South Wye

We have been busy developing a new climbing area in Queenstown with our friend Tony. it is about 2 hrs walk up hill to the rock wall which is 200m high. so far we have walked along the half way ledge and abseiled down place bolts to climb back up. we have done 2 new routes.
One is called Big day out and is 4 pitches long the difficulty grades are 20,21,16,18. the hard bits are short. The other one is called 2 steps ahead of the pack and is 2 pitches long. grade 20,24 this is consistently hard.
The cliff is huge so there are a lot more climbs to do as well as the top half above what we have done so it should keep us buy for many weekends to come. we have made a rock bivvy there so have somewhere nice and sheltered to sleep. We will probably camp up there for the first time next weekend.
On a personal note my brother John is going to have his first baby( well actually Steph is) and I am super excited about becoming an aunty. Love you too Holly and Patrick.

Photos
1) our bivvy cave
2) Sally climbing at South Wye
3) Tony Burnell
4) Aaron

We had a lovely weekend up in Canterbury

Aaron flew up after work on Friday night and we went to Curators for a nice meal.
The following morning we Wandered around the shops and had brunch in Christchurch city.
That after noon we meet Simon out at Castle Hill for some bouldering( thanks for the photo's Simon)
We got tired out on the first 3 boulders we got to!
A night in Methven then of to Hanging rock near Pleasant point ( great icecream shop). Hanging rockkhas beautiful views and is a really nice place to visit. The climbing was quite hard though! maybe because the holds are very open compared to our local rock.
All in all a fantastic weekend

Photo's
1) Aaron at castle hill
2) Sally at Castle hill
3) Aaron at Hanging rock on Mad gesture 19?

A few Random Photo's of the two of us

Photo's
1)On our wedding Day in Front of Lake Hayes, Queenstown The ceremony was at the lake edge beneath the trees.
2) sally and Aaron at Adelaide Saddle, Darren Mountains, Milford at sunset on Honeymoon
3) I think this is at the Summit of Moirs mate , Darrens, Milford at christmas
here you go Wendy
thanks for your comments

This weekend we awoke at 5.30 am for a days Ice climbing. Sally had come down with an awful cold so stayed in bed for thr day while Aaron had all the fun. He went back to the Wye valley and climbed the mixed climb he bolted last week and his friends Dave an Rupert (in the photo) had a go too. They are calling the grade M7.

Luckily Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and I recovered enough to take Chief for his first time up the mountain. He tried snowboarding and has great balance. He dosn't turn much and I was kept busy trying to keep up with him. By the end of the day he could ride the chairlift with out any help.
While we were up there Aaron went up the south branch of Wye creek and did some track cutting, and checked out some cliffs

Monday I was still sick and Aaron had a work Heli ski day..how cool is that?
7 runs he was windswept and exhausted but very happy when he returned

Oops it's been a month!

well Simon has been nagging me to update this so here goes..
we got 60cm of new snow three weeks ago and finally all the off piste terrain opened up

Oops it's been a month!

well Simon has been nagging me to update this so here goes..
we got 60cm of new snow three weeks ago and finally all the off piste terrain opened up. It was awesome!! we hiked the toilet bowl and shutes untill we could barely stand.
I went hiking with Isaac my buddy up tobins track and he came night Skiing with Aaron and I on the friday. we worked on jumps and drop offs and all had an excellent time.
Then I went up north working for a couple of weeks.
While I was up there I made good use of the time and got to catch up with my family and Aarons. Emily and Regan met me in the Waikato for some climbing at Wharepapa. The company was great.I was hoping to try and Climb Dionysis 24 but I got spanked on a 20( and almost an 18! so gave that idea up.
back home now and have had visitors every day..Hello dan, paul and Greg.
We got a helicopter ride into the wye valley ice and bolted a new mixed route..I think we might call it Nut cracker since Aaron had an unfortunate incident where he tipped upside down when he fell off and the rope got him you know where. we managed to get the heavy gear back inthe chopper and walked out down the Valley (4 hours!) the ice has got warm and has big cracks so that will be the last of the ice climbing for the season. it snowed overnight though so hopefully we will get a little more snowboarding before summer is fully here.

Aaron goes really really fast

Last night (Friday) we went up Coronet for our first night ski of the season. Aaron had fun going really fast, and Sally did some cool jumps. After we went to town and had ferg burger down by the lake.....Ahh, so romantic.