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Chockstone Photography
Australian Landscape Photography by Michael Boniwell
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Chockstone Forum - Find Climbers

Find Climbers In Your Area

 Page 1 of 4. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 40 | 41 to 60 | 61 to 79
Author
Castle Hill Siege!

Super Saiyan
20-Jul-2005
11:33:26 PM
Hi, im heading to castle hill for a month over xmas/new years. Im also heading over this september holidays for a week. Keen for answers of following questions!

a) What areas are open? What areas are closed? What areas need permission to climb in?

b) "Must do" lines?

c) Guidebooks available?

d) Best spot to camp?

e) Best area?

f) Best way to get there?

g) Who wants to come???

We are throwing out an open invitation to anyone who wants to come, we'll probably be tent camping. Hoping to get a big group together to bring in the new year! reply here or PM me!

kezza
20-Jul-2005
11:53:32 PM
Also, how easy is it to get into town etc? Basically what is the transportation situation?
What has and hasn't worked for you?

Tel
21-Jul-2005
12:43:43 AM
On 20/07/2005 obsessedclimber wrote:
>Hi, im heading to castle hill for a month over xmas/new years. Im also
>heading over this september holidays for a week. Keen for answers of following
>questions!
>
>a) What areas are open? What areas are closed? What areas need permission
>to climb in?

spittle hill, quantum field are open
flock hill do a search on chockstone, someone listed the blog whcih you check for flock access
prebble hill and dry valley didn't go to so can't say,
>
>b) "Must do" lines?
all
>

>c) Guidebooks available?

rock deluxe , whcih covers most of the climbing on the south island, useful for quantum field, spittle hill climbing quide for spittle hill...hehe go figure
>
>d) Best spot to camp?

craigieburn about five ks away free, mountain stream water, a hut with fireplace for cooler evenings, and keas to destroy all your belongings.
other alternative is castle hill village for cabin living cost ...don't know

>
>e) Best area?

I like spittle
>
>f) Best way to get there?

plane, then car
>
>g) Who wants to come???
>
hmmmm

>We are throwing out an open invitation to anyone who wants to come, we'll
>probably be tent camping. Hoping to get a big group together to bring in
>the new year! reply here or PM me!

hmmmmmm

On 20/07/2005 kezza wrote:
>Also, how easy is it to get into town etc?

hire car, and nearest town is springfield about 30 min drive

> Basically what is the transportation
>situation?

hire car, can do it by bus but as the camping is 5 ks away your life would be spent just trying to get somehwere.

>What has and hasn't worked for you?

we had a hire car, camped at craigeburn, would go to springy once a week the campground there has hot showers coin operated 50c for around three minutes. necessities you can grab there.
for lazy days and bigger shopping went to darfield, library has internet, small iga type shopping centre, westpac bank and post office for other things and the best pies I have ever eaten at the bakery.
For rest days you can head to christchurch and shop at pack and save or the warehouse( where everyone gets a bargain ) and bum around the city at the climbing shops.
laundromats are a pain in the arse as most are all service laundries there was one coin op laundry so you will have to ask around or try and scam at the backpackers.

don't take a good tent as the keas will only eat it


gemmaw
21-Jul-2005
2:49:07 PM
Quantum Field and Spittle Hill are excellent - there's so much to do even if you spent the whole week just at these 2 areas. You need to get landholder permission to climb at some of the other areas. Flock Hill was closed when I was there late last year but I believe it is open again - it's also supposed to be excellent, although also need to get permission.

This website is good for info on the areas, accomodation, etc.
http://www.tota.co.nz/castlehill/index.html

A car is definately the way to go. Castle Hill is less than 2 hrs drive from Christchurch so it's easy to get a car there and drive to Castle Hill. Then you can go back and forth from the Craigieburn Forest camping area which is a nice little spot, and it's free, so what you spend on hiring a car you can save on accomodation at the Homestead which is probably where you'd have to stay if you didn't have a car.

September is not a high cost season so you can probably get a car for about $20 or 25/day. Check the net bacause we got a little campervan in September for only $30/day - it was soooooo nice!

It's also a good time of year to go - it's still reasonably cold so friction is good. Be prepared for all weather - we had sunshine, hail and snow all in one day when we were there in Sept. The rock dries pretty quick if it rains though.

Ooooohh I want to go, just thinking about it! The bouldering is so different to anything else. It takes a while to get used to it but each day more seems possible, and you use every single muscle in your body. I love it there!!

And a guide is unnecessary (they're too damn expensive anyway) - just jump on whatever looks good. You'll be so engrossed with the place you won't even look at it.

alrob
21-Jul-2005
10:31:03 PM
On 20/07/2005 obsessedclimber wrote:
>g) Who wants to come???
>
>We are throwing out an open invitation to anyone who wants to come, we'll
>probably be tent camping. Hoping to get a big group together to bring in
>the new year! reply here or PM me!

shit, you twisted my arm! i'm there! who else is coming? tel, you know your up for another trip!

kezza
21-Jul-2005
10:50:50 PM
Well James and I are definately there for the month, so I guess we'll be seeing you there Al..

-Kerryn-

Tel
22-Jul-2005
1:41:42 AM
On 21/07/2005 alrob wrote:
>
>shit, you twisted my arm! i'm there! who else is coming? tel, you know
>your up for another trip!

hmmmm....

don't fly quantus
Setha
22-Jul-2005
9:50:17 AM
Awesome!!!

