Castle Hill Bouldering Shenanigans
Here we go with the biggest adventure so far this year: the New Zealand bouldering trip. I'm basically in love with this place and I will undoubtedly return at some stage, hopefully not too far in the future but we'll see...
Day 1
Our flight was at 5.20am in the morning, and Pat, Geoff, Oliver and myself met up nice and early in Lyneham to start our journey together. And then... Boring travel for the rest of the day, yay!! Also some pretty amazing pizza.
Day 2 & 3 (Bouldering at Castle Hill!!)
Amazing views as soon as I got out of my tent. We camped at Hawdon Shelter campground for everyday of the trip except the last and it was great because it was free and scenic.
Day 2 & 3 were spent bouldering at Castle Hill with our friends Chris and Hatley.
The fields of boulders were so wonderfully scenic! And one of the areas was called quantum field, how fitting considering my research is in quantum physics!!
I can't say that I climbed many boulders, but I had so much fun trying different problems. Normally I'm very bad at bouldering, in the past I have gotten maybe one or two V1s but mostly I climb V0s and just suck at everything else. In bouldering the problems are a lot different to sport and trad climbing. Its much shorter but the moves can be quite hard. The grading is also very different for bouldering (V0-V14). My max grade for sport climbing is 18, whereas my max grade for bouldering is V1 which is roughly a grade 20-21 if you compare the two grading systems.
Surprisingly I got a few V1s on this trip and enjoyed climbing them. But bouldering for me is mostly about having fun and relaxing with friends while trying out some climbs and watching my friends that are better at climbing than me get some tricky boulder problems.
The boulders of Castle hill are formed from limestone which means they are super slick and full of pockets which makes for some really interesting climbing and not a lot of confidence in footholds. The top outs also almost always involve a mantle move (like the move you would make to get out of a swimming pool) which means theres not really any hold at the top, more like a smooth rounded surface that you have to get onto. My favourite style for getting onto this kind of top out is called a beach whale, which basically involves flopping your entire body onto the rock and using the friction to get up. I hate mantles, with a passion, they are simply the worst move... And there was so many mantles!!!
The most epic climb for the first two days goes to Pat, a V4 chimney climb that was quite high and definitely an awesome achievement, Pat was the only one to attempt the climb and he flashed it! It was certainly a committing problem.
Photo credit to Hatley for some of the photos above!
Day 4 (AKA rest day, AKA lets go on a crazy hike!!)
Thats right, when we take a rest day, we mean rest day from bouldering and not an actual rest day. The best time to go on a day hike is when you need a break from climbing!
Chris and Hatley said farewell and it was just the four of us again. Now was our chance to visit Arthurs Pass and get some coffee before heading up Avalanche peak (our chosen hike for the day). I was looking forward to seeing some Kea birds, and I was not disappointed!
Avalanche peak is about 1800m above sea level and Arthurs pass is at 800m, which meant a 1000m climb. We started at the Avalanche peak trailhead and did a round trip, coming back down Scotts trail.
It was quite the climb! And for me at least a real achievement to get to the top and a real struggle along the way. And yes, I cried at some point on the way up... The other guys were impressed I kept going, I was in a bad mood the entire way up. Thats just part of the experience for me when we go on steep hikes. I was angry and miserable the entire way up and struggling to push through it, but I kept going, hoping to get to the top sooner rather than later. And when we got to the summit, I was so relieved. And two Kea birds were sitting on the summit with us! The views were stunning, we could see a glacier off in the distance.
There's a reason Lord of the rings was filmed in New Zealand, the place is magical, the forests are definitely out of a fantasy world and the mountains are magnificent and intimidating. Even though I suffered most of the hike, it was an extraordinary experience. Definitely type 2 fun though...
Photo of the two Kea birds by Patrick.
Day 5 (Back to bouldering)
The last day of bouldering at Castle hill was somewhat lazy, we spent more time off the rock than on. But Pat got the first and only V5 of the trip as a warm up!! The trick was to wait until after he sent the climb to tell him it was a V5. Good work Pat!! Then Geoff spent a solid hour also trying to get the V5 (ok not really an hour). Sadly it didn't work out for Geoff, he couldn't use static Pat beta. We finished the day early, it was starting to get windy and cold and we had our fill of bouldering for the trip. That was it for Castle Hill bouldering.
Day 6 (Time to be a tourist and go for a scenic walk)
This was the last full day in New Zealand and we were all bouldered out so it was time to do some sight seeing. First up, we went to the Devil's punchbowl waterfall where we got nice and wet. It only took about an hour to see it and head back but it was beautiful.
Then we went to Cave stream, which is a spectacular cave with two entrances and a stream running through it. We saw the entrance and exit but sadly we didn't go caving, it was starting to rain and we weren't prepared to be submerged in the stream. I'm thinking next time I go back, this would be a fun cave to explore.
Because it was our last night, we decided to stay in the Flock Hill lodge hostel. It was raining, with snow forecast for the next day and we were all excited to have a hot shower and sit by the fireplace with wifi. I went to bed early, while the others stayed up waiting for the rainfall to turn into snowfall.
Day 7 (SNOW!!!)
I woke up early in the warm hostel bunk room, went out to have the first shower, before anyone else could beat me to it and looked out the window to see if it had started snowing. And it had! Oh joy! The ground was covered in a thin layer of snow and the snow was falling from the sky.
Now I'm from Australia, we get snow, but its not real snow... Its more like sleet. This was real snow, the soft fluffy kind! The kind I had never seen before. Amazing! I went outside and stood in the snowfall, mesmerised by it. I couldn't get over it, we had great weather for the entire trip, always sunny and not too cold and now we were getting snow!
Driving back down towards Christchurch, there was such a build up of snow, and it kept falling. Then we had the best idea, to go and check out Castle hill in the snow. We stopped for a quick visit and I was ecstatic. Everything was covered in snow, it was so beautiful. We walked through the snow, each of us so excited to witness it (apart from Geoff who stayed in the car, clearly not impressed by the snow). It was the best end to an epic adventure and I'm in love with New Zealand and its beautiful mountain scenery, awesomely fun boulders and wonderful snow. Until next time NZ!
