[screwyouI'mfromderby]

If you're in the North Island and wondering where to climb you have to get to Bryce's in Wharepapa South, not far from Te Awamutu. You'll need a car to get there as take plenty of food as the 'town' consists of Bryces shop/hostel/indoor wall, a school and a shed.

The rock of the area is Ignimbrite which is volcanic spew so expect plenty of pockets with razor sharp lips. Some of these pockets get deep and are home to large colonies of bees and wasps, most of whom aren't afraid to sting you. The bouldering is largely unrecorded so ask Bryce for the beta. There's a field just down the road from his place with tons of stuff in, but you have to brave electric fences and foot deep cow crap to get there. Better known areas are at Froggat Edge (seriously) and surrounding areas at Animal Biscuit Valley, Beer Garden etc. If you get bored making up your own problems then you can always try some of the 850+ routes that Bryce himself seems to have put up single handedly.

If it looks like it might rain, take a book. If you want a free guide, take one from home and Bryce will swap it for you.

[AndyR]

The bouldering is largely unrecorded so ask Bryce for the beta. There's a field just down the road from his place with tons of stuff in, but you have to brave electric fences and foot deep cow crap to get there. Better known areas are at Froggat Edge (seriously)

Climbed on Froggatt recently - some top notch (easy) sport climbing - most enjoyable and set in classic hobbit territory!

Is bryce the guy who runs the climbing shop? If so, he's a bit of a gobshite isn't he? He defines an upper limit to the term 'opinionated'!

[screwyouI'mfromderby]

Bryce is indeed the shop owner although I found him to be most accomodating. This was probably helped by the economics as I'd just bought some overpriced shoes, bag, chalk and a handful of guidebooks. Also, the hostel was 'full' of these two American bumblies who hired him as a guide and took about a zillion digital photos doing damp and nasty sport routes.

All said and done I thought he was ok, but all I wanted from him was gear, books and directions and that was all I really got.

[SA Chris]

I have a mate who is moving to NZ for a year so am planning a trip when I get some cash together. Is all the good shit concentrated in South Island or North? Was thinking of a bit of climbing/bouldering and maybe some surfing or snowboarding. Anyone got any good links?

[Bubba]

Omega's site is a good place to start

http://powerband.cactusclimbing.co.nz/

[AndyR]

Bryce is indeed the shop owner although I found him to be most accomodating. This was probably helped by the economics as I'd just bought some overpriced shoes, bag, chalk and a handful of guidebooks. Also, the hostel was 'full' of these two American bumblies who hired him as a guide and took about a zillion digital photos doing damp and nasty sport routes.

All said and done I thought he was ok, but all I wanted from him was gear, books and directions and that was all I really got.

Ah yeah, he was fundamentally a decent guy, but when you've been given a lecture on rope bags for about 15 minutes, told all about the climbing in the UK (like, my opinion on that didn't count for anything....) and been given a treatise on bolting techniques and how many routes he's done and how I'm going to 'fucking hate' certain world class crags, it can get a bit much......

Entertaining though - I'll give you that

[Fiend]

Is bryce the guy who runs the climbing shop? If so, he's a bit of a gobshite isn't he? He defines an upper limit to the term 'opinionated'!

ROOOOFL!   Too true!!

Anyway, general information on New Zealand climbing...

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/nz1.html
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/nz2.html
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/nz3.html


Edit: P.S. Area descriptions which don't have bullet points (e.g. Smiths, Sheridan) are only single crags or sub-areas within the larger areas which do have bullet points (e.g. Wharepapa). The important bits are the overall areas whether they have sub-area descriptions or not (e.g. Wharepapa, Wanaka etc). I'm still annoyed Charles muffed up that formatting as it doesn't highlight the information properly.