Why? Wye, thats Why!!!!!!!

Woooh, check this out a blog thats about 2 weeks apart from the last update, dont expect this to much in the future!!!


So yea, its a rainy day and not too much else to do. So here I am where I started...... back in Golden Bay. Let me tell you how I got here.


Myself and Zef set off on a wee road trip, after a long and sad goodbye to Wanaka we finally leave the winter behind us and go sun searching. But first things first you cant start a good road trip without an awsome climbing venue to get too. And so just south of Queenstown lies Wye Creek. Truly awsome!!


Firstly you must tackle the walk in, an hour of windy upward dirt track then escalating into a rugged forrest track following a large pipeline. To then cross the creek you must cruise along a dodgey looking pipeline bridge which cuts through the contour of the creek and then eventually leaves you at the base of the main cliff.


Super impressive lines usually containing an average of a 2 stars going up at on average around 25metres. Ace!


However the day was the 13th and misfortune took its toll. The platform to walk along the crag is fairly steep and you really wouldnt want to drop anything like a bag with the car keys in down into the abyss below. Oops we did! Luckily it got caught in the thick tussick not too far down, so I took on the retrieval mission and return the bag to a secure locations. Its not over yet....
We done some nice cruisey lines and then finished on a real sweet super long 17 grade route, I thought the guide said it was 25m's long but in fact it said 28. A slight problem for the abseil, espesicailly after you realise your rope is only 46m's long in total. Luckily I pulled off some Tom Cruise style mission impossibe 2 moves and sorted the situation....... Always an epic with Quick Thinking Tom......Just makes it all slightly more memorable and fun.

So after 2 days of cragging, we make our way down south, to some familiar places from my last tour down but also visiting some new places. We arrive at Waipapa point, where a lighthouse on the edge of the island is a haven for sealions, and camera trigger happy tourists. On to various other points of interest (please refer to nicandtom.blogspot.com/road tripping for more details hahaha) and up too nugget point which is a super cool destination on the coast, you walk to another light house on the edge of a cliff to get a view of nugget shaped rocks pertruding out of rough oceans below. We also checked out a real cool waterfall, namely McClean Falls, whiched housed a small trek through the 'rainforest' and leads you to a reallly impressive dump of water spewing out from above......
And so we cruised up the East coast through Dunedin and Christchurch and eventually arriving at Golden Bay, my summer destination, Hangdog.... Brilliant!
Not sure if iv told some of you guys but I applied to run the camp ground as they were looking for new owners but applied just slightly too late, bummer, but all is not lost. After having a chat with the owner I have managed to score a job as Public relations Manager (hahaha just trying to come up with a fancy name for my new role) basically im the guy who answers peoples questions about the area and doing a little bit of guiding and teaching on the side with probably a bit of maintainanc around the camp too...... I am so stoked, I no longer pay camp fees and still get heaps of Climbing time. Cant ask for more really......
Untill the next time my good friends
much love
Tom

xReminiscing Crib Times.

One of the many impressive lines at Wye Creek, 'Dream Thing' 21

This looks like a good clib to have an epic on....

The pipeline bridge

Wye creek, the main clif is the rock on the far right,next to the creek.

Waipapa action

Porpoise Bay, dolphin watching. If you see one please let me know....

The awsome McClean Falls.

Some more moreki boulders..

Nugget Point..

One Sesaon in the Life of a Wok Chef....

Howdy folks, well it must be around 3-4 months since the last update but im sure you all know what im like with this by now.....so heres a run-down of what a first winter season has been filling my life with.

So as you know i scored a job as a wok chef at the noodle bar at the ski resort known as 'Cardrona'. With a shift rotation of 4 days on 2 days off you'd think alot of snowboarding was to be had for me over the last 3 months, unfortunatly not as much as what I would have liked (mainly due to weather, and little bit of lack of effort) but still a fair amount and I think a wee bit of improvement has been made on the board. So an average day up the hill would be, wake up at around 6:30ish get ready and then get aride with a fellow cardronian to town, to get a ride up the mountain with the staff vans. This was usually an uneventful/good time to catch some z's ride, however sometimes the road conditions were terrible but Cardrona is the mountain that only closes when only certain death is iminant. One particular ride coming down the mountain involved super icy,white out conditions and with a particularly reckless driver we spun out and was left in the van with its back side looking down the rocky drop of one of the corners! Brilliant.


Anyways, so assuming you have made it up the hill alive you then start your working day. For me this was working out what prep was to be done and prepping it. Chopping veg, making sauces, blanching noodles and meat (which was skanky as hell). Whilst at the same time taking full advantage of the barista girls and consuming a fair amount of coffee, also learning to barrista myself, which is something ive been wanting to know for some time. (making coffee right is alot harder than it looks).


And so then we would open. We started off super quiet not having many customers in these times we would go on ride breaks, trade food with other departments and various other not work type of things. But when it got busy it went manic, a shed load of wokking was to be done, luckily for cardrona they employed a samurai jedi wok master!! So that was an average working day for myself, the rest of the season was taken up by many a party, and of course climbing.


I got a little tired of snowboarding and focused alot on climbing but at that time of year both sports are tempermental mainly due to the weather. However I have found I am definatly more of a summer rock person than a winter snow person, dont get me wrong snowboarding is a super enjoyable sport and im guessing another winter season somewhere will happen, but over not to much contemplating I have come to the conclusion that Climbing is a much more superior sport.


And so heres the end of the season, with a large final party at the Crib and a few more nights out on the town its all over in Wanaka. It will be very sad to leave, espsecially seeing good friends go. But thats the way it goes, am very much looking forward to the summer months to come. I was planning on a few walks in the bush but thats been temporarily cancelled due to the track conditions so looks like theres only one thing to do....... that'l be more climbing (shame).





Untill the next time my friends, hope all is well, much love tom x

the noodle bar crew...

good times all the time in wanaka...

cribb fashion....

The return of agent Delta....

The back garden of my former workplace...

Anger management taken out on swedes.

Ninja training school...
Apres drinking amusement.....

We had absolutely nothing to do with the shopping trolley suspended above the ground.......

:-)