"Can New Zealand be THE ULTIMATE destination for all things Ratty??!
I honestly think so.
The Land of the Long White Cloud has it all; world class kayaking, winter sports powder goodness, cave diving, big wave surfing, superb climbing from alpine to ice to sport to pristine limestone bouldering!! and more, the list goes on.
My Summer was spent climbing in the South Island and basically living the dirtbag life for a couple of months.
Oh yeah, don’t hesitate getting to Kiwiland, goodness abounds." – Drew Coleman
 Here's Drew's account from his time on the road:
"Hope the heads have recovered from those Christmas hangovers... ready to do it again on NYE!!! NZ is shaping up a treat. Went out to Castle Hill Basin on Sunday. The place is amazing, magical setting, awesome rock and the problems are very cool. Due to impending weather I wasn’t able to stay in the basin for longer than 2 days, but am definitely planning on coming back after some time in the Alps!!!
I'm heading into the Mt Cook area on the 3rd of Jan for a bit over a week. By the sounds of things the conditions are pretty good, so hopefully that holds up for another couple of weeks. Will be heading back out to Castle Hill in Jan for a week or two, then head up to Paynes Ford to meet up with Enga.
Well, after the recent spate of tragedies in the Southern Alps of New Zealand you'll be (hopefully) glad to hear that my bro and I managed to dodge the avalanches, rockfall, storms, lightning, 160km/hr winds, hut boredom and the ever increasing hordes of Australians who are looking for an alpine experience.
As large, wet and cold storms sweeping off the Southern Ocean are commonplace in the Southern Alps, we planned for 8 days, hoping for 5 days of goodness. What panned out was close to the mark but not quite.
Day 1 thankfully was a clear weather window in Mt Cook village, looking skyward however we noticed those all too alarming Lenticular hogsback clouds signifying oncoming weather. We were keen to get into the hills though and after a short discussion with the pilot, we quickly loaded the ski-plane hoping to get as far up the Tasman Glacier as possible.
 Almost 2000m above Cook Village we began circling the put-down site, a sideways glance at our pilot confirmed that conditions weren't ideal for landing. I held my confidence in the supreme skill, honed through hours of mountain flying due to our obviously nervous and sweating pilot, as we dropped lower and managed a hard and bumpy landing amongst the crevasses of the upper neve on the TasmanGlacier, a short 10 minute walk from Kelman Hut - our base for the next week. I couldn't help thinking that flying out in 8 days time would be much easier than walking the terrain we just flew over.
Over the next 7 days we managed to drag our arses up the south face of Mt Aylmer, a 50-55degree snow/ice face and a couple of non-descript surrounding peaks in-between wind, rain, snow, sleet and any mixture of the above.
If truth be told the hardest and most scary thing I had to do all week was make it to the long drop through 150km/hr winds. After the first midnight, the mid-storm mission to the pisser increased ten-fold my mental stamina and urinary control and is now being spoken of in hushed tones at the bar in Cook Village! Well not really but corking it was a far better option than being blown down the headwall of the Murchison Glacier with my pants around my ankles!!! And there was no way I was contributing to the 20L "piss bucket" as that would mean emptying it; a risky endeavour if there ever was one!!
I supose the one saving grace of the storms was that we spent hours scouring the map and planning our next trip and further objectives, winter in the backcountry is sounding pretty good.
 Our 8th day seemed to come about very quickly and although the day dawned blue bird and warm, the winds remained at levels way above flying conditions and the inevitable 12 hr glacier and morriane walk out was upon us. If anyone has walked down a morraine in NZ you will know the pain experienced. I still maintain that morraine travel should be kept as punishment for people who harm small dogs or stuffed animals or something............ A few hours of scrambling in a 30C moonscape, running out of water and patience, was appetite enough for a cold beer. My thoughts drifted back to start of the trip when flying out seemed easier, now it seemed plain smart.
As Confucius says: If you cry in morraine and there is human nearby, do they still hear you???........
Well, now back from 2 weeks bouldering at Castle Hill near Arthurs Pass. The bouldering (on limestone) is incredible; mantle heaven, sloper and slapper madness, requiring sound footwork and commitment to pull over the top. Managed to hook up with some other travelling climbers and a couple of local Kiwi boys who all seemed really stoked on the Rat ethos. Hit the Quantum Field boulders in the first few days before moving on to Flock Hill and Dry Valley. Although these areas are within 10km of each other, the style is remarkably different between each place, going from slabs, tech faces and pocketed walls, to ‘more-than-vertical’ aretes and dynos. This place made the fellas adapt and stay keen to improve. With ascents of V4-V8 problems, we managed to squeeze in a shit load of climbing. As I write my tips are feeling a bit tender but that's definitely a small price to pay for bouldering perfection.
