Chris, Derek and I decided to take a weekend and have a go at Castle Hill. It was about a 5.5 hour drive and $50 each for petrol... at $2/Liter, it is far more expensive than here in the states. We borrowed a pad from a friend and a guidebook from the library, although the pad was much more useful! There are so many problems there, having the guidebook caused us to spend more time looking up climbs than climbing. So we ditched the book and just started climbing lines that looked good. There were so many mint easy/medium problems, that we didn't really get on any projects. The rock was super grippy but had a serious lack of holds! Uber-slabby. My worn out Venoms with the gaping toe hole were definitely a poor shoe for the area. There are about 7 separate boulder fields that make up Castle Hill, and we only managed to climb in Spittle Hill and the Quantum Field. The place is just huge and even the locals takes years to climb it all.
We ended up staying the night at a dodgy backpackers in a town called "Springfield," which appropriately sold Duff Beer on tap (Simpsons reference, for you, Leo!). Even though Derek still had a broken (although healing) collarbone, he still got in some rock hang time. Chris broke lots of holds off the rock, which is weird considering he was probably the lightest one there!
The next month was spent on finals...
The end of the semester was such a sad time for the Veg Flat! Since we were all leaving, lots of time was spent cleaning and packing. We all cooked tons of food, like chili and pancakes, to try and use up all the food in the cabinets. Becky was kind enough to put together a Veg Flat cookbook, complete with Kiwi slang, quotes, cast of flatmates, and list of cameo appearances. What a great way to remember the semester! Ollie was the first to leave, and he embarked on some traveling adventures around the country for the next month and a half. I left next, on a mountain biking trip around Central Otago (see later). Natalie headed on a travel adventure and then back to Auckland to teach at a Maori kindergarten until next school year. Becky left to Cali, where she was going to catch up with some friends and roadtrip to Chicago with her mom. Martin left for home.
My last few weeks were spent with Andy and Chris on a mountain biking tour of Central Otago. Our first stop was Alexandra, where we set up camp at Chris' parent's house. His family is so lovely, and I had such a wonderful time meeting them! He has two very talented sisters and awesome parents. His mum even made us breakfast, and dinners...in addition to giving us beds and a washing machine for our very dirty biking gear.
We rode in Alex for the first day, riding "rock waterfall," the national downhill track (resulting in spectacular carnage for me, and some very impressive bruises), and my favorite, the "Poo Track" which gets its name from the water treatment plant at the bottom. There is even a toilet at the end where you can sign your name. Chris' sister, Paula, shuttled us a couple times after lunch and saved our legs for the rest of the week :) It was super muddy since it had frozen the night before and was defrosting by the time we headed out.
The second day we spent in Wanaka on the stellar flowy trails like "lower peroxide" and "venus." Short downhills, followed by short but steep uphills back to the top. Not too muddy, and not too cold. It was perfect! There are a bunch of jumps and hucks for Andy to hit and me to watch, as well as a jump made from streetsigns!
We spent the night in Wanaka at this cute backpackers, the "Purple Cow," and went out for the night to watch the All Blacks v. England in both Rugby and Cricket. I must admit to really enjoying rugby, and being bored to tears by cricket :)
