We made it, somehow, from Murchison to Payne's Ford which is just south of Takaka. Leaving Murchison was tough for no other reason than we were both exhausted from the festival. One night of sleep is not nearly enough to recover from those kind of shenanigans. Not at this age. At the rate I'm going by the time I reach 35 it will take me a solid week to recover from the consumption of large volumes of alcohol. How anyone over that age still parties is beyond me.
So...two days later we made it to "Hangdog" which is the climbers' campground for the greater Payne's Ford climbing area. The place itself is pretty sweet, reflecting the ode' to nature and slight hippie flavor that permeates most of the New Zealand culture we've seen thus far. There are signs everywhere warning of how precious water is and to use as little as possible, everything is on the honor system as far as paying for camping and showers go, the campground (patrons and managers included) expect you to compost everything you can, there is a recycling section for everything (and I mean everything!), there are community bicycles, slack-line's hanging between trees, community fires at night, funny poetry on the bathroom walls, a semi-outdoor shower, vegetable gardens, chickens roaming throughout the place, and a slightly herbal scent wafting through the air on most days. Oh yeah, and there's always a few randoms doing yoga in the morning. It's nice and borderline over the top at the same time. I find myself waiting to see elves pop out of the bushes and dance a jig...or is that just the "air" having an effect on me...?
The climbing itself is amazing. Paynes consists of about 10 different walls all consisting of many routes and many grades. Slabs to long ceilings, traverses to dynos, it's all here and has really allowed Tim and I to step up our climbing. I had my first lead and Tim diligently stepped up his mettle to lead harder and harder routes. We met a really nice couple from British Columbia, Canada, named Jenny and Greg who climbed with us almost the entire time. We also had the good fortune of a couple of friends from Christchurch, Kelvin and Kelsey, coming up and climbing with us for two days; one at PF and one at Pohara.
Pohara is a rad little spot about 20 minutes north from Hangdog that consists of cliffs along the beach. There's not much more I can say about it. Good climbing and beautiful views. Once you get above the tree line on routes you can turn around to see the ocean and mountains in the background. It gains it's merit in that.
In our downtime we did two things:
1. Terrorize the local swimming hole where there were rope swings and a sick deep water solo traverse and,
2. Kill ourselves on the Able Tasman Coastal Track.
The Able Tasman is a National Park on the North part of the South Island. The Coastal Track itself is known as the most popular of the New Zealand Great Tracks. Once you're on it it's easy to see why. Around every corner is another amazing bay consisting of lush jungle, crystal clear blue/green water, picture perfect rocky coastlines, and sandy beaches. It is set up to be done in 3 or 4 days with the intention of doing short days, allowing yourself ample time to soak it up on some of the beaches. Because of the time constraint of Kelsey and Kelvin we decided to do it in two days. BIG mistake. On the track there are two tidal crossings that can only be made at low tide. This forced us to do 34 kilometers on the first day to make it in time, otherwise we would have had to take a third day. First day synopsis? Kelsey had 8 blisters. Tim made it 1/2 way before his ankles started killing him. I made it 3/4 of the way before a sudden pain in my foot. Even Kelvin, the tramper of the group, admitted to some soreness at the end of the day. But wait! It gets better... We woke the second morning on what was supposed to be our short day, about half the distance of the day previous, to a "Kelsey Realization" that we didn't have keys to our end vehicle. You see the track is not a loop. We had to drop a vehicle at the finish, about a 1.5 hour drive from the start. In the haste of our first (and early) morning we all (aka Kelsey) forgot to think about the keys required @ the finish line. How about them apples?!?! What? Did we beat her with obscenities and lashings of the painful sort? Did we cover her in honey and tie her to the nearest tree? Noooo... Firstly there are no bears in New Zealand so the honey and tied to a tree wouldn't work. Secondly we were all secretly jumping with joy because each of us knew that while this day was supposed to be 1/2 the distance of the previous, the previous was horrendously freaking long and this day was still going to be solid by hiking standards. Each of us knew deep down that oh yes, we could make it, but not barring the possibility of forward momentum Colby style (my brother's 9 month old son) by days end. So what did we do? The same thing any beat down hikers on the Able Tasman do! We called a water taxi!!! Yep, you heard right. We hiked 4 kilometers to the next main bay (the closest location that water taxis pick up) and we hopped on a boat which took us all the way back to where we started. In the end it was all worth the effort. We met some really cool people at the campground the night before, saw the moon rise over the ocean, slept to the sound of waves and wind, and got to take a 1 hour boat ride through rough seas in and out of the bays we'd seen the previous day (albeit from a different perspective), and did it all early enough to still have time for dinner at a local cafe. Meatlovers pizza and beer never tasted so good!
Oh yeah, did you know that the moon can make a rainbow in the rain at night? It sure can. We ended up going back to Hangdog that night for a place to camp and sure enough. It was pitch black out and raining on the horizon. The moon was just coming up and was so bright that it literally made a rainbow in the distant sky. Definitely something worth keeping an eye out for...
The latest album can be found here.
All of the pics from my New Zealand adventures can be found here.
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