North Island on my own

While bussing around and staying at backpacker places is ok, I still miss Inga and our van a little bit. After one more day of climbing in Takaka, I went to Nelson. Met some fun guys there and tried motor biking and then took the ferry over to Wellington. Since I like cities so much, I spent three whole hours there, at the Te Papa museum, and then went up to Turangi to do the Tongariro crossing the next day. And what a beautiful day! Blue sky and beautiful mountains. The crossing is very nice, but it sure smells on the way down.

After Tongariri, I went to Rotoroa and rented a mountain bike. The forest there was amazing and huge. I also went to the annual "Beer fest" (aka oktoberfest) but that was a dissapointment. Basically no people. Waitimo caves are famous for is glow worms and stalagtites, so I hade to try that of course. Before going up to Aukland and finishing my trip in NZ.

After a 12h flight to Los Angeles, I went right away to do some shopping. More specifically: find cheap climbing equipment and new running shoes. I sure spent a lot of money there; but luckily on sorely needed stuff. Tomorrow Aruba awaits me =)

Beautiful Flock Hill

Me at the summit of Mt. Tongariro with Mt. Ngauruhoe (aka. Mt. Doom) in the background.

Motorbiking in Nelson


Proof that Takaka/Nelson is the biggest hippie towns on earth (or at least in NZ)

Nelson "the Stilt capital"

South Rock Climbing

Paynes Ford is a really cool limestone crag; once you get used to slopers and run outs that is. We spent 5 days there, 4 of them climbing, and tried everything from slab to overhanging. On the rest day we rentet mountain bikes, and biked the "Kill Devil Track". It was great to back on a bike again, after just climbing for 6 weeks.

When Inga left for Aukland last wednesday, I tramped the whole Abel-Tasman track, a 52km long track along the beaches in Golden Bay. Back in Takaka after the tramping, I met some people that were going to Castle Hill, so I joined them. We have had 4 amazing days bouldering in the most beautiful surroundings. The arms hurt a bit, but the climbing is soo worth it. Tomorrow I'll go back north to Takaka, and then the North Island is next.

What do you do when Castle Hill looks like this? You go bouldering of course!

One of the thousands of fun problems at Flock Hill.

Another fun problem, just too hard for me.

Low tide in Abel Tasman

Seals and penguins in Abel Tasman national parc

Climbing at Paynes Ford

Driving around South Island, NZ.

Because of a lot of rain in Castle Hill, we headed first for Queenstown, the extreem sport capital of the world. We camped by the original bungy bridge, but in day light it looked too small, so of course we went for the big one. Nevis bungy jump is 134 m tall, with app. 40m free fall. It was an amazing feeling when falling.

We also climbed a couple of places around Queenstown. The rock i schist, which is really flaky, and not one of my favorites. But we did find a really cool roof to climb.

Driving north, we stopped a day in Castle Hill. The sun was shining and the place really showed itself from its best side, with green hills and snowy mountains in the background. The bouldering in Castle Hill is special and a little strange at first. And the friction is not the best, as it is polished limestone. But what an awesome place nevertheless.

We are now in Paynes Ford, close to Nelson. The climbing seems good, but its a lot of slopers, which is not really my style. And the weather here is not as stable as in Australia, so we might get more rest days than we want.Me on "Dream Thing" (21)

Me and Inga ready for NZ highest bungy. Inga is a little skeptical."I believe I can fly"Afterwards Inga was really happy.

Castle Hill

Acting tourist and partying in Sydney

We finally got to climb a little in the Bluies, and realised that we have to go back there some day. The climbing there is totally different from Araps, with a lot of small crimping and friction that eat skin faster that I though was possible.

Friday night we drove to Sydney and visited Lina, a friend from Trondheim. As we were going out to a place with "dress code", and me and Inga just have climbing clothes with us, we ended up borrowing dresses and shoes from the girls there. It was quite a shock going from staying in the bush for 5 weeks, to a hip night club in Sydney. On Saturday we went to see the famous Opera House + Sydney Harbour Bridge, and we took the ferry over to Manly, just to be a "normal" tourist for a day. Sydney is a nice city, and I would say it has a beautiful harbour, but one day was enough.

We have now landed in Christchurch, NZ, and spent the afternoon jogging in the city park. Chistchurch is the size of a city that suites us much more than Sydney. We also found the most amazing restaurant: "Octagon Live". It's an old church wich has been turned in to a beautiful restaurant, and they had live music with both guitar, piano, organ and singing. The food was really good, and we even got a lot of discount, just because the people were so nice there. It was the perfect way to spend the night in Christchurch. Now we can't wait to go back to the bush, and first stop is Castle Hill for some frictionless bouldering.

Lina enjoying the ferry to Manly.

Whoa. Clean and dressed up girls. That's the first time in 5 weeks.

Sydney Opera House. Been there, done that.

The cool restaurant which used to be a church.

Last week in Aussie land.

After two weeks in Araps we have accomplished our first goal: to climb 19 (6/6+) on trad. And since we still haven't really climbed in the Bluies yet, it was time to drive back north. It was sad to leave our french guy Joris and Thu & Dave from Calgary, but we're looking forward to more sports climbing again. Yesterday was warm and sunny, the total opposite of the 5 degrees we had three weeks ago, but unfortunately, a storm hit the mountains today, and we got an unwanted day of rest. Sadly we just have three more days in Australia...time passes too fast.

Amazing Arapiles!

Monday we drove further south, passing trough Melbourne to buy climbing guides, and ended up in Arapiles. We have now spent 4 days climbing both single and several multi pitches and we are liking trad more and more. Arapiles has become of my favourite places. It has funny birds and kangaroos, a superb campground (the Pines) where we have met a lot of great people from all over the world, and of course: TOTALLY AWESOME CLIMBING. We now head for the Grampians, one hour away, where there are enough hard routes for a life time (both sport and trad).

Mmm. Brownies made on the fire is good!

The Woody. V4. Really cool tree boulder.

Inga on Tannin (19)

Bluies and Nowra

Finally arriving in the Bluies, it was freezing cold and a lot of wind. We climbed there for two days, but then we decided to go to Nowra in stead, and come back later when it is less windy. Of course, I forgot my wallet (or it is hidden vey well somewhere in our van) in the petrol station on the way down. I have not managed to contact them yet; they have no excisting telephone number! Nowra is a boring town, but a great climbing spot. We stay at a camping area where we can just paddle over the river, and then we're at the crag! We have had two perfect climbing days with 20 degrees and sunny weather. The sandstone has amasing friction, Fontainebleau is not even close, but you feel it in the fingers after a couple of days. The plan for tomorrow is of course more climbing, and then we might drive south to the Arapiles. It is just unfortunate that it might rain the following days. Check out Inga's blog for more photos at ingavatne.blogspot.com.




Spinning Blades of Steel. Utrolig kult takoverheng. Grad 20 (ca. 6+/7-).