After Chard Farm we worked a few more days for a vineyard management company, then made our way to Christchurch to pick up Kate.Day 1
Kate arrived the morning of May 14th. We picked her up and took her around the city square. We knew she would be tired but with only two weeks we had to get on doing. With that said I thought a surf session was in order, especially seeing as it was a fairly tame day by New Zealand standards. Poor girl didn't know what hit her: a rocky coastline, cliffs on the beach, black sand, kelp, and a thick wetsuit. Definitely not in FL anymore... From Christchurch we made our way down to a secluded spot on the beach to camp.
Day 2
Got up the next morning and headed to Elephant Rocks/Hulk Hogan to do some bouldering. The place is pretty rad and full of amazing rock formations to play on and of course she loved it. This was my first taste of just how strong Kate was climbing. The last time I climbed with her she was a true beginner, and while she climbed strong considering, she was still just beginning. This time a different picture was being painted. We drove to Long Beach in Dunedin that night to camp.
Day 3
Got up and spent the day cave bouldering at Long Beach. Needless to say it was sick and again, new strokes of Kate's climbing ability were being laid down and it was fun to watch. Drove that night into Dunedin and stayed at a hostel in town. Went out for a couple of beers and a burger but all in all it was mild as we were exhausted.
Day 4
Spent the day exploring downtown Dunedin; museums, old churches, crazy people, and a little shopping. We also made our way out to the peninsula to watch albatrosses fly before making our way into the Catlins to camp.
Day 5
Drove to Curio Bay Campground where we met up with our surf-school instructor turned local guide and finger pointer, Nick, for a spare board and wetsuit/booties/hood/gloves for Kate. Went surfing that afternoon in water shared with sea lions and penguins. It is still surreal for us and I think mind blowing for Kate. We also took her to the petrified forest and to watch the penguins come in from working all day (finding food for their little ones). We were able to position ourselves on their incoming path and get within 5' of them...pretty amazing.
Day 6
Drove from Curio to Te Anau with a brief and completely unimpressive stop in Invercarghill, as to be expected.
Day 7
Drove into Milford Sound for the day. Beautiful. After soaking up the sound we drove into Queenstown and introduced Kate to Fergburger and then camped at Wye Creek.
Day 8
Woke up to snow which dashed our plans of climbing at Wye. Instead we dawned our warm gear and hiked up to the South Wall before bad visibility (snowfall) and slippery conditions forced us to turn around. We spent the afternoon tooling around Queenstown where we found out through our much better informed mountaineer friends that a local ski field, while not open, had great snow and was worth hiking. Not one to waste an opportunity to expose my little sis to something new I jumped on the chance. We got hooked up with some ski gear for her and off we were. Camped on the road up to Cornet Peak.
Day 9
Drove as far up the road as we could before the icy road forced an emergency pull-off/park-job. It was a pretty surreal sight... We spent a bit of time hiking up to find a nice spot where Kate could learn the tactics of the "pizza slice" and all the other cool things skiers do. Not. To be fair she would've much rather snowboarded but we simply didn't have the gear. She knows where it's at. After some brief instruction she was off having a blast. The snow was good in areas, the weather was beautiful, and we were riding! We spent half the day riding/hiking/riding/hiking before we were all simply too exhausted to go on. Somehow we made it down the mountain, returned the gear, and drove to Wanaka without falling asleep on the way.
Day 10
Spent the day climbing at Hospital Flats in Wanaka. An epic day of climbing. The weather was less than stellar BUT the climbs were fantastic. The rock was great and each of the routes were keepers in their own ways. Asthetic was the word of the day. More firsts for Kate: first belay, first lead belay, and first outdoor sport climb. Needless to say she handled it all, and well.
Day 11
Drove to Fox Glacier. We were a little late leaving Wanaka so it was the afternoon that was dying along the way. It all culminated in the most amazing sunset I've seen since being in NZ. I venture to say it was top three all time. I can't believe we were on the road for it!!! We found ourselves stopping every few kms to take pictures. Somehow we made it to Fox before the impending iceage. Once the evenin settled in we went on a hike to see glow worms. Sure enough. It was a forest walk along a creek with little blue stars (glow worms) everywhere. Those little guys are pretty cool.
Day 12
Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier. That was the day. There was no way I could let her leave without seeing those two beauties. She loved it and we were able to get closer than we'd ever been. We could practically throw rocks at it. They had horrible weather not too long before we arrived so there were huge chunks of ice on the trail, some as large as a three story building.
Day 13
We spent the morning trying to rig a positive belay station at a trad climbing spot called Charleston. The rock isn't the best but the scenery can't be beat. The place is literally right on the beach. Waves actually crash into the wall at high tide! Our main focus for the day was to get to Castle Hill and climb and as the station took so long to setup we decided to send Kate up so she could log another in the books. With no beta and no clear route layed out up the 30 meter wall, she not only had to climb hard (her hardest yet at 17) but also routefind. Can you say flash? Now I know it for sure, my sister can climb. After another great sunset and playing with the Keas (alpine parrot) we arrived at Castle Hill.
Day 14
Met up with our friend Kelsey and played at Castle Hill all day. With no crash pad we couldn't climb all out but regardless, it was fun. You almost have to see the place to believe that the rock formations are real. It's amazing what limestone can do and it sure as hell is fun to climb on! Stayed at a hostel in Christchurch in preparation for Kate's early flight out to OZ.
That's her trip in a very small nutshell. Once she flew out Tim and I went up to Kaikora to surf. While up there we stumbled upon the O'neill Coldwater Classic surf contest AND some amazing surf. We had 3 solid days of surf there before heading back to Christchurch to pick Kate up for her one day back in NZ. Oh yeah, before we left Kaikora we got to see one of the coolest things yet. A secret pool in the woods where all the seal pups from the local colony hike to (literally) during the day and play. They have to clamor up a creek for several hundred meters before reaching it. There must've been 60 or 70 pups just having the best time. Sooooo funny and such a blast to watch. We hung with Kate for her one day back in town. The following day we were off to Queenstown to move into our new pad for the winter.
