A long time friend, Karl Bromelow has headed down under and has agreed to post some news from the other side of the globe......if you're headed that way yourselves he'd be happy to help you out with info......
Howzit goin'?
From what I've seen you've been enjoying some pretty good conditions in the Highlands this winter. Since my last post on here we've had a good many blistering hot crazy days of summer. Not to many hazy and not enough lazy though. To escape the heat we spent Christmas and New Year visiting friends in Aotearoa. That proved a wise move as the mercury hit 41 degrees in Victoria whilst we were away. I defy anyone with northern European ancestry to claim that as a pleasant temperature. It was quite warm enough for us in the land of the long white cloud.
The plan was to get stuck into a bit of cragging on the ignimbrite rocks of North Island with a friend, Craig, from the UK, who is on a bit of a whirlwind world tour. We met him at the home of another ex-pat friend in Auckland (thanks Kate) and then dashed through the dark eve of Christmas in our overstuffed rental car (climbing gear, surfboards, camping gear, baby Kai Seth Robertson and all his gear and the straw that broke the camels back Craig's guitar!) towards Bryce's at Wharepapa South near to Te Awamutu, the home town of Neil and Tim Finn of Crowded House (bonus pop trivia). Situated amongst rolling pasture land reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales, The Wharepapa Outdoor Centre is a superb climbers lodge owned by Bryce and Wendy Martin. They offer excellent accommodation, a gear and guide shop and a cafe (top frittata!!). For those who are still itching to keep cranking after the sun's gone down or on those occasions when rain stops play outside Bryce has constructed possibly the best woodie in the southern hemisphere which is of course free to guests, as is the internet access in the cafe. If you're on a budget trip or just tight and can't afford the luxury of one of Bryce's ensuite cabins or the bunkhouse then you can camp in the neighbouring school ground for a small fee. Bryce is himself a strong climber, active in new routing here (a pioneer of ignimbrite) and around NZ. He does run a guiding service for keen climbers preferring the company of a local expert and not wanting to explore independently or climbers traveling alone. Check them out if you're in the area. We've been back a number of times over the years and you're sure to meet likeminded people from around the world and have a great time in beautiful pastoral surroundings.
Wharepapa South is a short distance from the limestone glow worm caves and crags of Waitomo and not too far from the left hand mecca of Raglan and the less well known black sands of Kiritehere for the surfers amongst you. If you go to Waitomo you could do worse than get in touch with the guys at Absolute Adventure. Ask for Doug Sowersby. He's an old (I mean young) Kiwi climbing buddy. We met him in 2003 at Arapiles when he was climbing in shoes reminiscent of something unearthed at a viking archaeological dig. The poor fella at the Natimuk Mountain Shop couldn't tell left from right when Doug had us take them in for a resole! Anyway Absolute adventure run excellent adventure cave trips. The real SRT stuff and lots of crawling around with your face in the wet grit several hundred feet down. They also offer above ground adventures.
Okay, nuff free adverts, back to our hols. Craig arrived in NZ from Fiji. I neither know nor want to know what he was getting up to there but he spent 36 hours over Christmas twixt bed and thunderbox. The smell was so appalling that we had to unsympathetically move to another room. My lack of sympathy extended to thoughts of how he was possibly going to hold the other end of my rope with all that commotion going on in his underpants! The upside , however, was that meant I got to go climbing with Bryce for the first time. We had a blast and proceeded to roundly burn me off and is to be admired for his mastery of the fine old art of taking the mickey out of the guy flailing around on the sharp end. I scuttled back to the lodge nursing sore fingertips and bruised pride. Craig did eventually manage to rise from his fetid duvet and drag his dehydrated remains up a few routes at various crags culminating in the classic "The Arches" at the scenic riverside crag of Waipapa. There are some excellent lines here, both trad and bolted, but you will have to contend with a little bush at the foot of the cliff. This is New Zealand and the climbing population could probably fit comfortably in the Seumas' Bar of the Sligachan, so there's little erosion of vegetation.
Wharepapa South is a short distance from the limestone glow worm caves and crags of Waitomo and not too far from the left hand mecca of Raglan and the less well known black sands of Kiritehere for the surfers amongst you. If you go to Waitomo you could do worse than get in touch with the guys at Absolute Adventure. Ask for Doug Sowersby. He's an old (I mean young) Kiwi climbing buddy. We met him in 2003 at Arapiles when he was climbing in shoes reminiscent of something unearthed at a viking archaeological dig. The poor fella at the Natimuk Mountain Shop couldn't tell left from right when Doug had us take them in for a resole! Anyway Absolute adventure run excellent adventure cave trips. The real SRT stuff and lots of crawling around with your face in the wet grit several hundred feet down. They also offer above ground adventures.
