The hut is at about 1800m and provided amazing views.
Monica, Brian, and I camped next to the hut and the rest of the group stayed inside. Heres a photo of the hut and our tent with Mt. Cook in the background.



There were kea hanging out around the hut. They are the only mountain parrot in the world and love to steal things to make their nests.



Some photos of me from the hike.






After the tramp we drove to Wanaka and climbed there for a couple days. Then we went down to Queenstown. Brian and Sara went bungy jumping. Brian jumped the Nevis Highwire bungy... the world's tallest, 134m. Sara jumped the Kawarau Bridge, the world's first commercial bungy.

We climbed at a place called Wye Creek near Queenstown. In order to get there we had to hike up next to a pipeline on one side of a valley and then cross the valley by walking on top of the pipe. It made for a fun decent because we finished our last climb in the dark. The climbing overlooked the town of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. Heres some shots.







Same climb different side.


From Queenstown we drove to Te Anu to do the Kepler Track. This tramp takes 3-4 days and is in Fijordlands National Park. We did it in four days. There are three huts that are available along the tramp. We camped for two of the nights and stayed in the Luxmore Hut for one of them.

The Hut.


The View.


Sunrise over Lake Te Anu.


Breakfast.


Tramping.


The Ridgeline.


I'm back at my flat now for a couple days before I head out again. I think I may go to Dunedin and climb for a bit later this week, and then I may meet some people on the North end of the South Island for the last week of break.

Nick

Easter Break

We had a five day weekend for Easter and needless to say I took advantage of it. Last Thursday after everyone was done with classes Brit, Sarah, Monica, and I packed up our car and drove to Kaikoura, a small town about two hours north of Chch on the coast. We arrived pretty late and camped on the beach just north of town. Apparently it's an incredibly scenic place, but when we woke up it was foggy and there wasn't much to look at. That morning we drove further up the coast and had lunch in a garden in Nelson before continuing on to Takaka. Takaka is home to some of the best sport climbing in New Zealand at Payne's Ford and Pohara. There is a campground there called the Hangdog Camp that mainly caters to climbers (quite similar to Miguel's Pizza in Kentucky). The camp was packed with people from all over the place. The corner we set our tents up in had groups from the Czech Republic, Germany, France, and Australia. We arrived on Friday evening and met an English guy, a Scottish girl, and a Korean girl and climbed with them at Payne's Ford until it got dark. Payne's was about a 5 min walk from the campsite. The next day we met a bunch more folks from UCANT and climbed at Payne's for most of the morning and swam in the swimming hole until it got dark.



Adrian slacklined.


Monica backfilped.


Sunday we took the advice of my Canadian friend Hayes's flatmate's aunt and uncle and went to Wharariki (far-a-riki) Beach. It was one of the most amazing beach I've ever been to. The water was an incredible turquoise blue and was surrounded by dunes of super fine nearly white sand. There were grassy bluffs surrounding some of the beach that you could climb and jump from. The sea had carved caves out of the bluffs and some of the islands had huge arches in them. We ran into some seals when we were swimming and watched them surf.







Surfing seals.


Look close, were jumping in.


That evening we went to the Sea Cliffs at Pohara to climb. The crag is literally 100m from the beach. We stopped at an espresso cafe on a ship called the Physalie that apparently used to be owned by Jacques Cousteau.

If you look in the background you can see the cliffs we're climbing on.

This was a 24 (5.12a) that I only fell once on at the last bolt. It would have been my first climb at that high of a grade.



After we finshed climbing we walked down to the car and watched the sun set.


And heres some more photos from a different swimming hole with a rope swing and bouldering over water.



Nick