(Picture : Climbing under a rainbow at Froggatt)
I headed up to Te Awamutu to drop of my mate’s ice axes at his folks (thanks Gareth!) then rather than bomb up to the Coromandel Peninsula I headed 20km’s down the road to stop off at Bryce’s climbing, next to several well known climbing areas such as Froggat.
Luckily for me there was a well bored Czech guy staying there just gagging for someone else to arrive and climb with. I stayed and climbed for a day and stayed a second night.
The sun was out, and despite being almost beaten by some grade 16s (hey I’ve hardly done much climbing) we had a great long afternoon and had a couple of superb wee routes, including a few leads and a few seconds.
The crags were a great setup. They are privately owned and even have signposts to tell you which is which – unheard of Scotland – I struggle to even make out a route from a crag top half the time!
Crag signposting!
Me about to start abseiling from the top.
When you got bored from sitting around in the evening or non climbing days there’s an excellent bouldering cave next to the kitchen for guests – fantastic!
(Picture : Main Cliff at Froggatt Edge) Despite being tempted to stay another night I am on my way to the Coromandel Peninsula as the forecast is great this weekend. It took me a wee bit longer to get away from Bryce’s than I thought, although I did manage to walk away without buying any climbing kit. Amazing. You see the car didn’t start. Dead. Nada. Not even a tick over.
I went over the garage and someone came over with a battery to try and start it.
Just before I was about to try it I wanted an instant earthquake in NZ to swallow me up and save me the embarrasment. You see, despite driving this car for 8 weeks someone today I forgot that I needed to put the security key into the immobiliser for it to start. Unfortunately I didn’t remember until the garage guy came over.
At least I gave him a bit of a laugh, and a few bucks to go and buy a beer. No doubt he took the piss out of ‘bloody backpackers’ when he went back to the game of pool I interrupted.
Onwards to Coromandel and in Auckland midweek to get shot of the car in some shape or form before heading north for some diving. I have one interested party so fingers crossed.