What a week?

Thursday
Drove from Hokitiko to Arthur's Pass and hiked up Bealey Spur, about a 3 hour hike with fantastic panoramic views of the Southern Alpss.

Friday
Found the free camping at Craigueburn shetler and then headed to Castlehill (Spittle hill) to sample the bouldering. Unfortunately we had no mat so were a little apprehensive of the landings. Luckily for us as we were parking the car a local (ish - canadian living in Christchurch) can and gave us a guided tour including a mat - so we learnt to mantle ;) Castle hill is great, scary, high ball, low ball, mantles, crimps, slopers, limestone, polished, all rolled into one :)

Saturday
Met some crazy Germans and an American who took us to Flock hill for the day (and lent us a bouldering mat - sweet :) Man what a walk in - 45 minutes up hill :(

Sunday
Attempted to drive to Mt Hutt, but Ruby (our car) decided she didn't like the icy steep road up the hill, and then onto Geraldine - where we found a nice camp site, with a kitchen and tv room. Dinner infront of the tv - that's the first in a while. Got to watch Meet the Fockers (film) - very funny.

Monday
Spent the day visiting place between Geraldine and Oamura - searched for penguins but failed miserably, searched for some climbing but got scared off by a big dog. Saw some Maori art on a big boulder. All in all a pleasent day. Found a hut in Duntroon to stay in. When asking for directions to the hut, we some had managed to be given dinner by some nice cafe owners. Sometimes you just land on your feet.

Tuesday
Bouldering season in Elephant Rock - a great season. Stuck to one boulder and did some training - I hurt the next day. Spent the afternoon in the hut, then went to the local pub for a few drinks that evening. It certainly was a locals joint, there were 3 others in the pub. Had some great games of pool.

Wednesday
Drove to Dunedin - stopping at the Moeraki boulder (odd looking boulders - almost perfectly round ones) and Shag Point - well we had to just for the name. He he. and finally we rocked up into Dunedin, parked the car in a nice cheap multistorey car park and went to the chocolate factory - yummmy :) :) and came back to the car to find we had a flat battery - grrr - in a multi - fricking - storey carpark - with not a soul around. Eventually we convinced the person (the only person) who worked there - to give us a push and managed to push start the car. But all was not good. The engine didn't seem to be recharging the battery at all - we crawled along, with very dim head lamps and fading indictors until we found a backpackers on a hill and parked.

Thursday
Found a garage to get a new battery, but he did a few tests on the car and found that it was the alternators not the battery at the moment. So the car is now sitting in another garage waiting for a new part. Hopefully we get it back today.


The journey so far!