UKC

JJax and I got back yesterday from a month in New Zealand. Since I've been up since 5 this morning with my body working in a different time zone, I thought I'd put up a post on my experience of climbing in NZ.

I found that the decent climbing started with the harder routes, so for someone like me who is fine on trad up to VS 4B leads, you have to start scaring yourself to get a hard climb. The lower grades (up to Oz/NZ grade 14) tend to be fairly samey. 15 and above are where the climbing properly starts. There is enough there at the lower for those new to leading, but I would reckon that most folk would be bored seconding the lower grade routes.

There is no consensus on how NZ grades equate to UK, so depending on what guidebook you read, a 16 could be anything from HS to VS5a. Based on my experience, I would reckon that a 15 is a low VS and a 16 is a high VS. 17s are definitely into high VS and HVS territory, and 18s are the start of the Es.

Most of the rock was devoid of anywhere to place gear, so without bolting the routes climbing would be impossible. The handholds tended to be either crimpy or slopers but with great friction for your feet. If you are good at bouldering, you’ll enjoy the climbing – I guess the style favours technique over brute strength!

Gear wise, you’d need a single rope, 10 quickdraws, couple of screwgates and some slings. I took all of my trad gear and didn’t use it.

Many of the climbing areas have good facilities with car parks and toilets, with the authorities (the Department of Conservation) actively supporting climbing. Much of NZ land is in private hands though, and there can be loads of access restrictions. Lambing time is Oct to mid Nov, and sees huge areas made off-limits, so if you are interested in exploring off the beaten track, get some local advice first. The climbing clubs all seem to have made big efforts with local landowners to ensure that access to climbing crags is maintained, with much emphasis on climbers respecting the access – no dogs, fires, camping etc. The message is don’t f&*% up and ruin it for everyone else. There are huge areas that are unclimbed so the potential for new routes is vast.

In Golden Bay in the NW part of the South Island, we stayed in Takaka, and climbed at Pohara and Paynes Ford. Both are areas with limestone crags, and I think all are single pitch sports routes. Paynes Ford has a huge number of routes and we climbed at the Little Lost Wall and Creese Wall. Some of the routes were a bit wet, especially in the pockets, as the crags are mostly in the trees. However, the rock was super sticky in the dry. It gets a lot of visitors, and even in the springtime the crags had a lot of climbers.

At Pohara we just managed one route in beautiful late afternoon sunshine on the Cathedral Wall. The routes here are a bit longer routes than at Paynes Ford, the outlook over the sea is fantastic, and the routes are right by the road.

At Wanaka we climbed at the Hospital Flats, a massive area of schist crags. These are nearly all single pitch sports routes, although there is some trad. Wanaka is in the South Island about 1 hour from Queenstown. This is one of the busiest areas, with huge sections still to be opened up for climbing. The local club is very active in putting up new routes, so you’ll see various in-situ gear about the place. There is a massive choice from low to super hard grades.

There are some trad sea cliffs at Charleston on the West Coast near to Greymouth. We had a wee bouldering session here on the way down the road, so can’t say what the routes were like, but the rock was gneiss(!). It’s a fairly unique place in NZ as one of the few areas for trad climbing, and is a bit of battleground in the “to bolt” or “not to bolt” debate (sounds familiar?). Belayers beware though - the waves can be huge here, so you might get wet!

Castle Hill is just off the Arthur’s Pass road from Greymouth to Christchurch, and is just the most spectacular place to visit. It was pissing with rain the day we went there, and even then the rock formations are awe-inspiring. Huge limestone monoliths, all weathered into smoothly surfaced, weird shapes on top of a hill. It’s meant to be a mecca for bouldering. Watch the battle scene for the film Narnia – the lion, the witch and the wardrobe…

Elephant Rocks near to Oamura between Christchurch and Dunedin is a similar area of limestone monoliths.

Reading: Golden Bay Climbs by Simon Middlemass and Mark Watson (Karst Publishing). Good wee book on the Golden Bay area and covers Paynes Ford and Pohara. Lots of maps, topos and route descriptions.

Wanaka Rock by the Wanaka Rock Club. Routes, photos and topos.

Climbing New Zealand by Alastair Lee (Posing Productions). Good general coverage of all of the main climbing areas.

Queenstown Rock, Ice and Mixed by Guillaume Charlton (Queenstown Climbing Club).

In reply to jacobfinn: nice summary, there's a good guide for the south island, er, Rock Delux i think it's called. Shame there wasn't a similar one for the north island when I was there a few years ago.

There's some bouldering in some caves and routes on a beach near Dunedin that I though was good too, forget the name at the moment.

In reply to jacobfinn: Good effort putting upall that info. You are about right with the grades, I lived in Oz for a while and thought that E grades start about 19.
Did you do the fine crack on the Tombstone at Wanaka, grade 17? Crofty

In reply to Crofty: I did that, what you reckon to grade H/VS 5a?

The arete to the left is good too.

Rock Deluxe is a great little guide, better than S Island Rock IMO.

In reply to Crofty:

No, didn't get onto the Crack on the Tombstone although did look a fine route.

In reply to Chris F: Prob top end VS 4c, but then Almscliff is my local crag and I like jamming.

In reply to Crofty: Probably right. Mostly basic crack climbing with one short well protected crux section IIRC.

In reply to Mjenn2:
there is a plan for a NI one.

I assume that you saw this before you went.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=24

Thanks for the mention of Golden Bay Climbs. It is however currently sold out an not available until end 2010

Here are some useful links.

