Rock Deluxe

Sunday, May 15th, 2011 | climbing, new zealand, travel

Now, New Zealand isn’t Europe, but it still got some quite decent rock. And, that’s for sure, some very, very decent scenery to play in.
After not climbing for a whole month in Indonesia (imagine that!), I just had to pin the climbing mission high on my flags for New Zealand. Could not help it. What followed was an epic two-month road trip throughout the South Island, chasing the sun and the crags. For some reason, we had five days of straight sunshine down in the Fiordlands, a place with an annual rainfall of 6000+mm. The regions around Queenstown entertain you with some Schist that actually holds your body weight and lovely Wanaka had us come back three times.

Bouldering in world-famous Castle Hill is, of course, a must-do. This magical place offers some 10000+ boulder problems. Literally. But those weird rock formations make sure what you won’t find a single one of them since you won’t be able to spot a single hand- or foothold. But running into some local-pro’s helps a lot to get you psyched for the day. “So how are you supposed to get up there?!”, a common phrase.
New Zealand’s sport-climbing Mecca Paynes Ford got me bound for three weeks (it happens to everyone). But who could possibly defy days of two-hour break-feasts, perfect sport climbing, and legendary campfire-circles nursed by the conversations of beautiful and strange climbing bums? Right. Might as well stay another day. But now, unmistakeably, winter is creeping in, slowly but surely, so I have to flee to the North, counting the days. Counting the days!