I must say, I have heaps to report!
I am now within a week of completing my final classes of college. The feeling is quite surreal and a bit sad. I am trying to savor these last moments more than I did at the end of high school when I ran out of that place without looking back. Realistically, I don't think this is the last time I will step into a classroom as a student. But since I don't see grad school or anything of the like on the horizon right now, it may be awhile.
For the most part, the endless days of warm, sunny weather that graced my first few months here have given way to balmy, rainy days. I've had to embrace climbing in the gym quite a bit, as the weather hasn't been conducive to climbing outside. Though unlike winter in New England, there are still often days when I can walk around in my sandals and a t-shirt. And I savor these days.
And on a positive note, the colder weather has made for prime dumpster-diving conditions. There's nothing like a power-free refrigerator to keep all your garbage (and potential treasures) cold! I've been frequenting the dumpsters of nearby grocery stores on a pretty regular basis and usually am able to find some nice produce, bread, and assorted goodies.
One night this past week, my friend Jessi and I hit the dumpster jackpot. We had a few items in mind that we would have loved to find: a hat and some bread. We were happily surprised with much more than that. We managed not only to find a new hat for Jessi, but a box of assorted chocolates, a bag full of unused journals, christmas decorations, a 10 kg bag of rice, a sac of goon, yogurt, milk, sausages, pasta, tons of brownies and caramel slices, produce galore, roses, tea, meat pies, and possibly best of all bacon!
And you may ask, "But Kate, aren't you vegetarian??" Ah yes, this is normally the case. However, how could I leave perfectly good meat to go to waste?!? My vegan friend Ingrid and I had been joking about "dumpster bacon" the past few weeks and how we didn't think we'd ever find any. Needless to say, Ingrid couldn't believe when I told her that dumpster bacon does indeed exist!
And to come...the night we eat the bacon...
Friday, May 29, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
And the adventure continues...
So to pick up where I left off...
The morning after I returned from Hulk Hogan, I headed up to Paynes Ford in the Golden Bay, which is at the northern tip of the South Island. After 6 or so adrenalized hours in Pete's Hyundai Pony (we weren't sure if it would make it), we pulled into Hangdog, the climbers' camp, right next to the crag.
Hangdog is a pretty sweet place. It's a lot like Miguel's, minus the pizza. Lots of people go to Paynes and end up living at Hangdog for some length of time. Also unlike Miguel's, there's a cool town, Takaka, right up the road (not that Slade, KY isn't sweet...). They have a bunch of old bikes at Hangdog that you can borrow and ride into town. Hangdog is also in walking distance to all the climbing. So if you have a car, you could conceivably park it and not move it until you leave the Golden Bay.
Paynes Ford is amazing as well. It has a few hundred sport routes. The rock is limestone like Castle Hill, but it is quite different. There are actually holds at Paynes, rather than just featureless bulges. There are a lot of slopey ledges and crimps at Paynes and the rock can be hard to read, so that took a bit of time to get used to.
I spent most of the week there working on my fear of falling. Somehow, I had managed to become more scared of falling on lead since the last time I had been sport climbing outside, which had been several months before, except for the cave. So I did a lot of freezing up as soon as I would start to go beyond my last clip, usually locking off on some absurdly small hold, just standing there not moving. And when I finally starting letting myself take falls, I would let out these blood-curdling screams. By the end of the week, many people knew that it was me climbing around the corner.
A lot of the climbs are pretty run-out and the first bolts are often very high. I decided to work on my falling fear on one of the most run-out climbs at Paynes, Dave's Arete. The route is a super cool 24 (~5.11d) that works along an arete with good holds and really fun moves. The climb is probably, oh I don't know, 30 meters long with only 4 bolts. It's a long climb and it gets really pumpy in the end, probably because you're so afraid of falling. So pretty much everyone takes massive whippers off this route. And if you manage to make it to the top on your first go, you probably take the victory fall anyway. So needless to say, I took a couple of rather big falls off Dave's Arete. But admittedly, they were some of the most fun falls I've ever taken!
It took several days to get the hang of climbing at Paynes, so I wish I could have stayed longer. Two days before I left I started working on this really fun 27 called Creative Confusion. I kept getting stuck on this one move and I know I could have done the route if I had just a bit more time to work on it. So who knows, maybe I will make it back there before I leave NZ.
So sadly we left Paynes about a week later on a day with beautiful weather and drove back to Christchurch.
And with that, I will end there for now.
The morning after I returned from Hulk Hogan, I headed up to Paynes Ford in the Golden Bay, which is at the northern tip of the South Island. After 6 or so adrenalized hours in Pete's Hyundai Pony (we weren't sure if it would make it), we pulled into Hangdog, the climbers' camp, right next to the crag.