Useful links

http://www.freeclimb.co.nz/central-north.html

http://www.geocities.com/~nzclimbing/

http://paynesford.blogspot.com/

http://www.routinginwanaka.blogspot.com/

http://queenstownclimbing.hautetfort.com/

http://darrans.wordpress.com/

http://www.tota.co.nz/castlehill/information.html

http://castlehillbouldering.blogspot.com/

In reply to jacobfinn:

We were on holiday in New Zealand in January and got a few days climbing in amid four weeks of other adventures. We did one at Pohara and one at Payne's Ford and two in Castle Hill.

At that time of year I thought Payne's was a much better option. Although Pohara was in the trees it only got shade in the very early morning. There was a larger variety of easier climbs (sub F6b) but to me they felt a little samey. The really good stuff was at Paynes Ford and the swimming holes were welcoming with the intense heat. We got really spanked at both places as we were both poor on slopers.

Castle Hill was amazing. Hard but amazing. We didn't fly out with a bouldering mat, but it was easy to rent one. I enjoyed the climbing near Takaka, but wouldn't think that it would be worth flying that far just to climb there (especially with the great limestone sport climbing in Europe). But I really thought that Castle Hill was a fantastic place to be. The bouldering was great and the scenery spectacular. I'd definetly like to go back there again.

There are a couple of pictures from the climbing on our trip here-

http://anni-ja-tony.blogspot.com/search/label/sport%20climbing

http://anni-ja-tony.blogspot.com/search/label/bouldering

We bought the Payne's and Pohara guide from the Hangdog campsite at Payne's Ford. It's a low quality photocopied thing for a couple of bucks but had everything we'd need. We didn't get a guidebook for Castle Hill as it was so easy and sociable to wander across to a group of climbers and ask what they were doing and then give it a go.

It sounded like you had a good time in NZ. We really enjoyed it and thought it was so well set up for outdoor activities.

In reply to Mjenn2:
Long beach - occasionally with in-situ sea lion (although not seen him recently). Not as scary as "Toothless Joe Jackson" out at Aramoana - now there's someone not to mistake for a bouldering mat.
HTH
B

In reply to jacobfinn:

A stonking bit of NZ clambering about reportage there fella. I'm currently on a gap year in NZ and have been living in Queenstown for a month or so. I've gotten out on the rock a fair bit. Here're my thoughts so far:

I've climbed on several crags around Queenstown and one near Wanaka. The climbing has all been on schist. Schist is super compact, it has very few cracks in it. This, added to the fact the the quality of the schist drops off quite a bit when you get into a crack (the rock has a hard skin, if you know what I mean) kinda makes it not brilliant for tradding all over the shop. The bolt is king here and rightly so. However, there are still several trad pitches to go at and some routes that have bolts on blank sections and you place trad gear in the cracks - a bit like the 17 and 18 I did today. A fine compromise is struck I feel. Please also note that most routes, especially up in the Wye Valley Branches are very sportingly bolted too to still give you that 'squeak' as you climb high above your last bit of 'gear'.

The darker the schist the better its quality. The white/grey stuff is generally very flaky and waiting to fall off (it is often an idea to belay in sunnies just to stop flecks of rock falling in your eyes all the time). Small footholds, especially, enjoy popping off as you move your foot around on them. Fun fun fun.

The rock surface is best described as undulating. It looks very featured from below. Don't be decieved, most of these features are rubbish. The holds that are worthwhile are usually quartz crimps (formed when the softer schist erodes back and the harder quartz is left sticking out) and the odd sloper. The friction is ace on all but the white/grey stuff and then it only deteriorates as your feet get covered in fine dust from the holds.

Having said all that you're probably busy running a long way away. Stop, turn around and run back. The climbing is intense, thought provoking, at every angle and difficulty imagineable and is very, very good fun to climb on. Furthermore, the locals are very friendly and helpful. They're also good at taking the mickey.

With regard to grades, I reckon the Queenstown guide has it about right with 18 being F6a and the grades adding or losing a number for each French grade from there, so 17 is 5c+ and 19 is 6a+. However, there're some bonkers routes at each grade. I think some are wrongly graded, mainly because there really arn't too many climbers here and most routes haven't seen a huge number of repeats (there is NO polish!). Also, there're so many possible 'holds' on the rock that you might not use the 'correct' sequence and find it easier or harder. Or you might just not be on it that day - this happens to me alot.

I'm absolutely loving the climbing here. The views and the vegetation are superb - lots of 'holiday' trees (palm trees) and snow capped mountains in the background. I've not climbed at a bad crag yet. The best seems to be Wye Creek as it has climbs of every grade, angle, style and orientation so you can always climb something.

In the Queenstown area, Wye Creek is about a 35 min walk from the car. There're other crags about that are roadside, or within 10 mins of the road. I've been to Arawata Terrace (immaculate rock) and Gorge Road (great multipitches close to the road).

The crags I've visited near Wanaka are called Little Big Wall (superb) and Mt Iron (stays dry in the rain - steep).

The bouldering the area is supposed to be good (I've not done any yet) but guides are a little tricky to come by (for Q'town).

I reckon that any travelling visitor would have a brilliant time by just bringing a 60m rope, 12 quickdraws and the other sport climbing gubbins. Only bring some trad stuff if you wanna go mountaineering, a completely different cup of tea.

Right, waffle over.

Love from,
Joyce,
XXXX