[galpinos]

Right, I’m off to New Zealand on Tuesday with the wife. I’ve got a day at Castle Hill, otherwise we shall be doing no climbing stuff.

So, any info on the following would be grand:

Castle Hill

I’m heading up here for a day with the wife. She’s not really a climber but I’m assuming there’s plenty of stuff for her to get on. She enjoyed Font so I’m hoping to create a similar vibe.  Questions:

Where should we stay?
Which area should we go to?
Any must tick problems for me? Up to Font 7b (optimistic)
Where’s the best place to hire a pad.

New Zealand in general

We’re flying down to the South Island (Queenstown) for a wedding (few days around Lake Wanaka) at the start of the holiday and have 10 days to drive back up to Auckland. On our list is currently:

Milford Sound
Mt Aspiring National Park
Kaikora
Castle Hill
Tongariro Trail
Rotorua

Any other must do/see places? Any info on the best places to stay/cool hotels hostels etc?

Kula Lumpur

We’ve got a couple of days in KL on the way back. We got a posh hotel sorted but any info on things we shouldn’t miss whilst there?

All a bit random but any info much appreciated.

Cheers.

[SA Chris]

Re Castle Hill, for starters. There are some places to stay in Castle Hill Village but I i think they are rentals and doubt they will do one or two night stays. Hostel and I think a couple of B&Bs in Springfield.

It's an amazing place to wander around, even as a non-climber, so hopefully your trouble will like it. Amazing photo opportunities of the surrounding landscape. On easier grade stuff it's pretty polished though. It's a bit bewildering finding your way about on first acquaintance, befriend a local beforehand if you can. Otherwise I think Quantum Fields is probably best bet. You can hire pads from climbing shop in CC (name eludes me but it's the biggest one).

Milford Sounds is cool, but a long and slow there and back drive. Consider doing a helicopter flight there and back from Wanaka, we wish we had done that.

Kaikoura is a cool little town, main reason to go there is for Whale / Dolphin tours or surfing. However if weather is bad the tours may not run, in which case there's not a lot to do there, so check forecast and phone before setting off.

There is a little boulder on the shore of Lake Wanaka with about half a dozen probs, nice to stop at sunset for a an hour. Also a little bit at hospital flats (?) approx 20 mins from Wanaka and right by parking.

Go jetboating (either in queenstonw or on lake wanaka) brilliant fun.

[Joepicalli]

Just back from NZ 5week road trip. Castle Hill is a lovely place but the climbing needs to be gotten into so one day I suspect will be a bit of a let down. I hired my pad in Christchurch but was able to pick it up and take it back. One problem is that as its limestone popular stuff / stuff close to the road is polished and not much fun. Frankly NZ is not a climbing destination. If you are going to the Castle hill area do the cave trip under the road at the Cave Stream scenic area (its sign posted). Go to see at least one of the Glaciers (Fox or Josef). At Kiakora DO go swimming with the dolphins: I am a seen-it-all-jaded-old-fuck and was still utterly blown away by this. AT Rotaroa, if you mountain bike, hire one and do the Billy T, splitendz, pondy down pondy new combination of tracks - some of the best singletrack I have ever done. Mount Cook National park is beautiful.
This is a bit left field but I found going to Christchurch quite inspiring: they have re-built the city centre shopping area out of shipping containers and are getting on with life, plus of course your tourist dollar is very welcome there. If you like your wine Marlborough is a must with a trip to a couple of the wineries (Cloudy Bay is a Must).
Oh and go to a kiwi house and see the kiwis they are sooooo cute.

[SA Chris]

And if you are looking for somewhere to eat in Christchurch I can recommend Dux de Lux http://www.thedux.co.nz/
and check out the Museum if you have a shitty weather day. The Antarctic explorers section is fascinating.

[SA Chris]

Actually reading the website, the one in CC is closed, but the one in QT is still open.

As an aside, it looks like you are there for not very long, and trying to squeeze a lot in. Just be aware the distances are pretty long and while the roads are quiet they are pretty slow once you move away from the east coast.

