Caldina and Long Beach

Saturday, February 16th.

I woke up around ten and met up with Josh and Tyler. We walked to a local grocery store and met up with a nice German couple. Our mechanic friend, Edward, came along as well and did a general check-up, and all seemed to be well and good. A large stack of $20's (ATM doesn't give anything larger) later, and Josh, Tyler, and I were the proud owners of...

A Toyota Caldina!

We're very proud of our new whip, but the name is TBD. It's a great car, and we were excited to put it to use. Before, though, Sherry and I went to a local rugby pitch and drop kicked, punted, and threw around for a while. On our way off of the field, the Otago Uni's women's rugby coach stopped us and recruited Sherry for the team... no big deal. She'll be at training next week.

Then we packed up some warm clothes, climbing gear, sleeping bags, and food, and Sherry, Claire, Josh, Tyler, and I left for Long Beach. It was a short, beautiful drive along the ocean. We got there and found an awesome looking cave that we deemed was a perfect place to sleep. The rest of the afternoon we spent rock climbing and bouldering on the huge cliffs lining the beach. There were a fair number of other climbers there who were all very friendly.

We were lucky that Josh and Tyler were such experienced climbers, because they were able to lead climb the wall and set up a top rope (I hope I have all of the climbing lingo right). They decided that the route they set was only about a 5.7 or so (a pretty easy rating), but it was great for inexperienced climbers like Sherry and me. I've yet to find some shoes, so I did it barefoot, and I felt a lot like Frodo. It was my first time climbing outdoors, and getting to the top and looking out over the ocean was an huge adrenaline rush. I think I'm addicted.

We also had some fun bouldering around the area, and you can see in the pictures the large pieces of rock that are covered with chalk from previous boulderers. We climbed and bouldered until about 8 pm, and then sat down for dinner on the beach. Apples, plums, bread, cheese, pastrami, chips, wine, Scrumpies (a local hard cider), and our new favorite snack, Tim Tams were for dinner. We threw on our headlamps and managed to get caught up in another bouldering problem before it got totally dark, and then we moved back onto the beach for some awesome stargazing.

Other notables from the beach: there are constantly bats flying all around the cliffs, even during the day.  There was a bachelor party on the beach for most of the afternoon. They were driving around dirt bikes, listening to music, and hitting golf balls towards their friends on motor bikes. It didn't seem like a very good idea, so we stayed out of the way until their van got stuck in the sand with the tide quickly approaching, so we ran over and lent a hand as it sat in a few inches of water. They got out okay, but not a minute too early.

Okay, finally, pictures!

View from the drive to the beach

Claire and Sherry

Tyler and Josh setting up our sleeping area

You can barely make out the guy on the left hitting a golf ball down the beach...

Notice all of the chalk on the walls from previous boulderers