London, after a week

I'm looking at the end of a nice, but not especially exciting week in London. I've seen a few parks,but none of the big ones, seen lotsa squirrels!! but haven't photographed any yet, thought about what I want to do with myself here, but I haven't really come to any conclusions. I have managed to see Sarah (who didn't realise that her office backed on to a rather large park with tennis courts and Chantelle, who seems to have settled in pretty well in her 4 months here. Yesterday I decided that I'd go to the peaks district today, but the peaks district turned into Dartmoor, and Today turned into tomorrow,after 3.5 hours of trying to work out transport and accommodation .., Fingers crossed, I might just find someone to climb with while I'm there.., but failing that, I guess at least I'll be able to have a nice wander around in the countryside..., (carrying 8Kg of unnecessary climbing gear)

The Science Museum in London is amazing.., I spent 6 hours there, and only managed 1.5 floors (out of 5 floors), and on the way there, wandering through the Imperial College of London,I found some music graduates proving that climbing on things and traditions are still alive and well over here.. (good to see :) )

London.., the begining

(this post was written on the tube on the 23rd..,just took me a while, and a long weekend to get around to posting it.)

Well,I've been here for three days now and i can't say I'm 100% enjoying it yet. I'm enjoying the generosity of my cousin Carmen and her husband, Edmond... also, the friendliness and affection of their son, Josh. But alas, the locals on the streets aren't nearly as friendly as I'd hoped. I managed to get to Brunel University climbing wall yesterday, but sorry, I didn't take my camera... as always, climbers were keen to chat, but enfortunately not many were arround, and I left wondering if I should have tried that little bit harder, or perhaps been a little more blunt about trying to sweet talk my way into someone's trip.

The Wall at Brunel has a few plastic holds, but is mostly lumps of rock embedded in shaped concrete. Good fun to climb on,and, living up to the british tradition, the wall has no fixed top rops, and you're allowed to solo as high as you like... the wall's around 10m tall...,kinda exciting at the top with no ropes or harness, and I certainly wasn't pushing grades while I as hanging round by my self. Out the back, they have a bouldering cave with some insanely difficult problems. A bit of an eye opener for this Auckland Uni Rec Centre dweller. I'm certain I'll be back there some time and wil be sure to take photos.

I'm currently on the underground, on my way into the middle of town... not too sure what to expect, but it should be exciting. Reg told me that there was wireless access on the tube, but I've yet to find it.

I hope everyone back home is doing great, and that the climbers and trampers amongst you are making big plans for the long weekend. I'm missing you all terribly.

Oh,and I'm trying to find a way to upload photos from my cousin's computer, but haven;t yet been able, so expectphotos for the last couple of posts to arrive sometime soon.

hong Kong

This post was written in two chunks at different times, and I haven't had a chance to proof read it, so if there are double-ups, or holes, I'm sorry..,

Here I am, blogging from an airport departure lounge again.., this time it's HK, the wifi is free and fast, and as far as I'm aware, the plane's not delayed.., yet., but i did arrive an hour earlier than necessary.

Hong Kong is exciting, intimidating, huge, but also tiny, and very impressive. Public transport is dirt cheap, there are poor people, and extremely rich people. Tailors trying to lure you into their shops, and thousands of vendors trying to sell electronics goods, some are a good deal, most are not.

The first thing I did upon leaving the plane and going through customs was call Jenny, at the time I was rather tired, and when she told me it'd cost $100 to catch the train from the airport to central station, I was shocked..., then realised that that was less than $20, (and by far the most expensive transport in HK.) the MTR, or underground trains are the most expensive form of public transport and it cost me all of HK$14 to get from one end of the island line to the other.... trams are slow, but this same trip would cost you $2HK, or 40c NZ.

I wasn't too sure what to expect on arriving in hong kong, but it didn't fail to impress. The city has been built on the flat area surrounding the main mountainous area on hong kong island, so, there is very dense infrastructure, and much bush. Unfortunately, on this trip i didn't get into the mountains, but i'll be back sometime, and will be sure to check it out then.

There are 3 climbing stores in HK, 2 in Mong Kok, part of HK on the southern tip of the chinese continent. RC outfitters, right next one of the exits from the Mong Kok underground station, and the other, Chamonix, not far away, but rather a trek through the markets. Shoes are the big bargain, and i picked up a black diamond harness rather cheaply too. Unfortunately I didn't find M.S. Outdoor botique in Causeway bay.

There are several crags, including one in the central city, I only managed to get out to one, but I believe I was lucky enough to be taken to the nicest crag there. A little like Ti point in feeling... a bit of a walk, then climbing off rocks with the waves breaking at your feet.., only this crag has a large slab or rock instead of the loose rocks at ti point.., (and it doesn't have loose rocks for the climbers to throw at belayers.)

The only thing i really couldn't get used to about the place is that there's no sky, and the view is always rather washed out. The streets are far cleaner than Auckland, the diesel trucks and buses seem to be tuned better... there may still be lots of cars, moving around very fast at times, but the majority of people don't ever use any private transport. I suppose that no matter how much HK cleans up its air, there's still booming industry in china and associated pollution drifting over.

If you're one of the few people i expect to be reading this, i miss you, but hope you're having a wonderful time doin whatever you're doin.

waiting at the airport...,

Well, it's finally happening, right now I should be jetting my way to sunny hong kong, but instead, the aircraft is suffering from the technical difficulty. and we're waiting for an update... 5 minutes ago.

Reg is currently back in nz getting his working visa sorted so he can return to the uk.., so last weekend, We went climbing..., saturday saw us joining a bunch of auracians (or was that Americans??) at froggat, was a nice chilling time, followed by a good night of camping at jones' landing. Patrick finally grunted his way up lunar lepoard, Ed climbed a tricky route in da cave, and I dogged my way

now the plane is delayed due to the engineering problem...

up a sweet route on the corner of da cave.

Before I ran away, I felt the need to visit both waipapa and mangaokewa... this would be my last chance. Reg and I kindnapped ed and headed down on Sunday morning, leaving the others climbing at froggat. what can I say?? although we had hardley any time there.., and didn't start climbing until the afternoon, waipapa is beautiful.. slabby, slippery and great fun. I started the day by taking a whipper on the first bolt of a 16.., it had a pretty tricky start, covered in slimy mould, ed followed up on lead and got it clean, while reg chased up the rear on top rope. following the 16, we threw a rope across to a 22 which I did a filthy job of top roping, and ed did an even filthier job of leading. next came la piece de restance at waipapa.. “The Arches” a slabby 17 starting with some frictionless laybacking off a thin crack, transferring to ever enlarging pockets up the slab and terminating with a long traverse to a ledge at the far right of the slab.

Monday saw reg and me relocating to mangaokewa, touted as “north island's payne's ford”, we had been warned that it has plenty of loose blocks, and is a little chilly, but apart from those small concerns, it didn't dissappoint. luxurious toilets, camping by a quiet little river, and climbing that variety of rounded cracks, offset flakes, stacks of pancakes, and that trademark “corrogated iron on it's side” sloper slab stuff.

heaps of development is happening right now, and there's plenty of room for more. I can't wait to return when I'm back in the country.

anyway, now I'm off to collect my free food voucher...because the flight has been delayed until 10:40.., when it should have left at 7:30...

mmmm.. food!