At last! Away from Christchurch again for the weekend! I do like the place, but I love getting away too… had a ‘working lunch’ on Friday.. it was a presentation to TUANZ(Telecoms Users Assoc of NZ) Was actually quite interesting, talking about how China + India are rapidly taking over all call centre jobs.. Anyway, there was then a prize draw at the end (names pulled out of a champagne bucket). I won. Massages for everyone in the contact centre. Not bad.

So yes, then it was off to the West Coast with Florian,Luke,John & Maeve – to a place called Charleston. We headed to the pub that evening.. excellent local pub. The bartender (Moss) said that the rocks were the oldest in NZ – that this was where Oz used to be attached to NZ. I can’t quite find a webpage which says exactly that.. but this page does talk about the geology of NZ, and does say the oldest rock is granite – in the Charleston area. And I did find this quote too …

The oldest rocks in New Zealand are found at Charleston on the West Coast. They are at least 600 million years old.

so who knows. Either way, the rock is great. And the coastline is incredible.

It truly is a great spot for trad climbing – the pub is close.. the campsite is a five minute walk from the crags (and free)

It’s hard to convey the difference to a non-climber! but trad routes are completely different from sport routes. Sure the main difference is that one has bolts drilled into the rock and the other involves attaching to your harness various wedges, camming devices, slings etc. etc. to secure yourself to the rock with. But more than that – it’s just ‘out there’ somehow. It’s a lot more committing, and you tend to remember the routes much better.

And you can see why, when there are waves smashing all around the place. It’s a real shame you can’t hear and feel pictures.. the sound was massive and the rock would almost vibrate under the force of some of the waves.

It’s great ;)

This pic is John leading ‘Racing in the Streets’ a 16. I will come back and lead this again for sure.

We had to absail down into a little cave (there were some belay bolts) about 20m above some of the more vicious waves I’ve seen.. and then climb back up. It was super exciting! I just wish I’d taken my camera down with me!

That night it was back to the pub for milkbrew. I’m sure it’s supposed to be highly alcoholic.. or reputation wise, it’s ‘only made in one place in the world’… sure… but it was good. Didn’t quite look hard enough to see what went into it, but 1L of milk (less one glass) filled with Kahlua, vodka? and something else. Quite yum though.

Still, all the thousands of games of pool that Dave and I have played in work have finally paid off.. I was on the table for the night… 10 straight games or something (so be afriad Liam ;) If you’re wondering about the scoring system on that page – we play 1 point per game, and 3 for the win (so the winnner gets 10 points for winning – unless someone pots the black early). If and when Dave starts winning again – it’ll say I suck rather than him.

It was a cracking place to just sit and watch the sea though when you weren’t climbing… this pic is of Maeve perched on a rock..

And you could look out and and have huge waves crashing all about you. Most atmospheric really.

There were a couple of bolted routes that we did too.. quite steep for the grade usually. This one is John leading Marlinspike (on Tintin boulder in European Cove for those who want to know!)

All too soon it was time to come back to Christchurch. That’s going to be my last trip away with John and Maeve before they leave NZ. Which is kinda sad. But I’m quite sure that they’ll be coming back. They’ve been bitten too.

So on Wednesday afternoon a friend of a friend (Florian – friend of Laura Poslers’) arrived from Germany. As soon as Florian arrived he was straight into NZ life! Just off the plane and straight off climbing with Glynn and John to Britten Crag.

Then on Thursday morning he was woken up by Warick – who took him off kayaking in sumner.. Warick has been teaching Jana and Julien to roll their kayaks.. Jana was most impressive and got it on her second session (which is really fast).

In the evening a bunch of us went to see Simon Yates (infamously known as the guy who cut the rope on Joe Simpson (Touching the Void).

Florian,Simon,me.

He was an excellent speaker. Really dry humour and simply incredible stories. Quite a lot of his experience has been putting up new routes, with stories of travelling down through Tiera Del Fuego and new routes in Pakistan etc. He only talked briefly on the accident with Joe.. I honestly don’t think he did anything wrong, and if he’d not been as good as he was in getting Joe as far down the mountain as he did then Joe would never have made it anyway. Desperate situation. One of the more terrible jokes, was when Simon was recounting how he’d been on the phone to a friend for 10 mins, and then they’d finished their conversation and hung up. Someone else then asked this friend who he’d been talking to – and he said ‘Oh, just my mate Simon Yates’ and the guy goes ‘Oh, did he cut you off…’ ba boom.