[Falling Down]

Have you spoken to Brian? He just got back yesterday....

[galpinos]

Cheers for the replies SA Chris and Joe. I shall add that info to the pile to wade through this weekend.

Chris, you're like a one man beta machine!

Have you spoken to Brian? He just got back yesterday....

Nope, not yet. Now stop posting and reply to your texts!

[Andy B]

Although tricky if you are on a timescale, the best advice I could give for New Zealand is to get off the beaten track and explore as many smaller roads and places as you can. Particularly round the coast. All of our best experiences in NZ were had by just stumbling across places, or studying the places which only got brief mentions in the travel guides. By doing this we were able to swim with dolphins sponaneously, by walking into the sea whilst they were surfing, rather than on a commercial trip, sit on a beach whilst penguins, and at different times, seals and a sea lion came ashore around us, and found a better cave through trip than Cave Stream. Although that is handy if you're in Castle Hill anyway. If you've done any alpine climbing then personally I wouldn't bother visiting the glaciers if you're on a timescale.

I wonder how much Castle Hill has changed in the last few years, because I thought it was amazing, and not a let down at all. There is/was a free campsite just down the road, past Castle Hill Village, if you have camping/ bivi stuff. Also the walk ins to the alpine stuff are often better than the routes and many have decent, cheap huts on them. Even if you're not going up a route, walking in and enjoying sunset and sunrise at one of the little bivi huts is great.

This thread might also be useful:

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,19337.msg345955.html#msg345955

[miso soup]

In KL there's a wall called Camp Five which is pretty good, it's a bit out the city perched on top of a big shopping centre.  I didn't get any outdoor climbing done while I was there but the locals said Batu Caves is decent.  I'd like to try and get there if I have another KL stopover at some point.

[ducko]

I find it hard to believe there isn't much climbing in NZ surely there must be loads of boulder fields that are undiscovered it's a pretty mountainous country,

As for KL I went when I was younger there are plenty to do for a few days I was happy wandering around the city taking in the culture what a trip

[tomtom]

All of the above, but spend a night at the Hermatige below mt cook. (get a cabin/motel room thingy much cheaper and yu get the proper hotel breakfast rolled in. Superb location with the mountain looming up above you and you can then wander up to one of the glacier lakes/snouts etc..

[Plattsy]

In Queenstown I think it is necessary to try the Ferg Burger (one very tasty burger) and also there is a hut on the lake front which does the best fish and chips I've ever had. Called Aggies I think.

Castle Hill was amazing last year. We were there in Feb and it was really too hot but none the less it's still such a great place.

There's a pie shop in Sheffield on the way to/from Castle Hill from/to ChCh and it does amazing pies and cakes. Hard to miss.


Although I didn't go on the daytrip whitewater rafting at Rotorua those who did really enjoyed it. There's also Hell's Gate mudpools where you can get a mudbath, chill in a pool and wonder around looking at bubbling mud. There's various thermal pools around Rotorua too.

Check the weather for Milford when you want to go. Poor weather could make the long drive a waste of time. We never made it to Milford Sound because of the long drive. Also I don't think there's a petrol station out there so fill up at the last station. We met a group who did the Milford Sound walk and it rained the whole time. The west coast of NZ Sth island is very wet although they tried to big it up they were really quite disappointed because they'd not seen a thing through the poor weather.

Some alternative suggestions to the places you've mentioned.
Swimming with the world's smallest dolphins (Hector's) at Akaroa was brilliant fun. Great funny guides.

Kayaking the Abel Tasmin was brilliant.

In KL going up the Petronas Towers is worth the effort. The system is a bit crap though. You have to get there really early 7am or maybe earlier to queue for a time slot. There is a limit on the number of people who can go up each day. We got one of the last slots in the afternoon so had to return later that day.

We also got a bus to the Batu Caves. This was fairly straight forward. It's a Hindu temple up inside a jungle covered monolith. There's a ridiculously tall gold statue of a Hindu god and lots of monkeys. Some good Indian food at the bottom of the steps.

