On The Road Again: 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

Reminiscing Crib Times.