We took the famous ferry ride through Marlborough Sounds from Wellington to Picton, about 3 hours of rolling swells that we half slept through. From there it was a two hour drive to Nelson where we stopped for a delicious lunch of coffee and lamb. Nelson is a beautiful outdoor sports kinda town. Dimity and I both decided we could live there. Quaint and cool with surfing, climbing and snowboarding all in close driving distance. It was great.
We stocked up on food and headed to Takaka to stay at Hangdog climbing campground. Hangdogs is a funky hippy camp site where all payments are on the honor system. Almost all the guys have dredlocks and everyone is a climber. Paynes Ford is limestone climbing and there is a freaking ton of it! We ordered guidebooks to the campsite that never came, but its all good because the other climbers are all very willing to climb with us. We woke up early and climbed from 7am till almost 1, then had a picnic with Gary and Yali. Gary tried to cross a fast moving river with three bags of groceries and a three thousand dollar camera. He made it about half way when he realized that he was loosing his footing. I ran out and managed to get his camera just as he slipped and floated off down river, food bags bobbing up and down in the water. In the end it was all good and we had lunch on the rocky beach followed by cliff jumping and deep water soloing.
That night we celebrated out survival by drinking home-brewed Manuka beer at the Mussel Inn and met a Kiwi named Brownie who offered to let us stay on his land, use his surfboards and wetsuits and help ourselves to free pot that he grows all for free. He was hilarious, but I think we’re gonna stay at Hangdogs instead. The next day we went climbing with our new friend Joy (a Brooklynite!) at a spot that is right on the sea. It was excellent sport climbing on beautiful stone with a view of the sea and mountains all in one. Now we are off to do some real hard stuff. Tomorrow there is a Mardi Gras celebration in this fantastic hippy town, Takaka. More to come soon!
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