Thursday, December 16, 2010

Auckland Climbing Gym

Our plans were to hike the Tongariro Crossing (aka Mordor) but it has been raining and everyone suggested we wait for good weather so we could see the view. We decided to head north to be at 90-mile beach for Christmas. Amalia needs to get something notarized so we stopped in Auckland at the U.S. Consolate. Turns out you need an appointment to get in there, and there are only 6 appointments available on Fridays. They were all gone for this upcoming Friday and there aren't any for the next Friday so turns out we won't be getting anything notarized for awhile. We didn't know what to do so we went to the Auckland Climbing Gym. It was pretty huge. It used to be an airplane hangar. They had some sweet as stuff for kids like a black light bouldering room and really cool painted wood things with automatic belay things. Of course we tried both.

We had heard about their arch when we were climbing with some people in Wharapapa South. Apparently they made a big swing off it one day. They were not doing that the day we were there. I tried to climb it, but realized I had no idea how to clip while I was upside down. I couldn't quite get my feet solid plus hang on with only one arm, plus communicate to Amalia when I wanted slack all at the same time so I didn't get across but it was awesome none the less. I'll get it next time.
Their top rope stuff was tied to the floor. You just attached a carabeaner to your harness and the grigri was already there. It was weird not to be able to move while belaying. We stopped at some hot pools one day because it was raining and just stayed all day and swam in the rain. There was no lightning, so it was safe I guess. There were like 5 different pools with different temps PLUS slides PLUS a movie pool where we sat and watched music videos and Leap Year. I liked that place.

Are these only in New Zealand?



Cadbury Snow Bites, the Christmas version of the Mini Egg! I know so many people who say Mini Eggs are their favorite candy. Are these in the states now too or have we stumbled upon something great?

5 comments:

Julie said...

You are a climbing whiz now! I am very impressed.

Treasure those snow bites! I would kill for a bag of those right now-kiiiiiilll.

becca said...

YOU WENT TO MORDOR??????!!!?

Tif said...

Snow bites? I have never seen such a thing. I wish we had those :( I think you have found something great! Once again I'm jealous. Surprised? I can't believe you are attempting arches and I'm still scared of lead climbing. Geez I need to get cool like you asap!

Fancypants said...

We missed you at the Christmas party. Berkley says 'thank you' for her gift. Have fun and stay safe.

Unknown said...

Are those snowbites a bar of snowbites or are they just a different packaging to the English ones?