This is the end, bah bah baaaah, beau-ti-ful nz

And so here it is, the end is nigh but not totally over yet. This here is our last New Zealand blog entry and we cant beleive its over, where did 5 months go??
After our last session at Paynes we had to try and get back down to castle hill for one more full on bouldering masacre, but unfortunatly fate had other plans. We drove up from Christchurch to get to Arthurs pass, where castle hill resides only to be turned away from a huge dump of snow not even with the mighty force of Charlotte behind us we still could not pass, so back to Christchurch we went with our tails between our legs.
We checked in at a hostal called the kiwi house which is now 'base camp'. We spent 11 days at the car market trying to give Charlotte a new home but it seemed our luck had run out, as on the 11th day we had our first real interested ausie guy who wanted to take her out for a test drive and he seemed keen to buy her, hopes were high......
Then half way through the drive he wanted to check out the power of her 4wd. Charlotte was obviously having 'womens problems' that day and decided to be in a bitch of a mood. 4wd selected and clunk clunk chug chug bang!!!! Charlotte was no more. The centre diff which is a key component to the 4wd broke, leaving us with an uninterested buyer and a mere shadow of a van. bummer!!!
It would cost us alot more than we could afford to get her fixed up so our only resort was to sell her for what she was worth, which was not alot. Fortunatly a mechanic bought her for $500 which is the best offer we had.
In this kind of situation we could only laugh at our bad luck and just remembered all the awsome times Charlotte has given us......
Its our last night in Christchurch tonight and we fly out tomorrow and on to Thailand, we wont be there for as long as we wanted but heh were still going to make the most out of the time we have left.
Only one pic for this entry, this is every place we checked out in New Zealand, this map was due to boredom on an extremly rainy day.......

Where is everybody?

So, we finally managed to pry ourselves away from Wanaka, after 2 months of full on climbing, parties and good times we decided it was time to leave and go back to 'The Bay'. Driving up through the west coast in terenchal weather for the first few days then as we got nearer the north of the island it cheered up (abit). We stopped off at the Fox glacier, and the Franz Josef and also checked out a few lakes.
Back in Golden Bay where hang dog is now totally deserted (possibly due to the plague), we done our usual climbing thang and also checked out a new area by the sea called Pohara, which consisted of a huge 'slab' which was actually over hanging (bizzare) with huge holds. On a rest day we took a recomended drive up to Whairiki Bay which was awsome. Its situataed just to the west of farewell spit, so right up on the north of the south island. A real tranquil walk up steady grassy nolls then down on to one of the most picturesque beaches we have been on, strolling along untouched sand. On the return walk we heard some splashing down by the river, at first we decided it was dolphins (dont ask) but wasnt sure so we took on a little mission to get down to the river bank. We scrambled through trees and shrubs then strategically placed ourselves in the reeds to observe the 'dolphins' which actually turned out to be seals. We stayed hidden for a while taking photos and David Attenburgh style videos then decided let the fellas splash on in peace.

Pohara, climbing.

The first rule is........

Lake Manapouri

dirty'little' Fox Glacier

walking into the Fox

Tom trying for the repeat of 'Spotty Britt' - but failed, bummer

Nic leading 'Fearless vampire killers'

A view from Pohara

One Pohara's little nasties....

Whairiki Bay

Raising the dead, practising the black arts and conversing with Satan....

Captains log stardate 23.9 rounded off to the nearest decimal point.
Well actually the date was 06/06/06 so we decided to abandon civilisation in fear of the four horseman of the apocalypse spreading general chaos across the land and plunging the earth into eternal darkness,ohhhhh.
With enough supplys to last us for a few days and carrying all our climbing gear we set off into the unknown of the Kahurangi national park in search of virgin rock that we knew no one had climbed before.
We also had a little help from our friend Chris who talked us into this mission in the first place.
With packs that wieghed in at 25 kilo's + it took us well over 5 hours to reach our hut which would be our base camp for the next few days. Kitted out with bunk beds and a woodburner living wasnt going to be to bad!
The next day was an early start and fueled up with a good breakfast we headed out in search of new climbs. We hiked to the top of Sentinal rock which gave us a panaramic view of the whole area at height of 1600m. Spotting out a few lines, we went to check them out. The first was this prominent crack that sank deep into the rock and went up for about 20 - 25 meters, Nic was up first to check it out and after being on the climb for a few meters I realised that i had forgotten the climbing gear and had to down climb it to retrieve the gear!! Woops! So the first climb was all most a complete success, once we all got to the top the climb was named 'Gear Amnesia'. (The general rule in climbing is that if you climb it first its upto you what the name of the route should be.)
On the walk down we spyed out our next conquest, an obvious line straight up a face with numerous channels to place gear. Chris was on lead and soon made short work of the line cruising to the top without any worries. Due to previous Fast Show episodes the climb was titled 'Channel 9'. Also due to a debate between who is hotter out of Paris Hilton and Angelina Jolie we named the wall 'Paris vs Angie Wall'.
And it just keeps getting better, the next day we took on this huge scary slab. We decided to break it up into seperate pitches, 3 in total. Chris took the first pitch and climbed it with great style as he took on the direct bouldery start. Then it was Nic's turn on to claim the second pitch a good line of channels with good gear but spaced well apart. As i climbed higher the channels got a lot wider than expected and places for gear got very thin so i stepped across to a good side pull jug and managed to thread a small sling through a gap to protect myself from a fall. The next break in the rock was over 15m away and nothing but a blank slab to climb to get to it, very slowly i worked my way up the slab and to be honest i was terrified of the thought of a huge fall but with good foot work i made it to the next belay and let out a welcome sigh of relief!
The weather was starting to close in on us so speed was essential to get to the top, Chris took the next lead up easy ground and we all followed safely to top out and titled the climb 'Scorchio' (another fast show moment) and hence the name of the wall 'The Fast Wall'.
With us all safely back on the ground we stood back to gaze at what madness we had just done. Choice one!!!
All that was left for us to do was spot out future projects and get the hell out of there.
We hiked back to the van and to our surprise civiliastion was still there, obviously the four horse men were on holiday in Hawai sipping margaritas by the pool. Satan was not impressed!!

Hiking up to 1600

Spooky goings on in the hut.

The start of the walk.

Home sweet home.

look, theres a tree

'Gear Amnesia'

On top of Sentinal Rock and Nics leg has grown a meter,
possibly due to climatization....

First ascent of 'G.A'

Chris cruising 'Channel 9'

Mt Owen on the left there, Gandalf nearly met his doom around this area
so legend tells us.....

SCORCHIO!!!!!!

and below, come on guys Angie is the winner