The public transport in KL is pretty reliable and generally felt pretty safe.

Have a good one.

[tomtom]

Like Plattsy said, w coast gets 5m rainfall per year.. And the sand flies can eat you alive... The w coast glaciers are worth a look though.. Personally, I'd spend 80%+ in the S island if I went again (which I hope to!). It does take a lot longer to get to places than you might think - ut it's a great country to meander around..

Blue cod from the chippy is great, but try deep fried oysters! Superb..

[schloosh]

KL:

Batu Caves definitely worth a visit.
Petronas Towers was good.

Madam Kwans restaurant in Suria KLCC was also good but not super cheap. The restaurant at the top of the KL Tower was good for the views, I remember the lobster and cocktails being good but I was quite pissed.

Jalan Petaling market is good for all your fake rolex needs.

The Lake Gardens are nice for a walk around, the butterfly park bit was good if you like massive bugs of different types.

Had a great meal here about 7 years ago so it might be crap now but definitely worth checking out.
The Kapitan's Club, 35 Jalan Ampang, 55000 Kuala Lumpur.

Tell the hotel you are on your honeymoon and get a free upgrade!

[Bonjoy]

I’m with Andy B, I thought Castle Hill was totally amazing; in fact we liked it so much we spent most of our two months in NZ there. That said we bumped into plenty of dull eyed meat heads visitors there who didn’t like it, mostly Americans moaning about not having any ‘crimpers’ to ‘hook on to’.


These old threads have loads of good recommendations and some cracking photos:

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,2422.25.html

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,10350.5.html

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,3278.0.html

I'd love to go back to NZ. If I did I would sack off the north island in favour of the south for the whole trip for sure.

[BenF]

I thought Castle Hill was amazing -  so much so that I lived in Chch for a little over a year and spent something like 100 days in the basin.  Like Bonjoy says though, there are always a few visitors stumbling round moaning about mantels, slopers and lack of crimps.

My first few days were a bit hard but then suddenly the place began to make sense and once the temps drop it becomes awesome.  If you can only visit in the heat of summer, you will struggle!

[gingerninja]

as people have said the hill is awesome. when i was there the first couple of visits i found it was really hard but then bumped in to seb and bevan who are local boys and they showed me some of the easier stuff, ode to joy was cool.

wanaka is good. the boulder on the lake front is at the far end of the bay on the right looking out to the lake from town. i think the road is beaconpoint rd, tho it was 10 years ago i was there. there is another couple of boulders near glendu bay on the water front the way to the climbing out at hospital flats. they are a bit hidden tho. the climbing out on hospital flats it nice with a couple of boulders next to the style where you park. go in to good sports, the sports shop near paddys bar and they sold a climbing guide for the area.

there is a really nice boulder just out of luggate heading to qtown from wanaka. it was my fav spot.

if you go to q town there is a place called the jadenes i think. its a farmers field and when i was there climbing was ok, but check.

wish i was going out again as its the best place ive ever been. have fun

[SA Chris]

I think you mean the Jardines gingerninja?

As mentioned earlier, the W coast glaciers are pretty cool, but if you have been on any of the big ones in the Alps they are on a par.

Sea Kayaking in Abel Tasman is great, if you go to the Golden bay side you can clip a few bolts at Payne's Ford too (which I thought was quite good, but not really on a par with some European Limestone).

The Lamb and Mint pies from the Sheffield Pue Shop are brilliant.

And you have to eat mussels while you are there, the ones we had at Mussel Brothers in Havelock were amazing, I think there is one in Kaikoura and Wellington too.

[gingerninja]

thats the place. it was 10 years ago lol.

[hongkongstuey]

Kula Lumpur

We’ve got a couple of days in KL on the way back. We got a posh hotel sorted but any info on things we shouldn’t miss whilst there?

Have been to KL a few times and other than having great food, haven't been overly taken with the place.

Batu Caves is worth a quick peek for half a day (some climbing out there but not sure where exactly). Malacca is meant to be nice if you have enough time to get down there.