 The main boulder fields of Quantum Field, Spittle Hill and Flock Hill are all situated within 10 minutes drive of each other. Lush rolling hills surrounded by snow-capped peaks are dotted with a plethora of limestone boulders. Literally thousands of problems await as we strolled the couple of hundred metres from the car. (Could a committed boulderer ask for anything better?? World class problems within 5 minutes walk from the car!!!!! Everyone knows how lazy this sub-species are!) Soft grass under foot, large blue sky above, perfect, cool limestone at hand, nothing that can bite or sting, good friends and good times to be had!!
My good friend Fiona arrived from Sydney early Feb for a few weeks of climbing and bumming, so we hit the road in the smallest, shittiest and slowest mini-bus the bus-line could fined . . . .
Isn't it funny that even in a "civilised" country you can still find transport that rivals 3rd world destinations... including the 9 hours
of cramped legs, stoned passengers and stinky people.... shit hang on, that was me who was stinky!
 Anyhow, we made it up to Takaka for 10 days of climbing at Paynes Ford.
Met Enga at Paynes, she was labelling the core crew of climbers with the Rat and bumped into some Brits that I met at Castle Hill who were pulling down for all they were worth, (Tim the Scot red pointed Mea Culpa, 27). Every one in Hangdog (Climbers Camp) was loving the Rat ethos and very intrigued to find out what the go was. Paynes Ford is located in the SUNNY!! north of the south island, although we managed to find the 10 days of UNSEASONAL rain. Managed to get on rock almost every day however, and sampled some beautiful 3 star routes.
Takaka seems to attract every fire juggling, flower child, “ex-lawyer-come-hippy”, family holiday go-er within 500kms and climbers wanting rest-day coffee. The mix of people is great and the atmosphere relaxed and cruisy. We were lucky enough to be in town to see the annual Takaka Mardi Gras. Small town festivals are great way to kill some time, so Enga, Fi and I sampled some awesome fire juggling, and not so awesome dancing but hey you get that!!
Also sampled some locally brewed beer (10%) from the Mussel Inn. This night was a bit of an Ashes Drinking Test Match between Fi and I and the Brits… and well I think we all know who claimed the prize, all be it with a horrible 2 day hang over but with Aussie pride driving us on we drank!! It was however, detrimental to our final day of climbing. In Enga’s words we “looked dead but were obviously only comatosed”.
 So we changed bus lines for the trip back and lucked out, thankfully!!
Heading to Castle Hill tomorrow for another week of bouldering goodness before the trip ends and it's back to Sydney town. Planning on being at the NZ National
The bouldering comp went off really well, despite the poor weather. I managed to get hold of the series organisers at registration who where more than happy to spread the good word of the Rat. I hooked them up with T-shirts and sticker packs for "door prizes" and raffles at the post comp BBQ presentation. In true Kiwi style, the presentation was held in a wool shed down the road from Spittle Hill.
I must say a big thankyou to Craig and Jamie (event organisers of the National Bouldering Series of NZ) for allowing me a few minutes to get up and say some words what this lifestyle means and what it offers to the core community. Everyone seemed super stoked and interested in finding out more,and stoked on the T-Shirt give-aways. Who doesn’t love free stuff!!??
 This was the final event in the series and pulled at least 80 entrants and more spectators to watch NZ's best crank up some tasty problems at Spittle Hill. Some damn strong people cranking between small holds and sloppy, scary, mantle topouts. I'm now hanging out and bouldering at Castle Hill for a week before flying back to Sydney town on Sunday. Any one keen to pull on this week see you at Castle Hill... somewhere… so much rock… so much rock… must climb or at least walk round and touch it all.
Two months of climbing and hanging out has eventually come to an end!!
Albeit after a final day bouldering mission which ended in injury for me but thankfully last day injuries are a bit easier to handle. Should come good in a few days.
Big thankyou to a few people: Craig and Jamie from the NZ National Bouldering Series, Dave McKinley (UIAGM), my bro' Leroy and Sam for good times, Fiona for being a killer travel and climbing partner, Enga, Pommie Dan and Tim the Scot and all those Feeders I met and of cause the good people at Feed The Rat, cheers.
Had a shite load of good times, met plenty of great people and sampled some of New Zealand's best rock.
If any one is thinking about climbing and bouldering over in the Land Of The Long White Cloud... don't hesitate! Get there!
CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS!!! IF YOU AREN’T INSPIRED, YOU MUST BE DEAD . . . OR COMATOSED!!! |
