A little report from our great South Island trip: (more on Jakes blogg, and pictures in my gallery)
Day 0:
Leaving Auckland at 4 pm, driving to Wellington, taking the ferry to Picton
Day 1:
Arriving in Christchuch at around noon. Picking up Ingrid, who took the plane down. Did food shopping for 8 people for 5 days. Driving to Arthurs Pass meeting Stefan, Steffie and Tom.
Word of the day:
Raspe Ost – Grate cheese
Day 2:
Tramping up to Avalance Peak in mist and wind. Returned to Arthurs pass, and had coffe at the café instead.
Words of the day:
Windshiel wipers - Vindusviskere
Boler – Someone using drugs to get big muscels.
Quote of the day:
“I can’t sleep on the narrow bench, because I always sleep in the embryo position” Ingrid trying to decide where to sleep in the shelter.
Day 3:
Woke up to rain and wind. Went to a youth hostel for coffe, and whaching Sylvester Stalone move… Got some climbing at Castle hill in the afternoon.
Word of the day:
Feig – Wimpy
Day 4:
First try on mt Rollerston. Practicing mountaineering skills.
Word of the day:
Svigermorsstopp – Mother in law break (when you stop and wait for someone, and just start walking again when they arrive, so they don’t get any break)
Day 5:
Drived to Christchuch to do food shopping since it was raining anyway. Got to do some climbing in the afternoon, at Porthills, which was way harder than expected, and way harder than it looked like… But everyone was happy dooing som natural pro climbing. Then a second foodshopping. Amazing how much 8 people eat!
Word of the day:
Hail and sleet – Hagl og sludd
Day 6:
Woke up to rain… Depressing, so shought comfort in coffe and nice breakfast/lunch in Little River outside Christchuch. Went then to Christchuch to do some indoor climbing, and got first shower of the hollyday! Then, clean and happy we drove back “home” to the shelter in Arthurs Pass
Quote of the day:
Jake: “No, he don’t need to shower, he showered a couple of days ago” (completely serious about why Tom didn’t shower at the climbing gym)
Words of the day:
Shed – Røyte
Frost røyk – Frost smoke (the damp out of your mount when its really cold)
Day 7:
The day was spent climbing at castle hill, mostly bouldering, but some routes where also tried out. Around the boulders where a cute little layer of snow, and the temperature was just so low that one might wonder why the hell someone climbs on such a day.
Word of the day:
Mullet – Hockey sveis – Fokohile (german -> forne kurtz, hinten lang)
Day 8:
A second try made on Mt Rollerston, this time just by me, Owen and Jake, while the rest of the group went skiing. Also this time we had to turn, due to bad snow and little time.
Word of the day:
Spelonky – Grotteutforsker
Day 9:
Kristin, Ingrid, Steffie, Stefan and Tom went to the montains and managed to get on 4 peaks, while the last three of us where to tired to join after a hard Mt Rollerston try. Owen realxed by reading and finally getting trough 1984 (something he has tried to do as long as I have known him). While me and Jake considered bouldering the perfect rest day from mountaineering (and vice versa).
Word of the day:
Narly – Cool, great, sweet or whatever else positive in some old californian surferslang. (The best part of this word of the day was that when we later, after learning the word, met up with crazy climbing dude Jay, he actually still used the word!)
Day 10:
A last day of bouldering at Castle hill, Quantum field (a name that made physic student Ingrids heart beat fast, and even faster when she found out it had a problem called Quantum mecanics! The only negative thing about this place was that the running, jumping (!) start problem next to Quantum mecanics in Quantum field wasn’t called Quantum leap)
Quote of the day:
“What is the day of the word today?” said by me, and after saying it wrong in that way almost every day… Speaking is hard...
Day 11:
Driving from Arturs Pass at 6 am, arriving in Auckland at 2 am… And then we where back! And everybody agreed it had been a wonderful trip, looked forward to finaly shower again, and wondered if it might have been a good idea to at least have studied a little bit for the test on Monday or Tuesday, but realising the trip was totally worth a bad testscore!
