Frog Butress/mount french

We went climbig at Frog butress.The area is all natural pro climbing just a few hundred meters from the carpark..Ver convenient. it would be a bit better a little later in winter as by 9.30 am it was getting very warm.

The first climb we did was clockwork orange corner 13

aaron on the 19 start to Electronic flag?

At the top of a 16 we saw this...we went down quickly!
by the way the grades are stiff a 16 will be a NZ 18 or more like 20 if it is polished! some of the 3 star routes are quite polished these days but i guess 50 years of traffic will do that

we met another NZer and finally got a photo of the two of us I am leading an 11...hardcore!

Boyland and Aaron's dads

We had a nice lunch at tamborine mountain with cheryl, dean (aaron's dad) and nanny the went back to Dean's new house.

kenny the buthcher bird. dean feeds the birds and all kinds come on to the porch to visit

dean and helen grow the red Dragon fruitand the white is from a neighbour we had a nice wine and fruit afternoon tea

Aaron and his dad...did aaron have too much wine or is it just a bad photo?
we popped by again the next morning on our way to boonah as helen(dean's wife) was out the first visit.

dean and helen outside their queenslander style house

Dean on his new Mower Helen won!

mothers day on the gold coast

We arrived at the gold coast and went off to lunch at the crystal cottage a crystal /jewellery shop with a cafe and tarot reading

cheryl and Nanny outside the crystal cottage
we were with Aaron's nanny Peg, Aunt cheryl, Bruce, Sister Xander, Neil, Kahn, cody and connor. the boys are really awesome kids...a lot of fun!

The whole clan.

Climbing in the mountains.

we went climbimg at shipleys two mornings before it got too hot below is our very first climb there

Look mum no hands. sally gets a kneebar rest on Hotflyer 23 at shipleys
I tried to onsight a couple of 19's but got turned back between last bolt and the anchor on both!
The first afternoon we went to boronia and on our final day returnedagain

Aaron climbingLyptus 23 at boronia with Dan belaying
On the second afternoon we climbed at centenial glen and Dan suggested I tried hairy horace 23 and put a top rope up for my first go. great pick as i red pointed it 3rd try.

Blue mountains, Australia

We had a great time in the Blue mountains
Sorry to the people we didn't see. our phone not working was a real pain..Thanks telecom!
We stayed at Dan's flat and he and his flatmates dog annie took us climbing on thursday/friday. On Saturday we were joined by the lovely Stacey. we quickly saw the blossoming Yvoinne on the way out..Thanks for dropping us at the airport mid jetlag..You rock.

Annie

Dan

Stacey

Easter

Bush fires meant that we went to Chinaman's bluff in the Dart valley as the local area was out of bounds.
It was a bit damp but we got a climb we have been working on for years equipped and ready to go on our next visit. It will be called Icarus if we get it and is 6 pitches long.

We also went to a Barbeque to celebrate Ian and Marianne's wedding. It was great to meet their families.
We went back up South Wye and Finally climbed the Big corner which turned out to be about 17, Centrefold is now 5 1/2 pitches long

So much to get finished before winter sets in and the rock gets wet.
we will probably be doing lots of work on these new climbs for the next month while we can.
Winter will be good though A wee trip to OZ in may then July ,August Ice climbing . We also have season passes for the Ski fields..I am looking forward to that!

Family time in Auckland

Aaron rich john and dad on a walk at Piha

grandpa and vinnie in th Fern garden

Me and my special man

Vinnie loves this lion!

John and Steph came over from the UK with their little man Vinnie.
He is a total cutie.... Very happy and chilled.
We went up to see them, and the rest of the family of course.