The Darrans

Where???

Most people know the land marks of Milford sounds and even hommer tunnel in NZ but few would know where the Darran Mountains are.

The Darrans mountains are a steep galaciated rock range that run from Milford sound in the west to the Hollyford in the east and have some of the most stunning and adventurous rock climbing in Australasia.

I managed to get down there last week for 4 days with my friend David to sample some of the Alpine Rock climbing on the Barrier Knob.

The access alone proved to be an adventure in it self and the climbing was stunning. The route was called Endless Summer and was on a sheer 250m cliff near the summit of Barrier Knob at about 1800m.

Fortunatally we were blessed with exceptional weather.

Confession

Forgive me it has been X days, weeks, months since my last blog.

I am determined not to become one of the 300,000,000 inactive blogs.

Last couple of months have been taken up with climbing and paragliding with a little work mixed in.

Here is a couple of photos and track logs from a flight on saturday with amazing veiws and terain in the heart of the Aspiring National Park.

Luna Eclipse

Apparently Luna eclipses only happen once every 7 years and of course they are usually obstructed by cloud.

Last night we lit a fire on the beach cooked sausages and watcht the eclipse on a perfect clear night.

Heliskiing

I fulfilled a long standing wish today by going heliskiing.
Needless to say it was awesome. here are a few photos, sorry that there arent any skiing ones. we were to busy skiing to take any.

NZ Alpine club photo comp

The NZ Alpine club have a photo comp for mountaineering, climbing, and mountain related photos. I have entered a few for a laugh. here are a couple.

How Cold is it??

So what happens to Rock Climbing crags around Wanaka when it has been really cold for a number of weeks. Lakes freeze up and cliffs turn into icicles.

We have had an extented period of very cold tempertures for a number of weeks and it has created a very uncommon oppurtunity. Ice climbing on our local rock climbing crags and skating on Diamond Lake.

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Frosty South

The last few weeks have been some of the coldest experienced in Central Otago in years and many areas have been covered in hore frost for weeks. Ophir near Alexandra (about 1 hour from wanaka) has been experiencing temps of up to minus 18 in the last week. brrrr.

Kate and i took a drive on sunday to check out the chilly but beautiful area.

A couple of photos from the drive. B & W seemed to be the obvious choice.