Friday Glynn,John,Susan,Florian and I were going to head climbing at Paynes Forde, but the weather wasn’t looking good enough to travel 14 hours over the weekend.. (and it did rain!) So instead out for pool and pints, and then Castle Rock for my first trad climbing in over a year… (though this pic of John)

Then some more bouldering at Castle Hill this time on Sunday. So another weekend around ChCh, not quite to plan, but still.. has to happen sometimes!

Quite excited though, am off to Wellington with work on the 23rd->25th with work, and then I’ll just stay up for the weekend and have a look around.. should be fun. Supposed to be an excellent city, even if it is expecting some earthquake (long overdue) which should completely wipe out the centre of the city..

Pretty active week after getting back in on Wednesday.. headed climbing (only indoors bah humbug) on Thursday.. Saturday headed up to Castle Hill with Steve, and Helen (who I’d not met before – she’s been off travelling for a year and a half, hitching and climbing her way around America and Europe!)

It was a roasting day up at castle hill.. I’d forgotten how easy it is to burn down here (little ozone..) but I know now ;) Great day. There was this weird (I’d never seen it before) kinda rainbow around the sun. It was completely circular.. dunno how it’s formed – I guess just the sun shining through scattered clouds..

Monday – headed to Salsa lessons with Linda – which was great fun, think I will go on the rest of the course (another 8 weeks) really reminded me (so far) of rock ‘n roll dancing when I was on exchange in France – many years ago.

And then yesterday headed climbing with John – and Susan – an American climber Linda had just met – who was looking for someone to climb with. She’s way cool – been living out of her touring van for the last 5 months! (after hitching around Africa of all places for the previous 7 months!) (bought the van for $150 off some poor irish people who had to leave the country!!) And then a quality game of scrabble…

My friend Lorcan sent me this link on tsunamis. I imagine a few of you reading are interested in how damaged it all was. Ko Pi Pi I believe was quite badly hit, and from talking to one of the climbers here who went out to help on the island – it really was quite bad there. Moreover because the authorities do not want to admit the numbers killed (many Burmese workers etc. just unaccounted for) because of the tourists. Or at least that’s what I was told. However, the vast majority of the area – at least in the parts we were – was almost perfect by the time we got there. It was very (perhaps too) easy to forget that the tragedy had happened at all. They’re a very resiliant people – and perhaps its from the belief that they do go to a happier, better place. Some of the hotels had received damage, but mostly the area we were in was quite sheltered – by islands and a reef – and the damage was minimised.

So if I haven’t talked about it much – it’s not actually because I’m cruel and heartless and am just far more interested in having a good time.. but because they’ve got on with things so well – and want to get back to normality as soon as possible. The longer people stay away the longer it’s going to take them to get back on their feet. So if you really want to help and fancy a holiday…

Don’t forget – you can reverse the page if you want! just click on the reverse page link on the right hand side. Also, two other climbers (Mark and Abby) are doing a trip around asia – their weblog is here.

There’s also a slideshow here of some of the pics. It’s not the prettiest layout – but it’s functional… will change it sometime.

Finally time to leave. Stayed the night before my departure in Ao Nang, as I was flying out at 10am and wasn’t quite sure I’d be able to get a boat in the morning. Met a couple of English climbers – and played pool and darts with them.

The darts was actually lots of fun – a version I’d never played before – they called it cricket. Very tactical. The aim is to get the least points. Now, you have the numbers 20->15 and then Doubles, Triples and the Bulls (outer or inner rings). You have to hit each number 3 times (but if you get a double it counts for 2 etc.) Once you have all three hits on a particular number (or double or triple) then you’re safe – but if you hit the number again, you give your opponents points.

For example, I hit the number 20 three times , but you’ve only hit it twice. If I hit it again, you get 20 points.. A really fun game actually.

Then back up to Bangkok… had 24 hours up there, wandered around seeing temples and the palace.

And all too soon time to go home. Amazing trip though. Just amazing.