Hangdog is a pretty sweet place. It's a lot like Miguel's, minus the pizza. Lots of people go to Paynes and end up living at Hangdog for some length of time. Also unlike Miguel's, there's a cool town, Takaka, right up the road (not that Slade, KY isn't sweet...). They have a bunch of old bikes at Hangdog that you can borrow and ride into town. Hangdog is also in walking distance to all the climbing. So if you have a car, you could conceivably park it and not move it until you leave the Golden Bay.
Paynes Ford is amazing as well. It has a few hundred sport routes. The rock is limestone like Castle Hill, but it is quite different. There are actually holds at Paynes, rather than just featureless bulges. There are a lot of slopey ledges and crimps at Paynes and the rock can be hard to read, so that took a bit of time to get used to.
I spent most of the week there working on my fear of falling. Somehow, I had managed to become more scared of falling on lead since the last time I had been sport climbing outside, which had been several months before, except for the cave. So I did a lot of freezing up as soon as I would start to go beyond my last clip, usually locking off on some absurdly small hold, just standing there not moving. And when I finally starting letting myself take falls, I would let out these blood-curdling screams. By the end of the week, many people knew that it was me climbing around the corner.
A lot of the climbs are pretty run-out and the first bolts are often very high. I decided to work on my falling fear on one of the most run-out climbs at Paynes, Dave's Arete. The route is a super cool 24 (~5.11d) that works along an arete with good holds and really fun moves. The climb is probably, oh I don't know, 30 meters long with only 4 bolts. It's a long climb and it gets really pumpy in the end, probably because you're so afraid of falling. So pretty much everyone takes massive whippers off this route. And if you manage to make it to the top on your first go, you probably take the victory fall anyway. So needless to say, I took a couple of rather big falls off Dave's Arete. But admittedly, they were some of the most fun falls I've ever taken!
It took several days to get the hang of climbing at Paynes, so I wish I could have stayed longer. Two days before I left I started working on this really fun 27 called Creative Confusion. I kept getting stuck on this one move and I know I could have done the route if I had just a bit more time to work on it. So who knows, maybe I will make it back there before I leave NZ.
So sadly we left Paynes about a week later on a day with beautiful weather and drove back to Christchurch.
And with that, I will end there for now.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
And to continue where I left off...
About a week ago, I returned from a 3-week break from classes. I found it pretty insane that I only had classes for 5 weeks before having a pretty long vacation in the middle of the semester. Despite the fact that someone told me this was a "study break," I did what any sensible person would and went climbing!
The first weekend of break I went to this sweet bouldering spot a few hours south of Christchurch called Hulk Hogan. (Pretty cool name, I know.) Up until this point, I had only bouldered at Castle Hill while in NZ, so I was pretty psyched to climb at a new place. Before we got to Hulk, we stopped at a place called Elephant Rocks, which is like a mini Castle Hill. We all ran around for a few hours and did a ton of problems. A notable one was called something like Donald Duck. It involved mantleing a rock that is shaped like a beak.
After that we headed on over to Hulk Hogan. The whole crag is just one long overhung limestone wall. The climbing there is a lot more dynamic and powerful which was a really nice change from Castle Hill. My favorite problem there is definitely The Matrix, an 8 meter or so long V6 traverse. It's super fun with tons of heel hooks but is pretty beta-intensive, with a crux at the beginning and the end. When I went to Hulk for the second time a few weeks later, my friends and I worked The Matrix for several hours. After all our work, none of us were able to send one of the pumpiest boulder problems ever by the end of the day, but we certainly made progress.
I will continue the rest of my break adventures soon!
About a week ago, I returned from a 3-week break from classes. I found it pretty insane that I only had classes for 5 weeks before having a pretty long vacation in the middle of the semester. Despite the fact that someone told me this was a "study break," I did what any sensible person would and went climbing!
The first weekend of break I went to this sweet bouldering spot a few hours south of Christchurch called Hulk Hogan. (Pretty cool name, I know.) Up until this point, I had only bouldered at Castle Hill while in NZ, so I was pretty psyched to climb at a new place. Before we got to Hulk, we stopped at a place called Elephant Rocks, which is like a mini Castle Hill. We all ran around for a few hours and did a ton of problems. A notable one was called something like Donald Duck. It involved mantleing a rock that is shaped like a beak.
After that we headed on over to Hulk Hogan. The whole crag is just one long overhung limestone wall. The climbing there is a lot more dynamic and powerful which was a really nice change from Castle Hill. My favorite problem there is definitely The Matrix, an 8 meter or so long V6 traverse. It's super fun with tons of heel hooks but is pretty beta-intensive, with a crux at the beginning and the end. When I went to Hulk for the second time a few weeks later, my friends and I worked The Matrix for several hours. After all our work, none of us were able to send one of the pumpiest boulder problems ever by the end of the day, but we certainly made progress.
I will continue the rest of my break adventures soon!
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