Day 32-33: Takaka

Friday was a quiet day for us.  We are planning on a long hike start Sunday, so we met up with Sarah for some food shopping, but other than some work in the garden, not a whole lot going on.

A nice walk through some cow pastures to watch the sunset.

The next morning, we were awakened by a constant munching noise.  The property we are on is surrounded by a number of meadows, and the dairy farmer rotates the cows constantly through them.  It just so happened that this Saturday was the day for the meadow not 10 feet from our door.

We had heard that there was a place to rent gear and go rock climbing in the area, so we decided to check it out.

First awesome thing:  On the way, we ran into Ilva, Shayna and Adrienne (from Thanksgiving), and they were planning on climbing that day.

Second awesome thing:  Shoes and harness rentals were cheap, and after some investigation and waiting, getting a rope and other gear wasn't too bad, either.

Third awesome thing:  Limestone cliffs are great climbing!

I had never led-climbed before, but there is no way to learn like trying something out, and since I usually do things full-assed or not at all (never half-assed), I just started up the wall. 

Things I did not know, and had to learn the hard way: 

How to detach your leads from the wall while still staying safe.

How to attach the rope to the top of the wall, while still staying safe.

How to detach the rope when you are done.

Fortunately, a nice couple from Austria came by and showed us how to do all these things before they went and climbed up some ridiculous walls like they were nothing.

That being said, and after spending an hour trying to set a top rope for everyone else, it was a great experience.   Molly and I are really thinking about staying around Takaka for a while now.  The rock climbing is excellent, and we are starting to regret not bringing our shoes and harnesses.  

Maybe we can convince Wendy and Carol to let us stay around a bit longer.  They are already letting us leave our stuff here while we hike the Heaphy Track, and letting us continue to stay when we get back.  Which is great, since there are a lot of things (like the computer I'm typing this on) that we probably shouldn't take hiking if we can help it.