Castle Hill - Cancelled

I've gradually come to realise that Castle Hill is probably the only true world class venue that NZ has to offer for the rock climber. People told be this before I left, but it's only recently sunk in. We bombed it down the east coast from Kaikoura yesterday, turning left at Christchurch, and drove into the wilderness. The rocks come into view rather suddenly, not unlike the drive up to the Buttermilks. It just looked out of this world, and my fingers started to sweat in anticipation. It just looks amazing, but really hard to believe that these rock sculptures are actually lime stone. It looks more like Font sandstone, or even grit. Needless to say, the rain was chucking it down, so we turned the car around and drove back to the nearest village, Springfield - nothing to write home about, but still, a camp site for the night. Today the sun wasn't exactly shining either, but at least it was dry. We drove back, unloaded the boulder mat that hasn't seen any action since Bishop, and wandered up the hill.

There are so many rocks that navigation is very tricky, but we eventually managed to find our way to the spot we wanted to try. However, after not very long we deciced to leave, without even having unpacked the shoes. This place requires committment. The medium is too queer for any casual climbing. The rocks look like grit, but have less friction than ice. Add to the mix a general featurelessness, and a hight not far off that of the Buttermilks and you have it. To make anything out of this place would require weeks, not a day and a half. We quickly decide to instead spend the rest of the NZ time to see a bit more and sack the climbing.

So, we drive instead the other way across Arthur's Pass to the west coast and turn south. We're now in Franz Josef on the way to Milford Sound, Queenstown and back to Christchurch via Dunedin.

Disappointed? Not really. No climbing, essentially, on these rainy shores, but nothing would ever be able to match the US leg in that regard. Now, bring on some bungy in Queenstown.