Okay, nuff free adverts, back to our hols. Craig arrived in NZ from Fiji. I neither know nor want to know what he was getting up to there but he spent 36 hours over Christmas twixt bed and thunderbox. The smell was so appalling that we had to unsympathetically move to another room. My lack of sympathy extended to thoughts of how he was possibly going to hold the other end of my rope with all that commotion going on in his underpants! The upside , however, was that meant I got to go climbing with Bryce for the first time. We had a blast and proceeded to roundly burn me off and is to be admired for his mastery of the fine old art of taking the mickey out of the guy flailing around on the sharp end. I scuttled back to the lodge nursing sore fingertips and bruised pride. Craig did eventually manage to rise from his fetid duvet and drag his dehydrated remains up a few routes at various crags culminating in the classic "The Arches" at the scenic riverside crag of Waipapa. There are some excellent lines here, both trad and bolted, but you will have to contend with a little bush at the foot of the cliff. This is New Zealand and the climbing population could probably fit comfortably in the Seumas' Bar of the Sligachan, so there's little erosion of vegetation.
We said "Tara" to Wendy and Bryce and headed south to Taranaki and the surf of New Plymouth/Oakura for New Year. Taranaki is a stunning dormant volcano on the west coast of North Island. Majestic in it's domination of the skyline and it's symmetry, those long white clouds are pierced by it's permanently snowcapped summit cone, 2518m above the surrounding South Pacific Ocean. The hike up from the Egmont Hut car park is steep and fairly arduous but worth every step. It passes through bush on a Landrover track into sub alpine scrub, alpine herb fields , past basalt and andesite lava flows and up calf burning scoria slopes till the final rock scramble takes you around a corner and onto the summit snow. All the way the panorama is brilliant. I chose not to stand on the very summit, remaining a metre or so below, as it is sacred to some. After a while we reluctantly turned to go but were soon prancing across the snow and leaping in great bounds across the scoria to the green world below, rejoicing in a magical end to 2007. That night Supergroove had reformed and were playing behind the pub in Oakura. Like good Brits we supped our Waikato Draught from plastic cups and perched on the railings outside to watch for free while the beautiful young things of New Plymouth sought out mates in the sweaty, pulsating dark of a funk fueled southern Hogmanay.
After bringing in 2008 with a dawn surf session of glassy offshore perfection we once again sped across country towards Taranaki's mythical love adversary Tongariro. Legend has it that Tongariro caught Taranaki flirting with his missus, the beautiful Pihanga, and chased him into the sea. The Tongariro Crossing deserves it's status as one of New Zealands Great Walks. The volcanic landscape is breathtaking. Vast craters, fuming sulphur vents and glittering acid lakes take you into another world. The perfect cone of Ngarahoe climbs forbiddingly above the raw red gash of the Red Crater when you look back from the midway high point above the Emerald Lakes. Just try to imagine it without the 10,000 odd other punters streaming across this very popular trail or get up early enough to have it to yourself as we did the first time we went up there. Just a side note here. My own personal feeling is that the DOC vastly over exaggerate the time required to walk many of the trails in NZ. I imagine this is a cautious erring on the very safe side. But if you have fine weather, and are a reasonably fit and experienced hill walker who doesn't stop to catch breath every 100m, then expect to complete many of these walks with plenty of time to kill. Should conditions turn nasty of course the story would be different.
The nearby skifields of Whakapapa and Mount Ruapehu are an obvious attraction at any time of year. There is good winter mountaineering up here and of course the ski runs are serviced by lifts, a couple of which operate in summer to take tourists lazily a little closer to the top than they might otherwise get. We took our baby boy up in one for the fun of it. You still have a long hike from the top of the lifts to the summit itself and remember it is an active volcano. The last big eruption was in 1995 while people were skiing on it, though it did erupt last year causing some serious injury. You should not bivvy near the summit or stay in the hut up there overnight. Though I expect the gods are as likely to be having a row during daytime as they are after dark. There is some excellent rock climbing around Tongariro. We enjoyed a couple of days climbing close to the Whakapapa ski area car park on Mead's wall and the more dramatic and only slightly further to walk in Whakapapa Gorge. From both these areas you can look across to the splendid rock architecture of Pinnacle Ridge and contemplate a winter traverse. The New Zealand Alpine Club publishes excellent guide books to many areas including Taranaki and Tongariro.
From Tongariro we headed past the shores of Lake Taupo and the tourist "hot spot" of Rotarua (aka Rotavegas!) towards Mount Maunganui where we found no room at the inn. We hadn't heard about the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman Marathon and the thousands of competitors and supporters that had descended on the town. We had to find a campsite further out but returned the following morning to clip bolts on the fine rock routes alongside the summit path. Good rock, good bolts, good routes and great views over the rolling swell of the sparkling ocean below. A final surf and we were back on the road for Auckland as we were flying home the next day.
This was a quick flit around a limited part of central North Island Aotearoa. There is a lifetime of adventure waiting for you here and the people are pretty special too. We are fortunate enough to have met some extraordinary folk doing what we do down here and can happily call some dear friends now. It is largely due to them, as well as the call of the South Pacific and it's islands, that we decided to uproot and remove our lives to this side of the planet for a while.
Back home in Oz we have been galavanting around the Grampians, Arapiles, Philip Island and Perth to Margaret River in WA. But those are some other long winded stories.
Cheers Karl