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.
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