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.

Had a fun last night on the island.. we headed climbing – just a few easy routes, and then there was a fire party over at Tonsai – so away we headed to see Job2Do playing (an excellent reggae acoustic type gig thingy!)

It was heaps of fun, and two things worthy of note – one was jumping though a fire hoop (not hot at all!)

And the other was heading out drinking with (and I admit I’d no idea who he was until it was explained) a guy called Tim Emmett.

He’s a world class (madman) climber / deep water soloer. This link is of Tim, Chris Sharma, and a few others deep water soloing in Croatia. Stunning pictures.

And that, pretty much, was the end of my time in Rai Lay. I will, without any shadow of a doubt, be back climbing there again within the next 2 or 3 years. Hopefully next year!