Part 2
Castle Hill:
The
“Spiritual Center of the Universe”
-Dalai Lama 2002 (he may be on to something
there).
I
met up with Tom D. (the same climber who I ventured with to Lover’s Leap for
climbing) at the Craigburn shelter Sunday night, and camped there for the next
few nights. During the next 4 days we walked and hitched to the different
renowned climbing areas just down the road.
 |
| Did I mention how cool the Rock is? |
Monday we wandered
around Flockhill in search of sport climbing routes (carrying my rope, rather
than the bouldering pad). Interesting fact: Flockhill is where The Chronicles
of Narnia battle scene was filmed. For those who love the movie-the pictures should
look familiar: from when Peter leads the charge against the queen’s army, and
when the Minotaur takes on the queen. Our day was not so exciting sadly, for
the sport routes were rather hard to find; a day of exploration and we only got
on two. We decided we had to return with the bouldering pad because the rock
was far more exciting for scrambling and bouldering.
 | |
| The Climbing Crew |
The next couple of days had slow
leisurely mornings because it rained in the night. The sun and wind however
dried the Quantum field rocks by the time we hitched rides there. While
climbing at Quantum we met four guys who were also staying in the campground
and we ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the days. There were the
two Kiwis: Craig and Luke; and the two Germans: Marcus and Yohan. In the
evenings we sometimes went to hang out in the warmth of Flockhill Lodge down
the road and enjoy a couple of drinks before making our way back to the
campground which was in a cold pocket. On our last morning, we woke to find a
layer of snow over everything.
 |
| We all live on a Yellow Submarine... |
 | |||
| Professional Shots: Taken by local counsel members for their website | . |
Friday morning we packed up, said
our good byes to the others, and set out to hitch home. I was worried because
we had quite a lot of stuff-with the bouldering pad and me having an extra
pack. But it turned out to be no problem at all. We probably walked 25 minutes
tops with our thumbs out before we were picked up by this young woman who so
happened to be heading to Dunedin that afternoon; what are the chances?! She
didn’t even have a very big car, but she had no problem shuffling things around
and putting a seat up so there was room for us (I’m always impressed by the
kindness of people who pick up hitchhikers and have to go out of their way or make
room in their car for a stranger). It wasn’t overly comforting that she was
apologizing to us about her bad driving as we got in the car (she was still on
her driving permit or something), but I was happy to find I didn’t think she
was that bad at all. We went with her to her parent’s house in Christchurch for
her to drop things off and pick up her sister. We got to enjoy a cup of tea
while we waited and talked with her parents. Turns out they moved here from
Canada about 20 years ago (the father is Canadian, but their mother is Kiwi who
he met in college). 7:30ish that night I was dropped off practically at my
doorsteps.
 |
| The sunset Friday night during our ride home. |
Sunday I took half a day’s break
from studies and went out with Jaz, Claire (climber at the gym, more into
caving though), Paul (another new, but avid climber), and Nick (caver and
founder of the world’s largest sea-cave which he is currently mapping out) for
an afternoon of climbing at long beach. It was a nice relaxing afternoon in the
sun-a good ending to break, before I was glued to the computer screen for the
coming weekdays.
No comments:
Post a Comment