I'm going to be there for the first two weeks of september, staying at Craigieburn campsite.

See you all there!
Seth.

Super Saiyan
22-Jul-2005
10:56:50 AM
yeah, we are going Air New Zealand... 387 return... pretty reasonable...

setha, ill be there with a mate, so if u want some company, drop us a line!

alrob
22-Jul-2005
4:00:10 PM
On 22/07/2005 obsessedclimber wrote:
>yeah, we are going Air New Zealand... 387 return... pretty reasonable...
>

who did ya book through?

IdratherbeclimbingM9
22-Jul-2005
4:04:37 PM
>who did ya book through?
Was that a sponsored question?
:P

alrob
22-Jul-2005
4:29:56 PM
On 22/07/2005 M8iswhereitsat wrote:
>>who did ya book through?
>Was that a sponsored question?
>:P

how did you know i work for STA travel!!??

IdratherbeclimbingM9
22-Jul-2005
4:50:54 PM
On 22/07/2005 alrob wrote:
>On 22/07/2005 M8iswhereitsat wrote:
>>>who did ya book through?
>>Was that a sponsored question?
>>:P
>
>how did you know i work for STA travel!!??

Ve haf our vays ofv findink aut dees tings uno ... !
8=0
Setha
22-Jul-2005
10:27:07 PM
yeah cool. I'll be there with a mate too. Perhaps we can get a bouldering posse goin and crush some holds with our brutal aussie strength!!! ;-)

$387 return is awesome! Its costing me about $600 from Adelaide...

Tel
22-Jul-2005
11:58:22 PM
On 21/07/2005 gemmaw wrote:
>And a guide is unnecessary (they're too damn expensive anyway) - just
>jump on whatever looks good. You'll be so engrossed with the place you
>won't even look at it.

hmmmmm....

Spittle hill Guide is around twenty dollars, which is reasonable, it's layout is very good and easy to use.
Rock Deluxe is expensive and goes for around fifty. It has good topos of quantum field(and some big errors), and if you are only climbing at castle hill it is a lot ot pay. Though it does provide a nice momento of the trip.

jumping on whatever looks good works fine for... oh, about a day... simply due to the amount of problems. Get the spittle guide.

cheesehead
26-Jul-2005
7:16:30 AM
um, yeah sure, I'll probably see you there
gemmaw
26-Jul-2005
10:53:36 AM
On 22/07/2005 Tel wrote:
>jumping on whatever looks good works fine for... oh, about a day... simply
>due to the amount of problems. Get the spittle guide.

I suppose it depends what you are going there for - to just experience the bouldering there without any preconceived ideas due to grades; to keep track of all your ticks and their grades; or to find specific problems and areas that have been recommended to you. The last 2, you will need a guidebook for.

We were there for a week, and for that length of time I didn't find a guidebook necessary at all. It was my first trip there and I was more interested in the moves of the problems, how they felt, the body positioning, the feel of the holds - in other words, the bouldering itself, not the grades. If you haven't climbed there before, the grades are a useless guide anyway - there are plenty of "easy' problems but if you can't mantle on slopers then they won't be so easy (ie. the climbing is really different to what most people are used to).

As I get to know the place, and hear about other excellent problems that people recommend, then yes, I'd take a guidebook so I can find specific problems and areas. The Spittle Hill Guide looked pretty good, but limiting - some of the the most amazing and memorable problems I did were in the Quantum Field.

The best guidebook I saw for Castle Hill was a ragged copy on climbing in the south island, and was bolted down in 'Bivouac' in Chch, but I think South Is. Deluxe has superseded it.

kezza
26-Jul-2005
10:54:51 AM
This is fantastic. How long are you all planning on staying?

-Kerryn-

mousey
1-Aug-2005
2:04:04 PM
personally i wouldnt bother...castle hill is way over rated anyway- theres only a few deceent problems in the whole place and theyre already slick as sheit from traffic.
take my advice, if yo uwant world class bouldering check ou tsissy (disclaimer; ive never been to sissy, so i take no responsibiilty for the actual quality)
on a side note, things down here are awesome! Jase Piper and his mate came down last w/e and we got some backcountry powder kicker action goin on, snows house this week but the superpipe has opened finally so theres lots to do. coke wild winter weekend went off! i was keen for boarderX but had to wotrk, so i just went in the tubes. also burned film in the halfpipe and big air comp (watch it on TV, im the photog in the brown jacket on the top corner of the tabletop in the finals of the big air comp. nearly got fuvcked up by a flying ski, sooo funny! then ythe tubes were sick)
anyhow thats 'nuff of an update....errr im trying to kick this web designers arse to get done but theres some communication issues, shouldnt be a whole lot longer before i have a website... www.joshcaple.com
well cheerio,
Josh Caple

Gunta Skirtpulla
1-Aug-2005
4:20:18 PM
Castle Hill must be way over rated if Sharma & crew kick around there for most of April/ early May and
Klem Loskot & crew were there in Jan/Feb. Sharma opened up NZ's hardest problem - in the V13/14
range.
Castle Hill is world class so if you can't afford the big Euro trip to hang in Font, it's the next best thing.

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There are 79 messages in this topic.

 

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