One of New Zealands most climbed routes?: The Remarkables Grand Traverse

First crux pitch on the traverse, with Queenstown in back ground

Before even setting foot on New Zealand soil, through Internet research, I had selected three climbs that I wanted to climb whilst travelling. They stood out with the WOW factor in the limited online library section surrounding climbing and mountaineering in NZ.

They were; The Remarkables Traverse, Mt Aspiring and Mt Cook, and this past weekend we climbed our first one.

My first desire was to climb the ridge in winter, when its transformed into a glorious alpine adventure according to the guide book, but without a car during winter the fates never aligned and summer arrived with still the urge to tick the route off. So with a mixed weekend of thunderstorms and a sunny day, we decided it was a perfect opportunity to relax, watch the new hobbit film and complete our first of the three routes.

The route follows the skyline, with the Grand Couloir splitting Single and Double Cone summits

Walking up past the ski resort we were familiar with was surreal, without the snow and tourists it was just us and the scarred landscape. Ascending on to the approach ridge the light summer wind from the south was bitingly cold, even with thin gloves and a hat on we were zipped up tight in our jackets and for a moment I thought it was going to be a thick gloves on climbing experience. But as soon as we got to the bottom of the ridge the wind had dropped off and after kitting up with the fantastic view down to Queenstown, we were ready to tackle the ridge proper.

Despite leaving the guide book at home, we were determined to stay 'on route', but beside the crampon marks and vague memory of the route description, we didn't have much of an idea as to where the route 'went'. After 30 minutes, switching sides of the ridge twice and a ledge system that ended in non protect able terrain, we figured that most ways are the right way, but not all the ways were the best way.

We soon got to the point that I remembered as the 'crux' or hardest part of the route, a right facing corner with a 2000 metre drop below. Neither the build up from the guidebook or the climbing triggered the exposure in my mind, I happily enjoyed the situation, until on the next pitch my boots didn't seem to grip the foot ledge as I matched my feet to step across onto easier ground. All of a sudden, the now 2020 metres, was reaching up and playing games in my mind, but after some strong words to myself and a mental video of me falling on to the cam at my feet, I got through it and belayed Lucy up, who didn't even stop to think about the move...

Standard type of terrain

Back to scrambling, we reached the first summit and a view to the end goal, Single Cone.

Abseil followed by, a pitch, some more scrambling, some down climbing and another abseil, the situation was great, a very alpine adventure, but the rock on the other hand: on the whole it was solid, but there was an abundance of loose rock on the ledges, stacked up in cracks and filling the gullies, we had to test most handholds to make sure they were solid and not come off in our hands. This made for a more tentative approach and made some of the more easier bits, mentally harder.

We decided to pitch the snow traverse of the Grand Couloir as it was a warm day and the snow was the consistency of porridge. After that the rock seemed to change, from a teetering pile of rubble to a compact slab of joy. We took advantage of the the pleasant climbing and shot to the summit in a blur of semi-climbing.

Grand Couloir and Single Cone behind

Sat on top of familiar ground, we took a moment to enjoy our position, 2320 metres above sea level, the whole mountain to ourselves and a clear blue sky. There were many reasons I wanted to travel to New Zealand, but this is what I will remember, the spaces to create adventure.

View back long the ridge and down to the lake

Knowing the terrain and the easy descent, meant we were binging out on food in Queenstown not long after topping out. Due to the access from the ski field, this is an easily accessible classic kiwi adventure, which happened to be the exact words that drew my attention on the Internet in the first place. Even though the list of adventures in NZ is ever growing, the excitement from the traverse has turned our thoughts to the other two original goals and hopefully some planning.

A Classic short New Zealand road trip

A lot of travelling folks we've crossed paths with seem to have done, are in the process of or are planning a road trip of some kind. We've heard tales of Australian desert crossing, trans American expeditions and even spoke to a guy motorbiking solo around the world with his snowboard. To be honest, although we have done longer drives back home, the road trip idea never really appealed. So much so, that we were quite content with catching the buses, until, all the factors fell in place for us to be driving a cheap rental from Queenstown to Christchurch.

The dollar a day rental

The 400ish kilometre drive, comes down to around 6 hours driving, but we had the car for two days, so why drive straight there? A quick google search and a bookme.com browse, gave us a rough plan of stopping off at the Lake Tekapo hot pools, sleeping in the car and swimming with some dolphins in Akaroa Harbour. This made the trip a bit longer and technically we drove past Christchurch to get to Akaroa, but that's what makes up a road trip.... isn't it?

When we got to our first stop in Frankton, 10k from Queenstown and somewhere we had walked to and from before, we had taken a liking to driving again. Even with our left foot dancing away, looking for a clutch in the automatic 4x4, we had hardly noticed the month and a half without driving and settled in quickly. Passing Cromwell's gaint fruit and turning on to state highway 8, we were into new territories and ready to crunch some miles.

Road tripping in the UK, has always felt like a motorway fly by or stuck behind a slow lorry, awaiting your inevitable time to over take. But not over here, it's different, its quieter, the roads are straighter, wider and all along that highway there seemed to be an open space on each side of the road. There were no drystone walls barricading the traffic in, no trees hiding the views, just open country and mountain back drops.

Lake and mountain back drop

Roughly half way between Queenstown and Christchurch, is Lake Tekapo hot pools and a perfect stop off. Three open air pools shaped to the different lakes near by, at 36, 38 and 40 degrees, makes it easy to relax, and after an hour and some tasty fries we were ready for part two.

40°C pool

Chilling

Crunching down the miles, the landscape changed from upland rolling hills with snow capped mountains, to rolling green hills, to the Canterbury plains and finally in the dark the sea. As we turned up and joined two campervans in the picnic area, the moon broke out and turned our already speical area into an amazing lake side stop over spot. Once the engine was off, all we could think of, was getting our heads down, so we were quick to sort our stuff out and turn out the lights, however once the lights were out the full force of the moon seemed to make its way through all the windows, giving us a 360° night light for most of the night.

Unfortunately we were awoken early by the hard pitter, patter of rain and the car rocking from the wind, and we both knew there was little chance of swimming with dolphins that day. After driving in to Akaroa and chatting with the lovely people at black cat cruises, our thoughts were confirmed, as it was super rough and the dolphins were off doing there own dolphin things, the swim was cancelled. After debating how wet we wanted to get in the rain, we settled on the tourist summit drive and a pop down to one of the bank peninsula bays. After some snow, some cold looking sheep and some sea, we were driving back towards Christchurch and into sunshine.

On the summit road

In a bay

Fairly cold

Akaroa Harbour

Sea side!

Getting into and settled in Christchurch was easy with the big grid road systems and the plentiful accommodation options. We hadn't heard much about Christchurch, apart from the earthquake, and the first thing we noticed was the emptiness of the city centre. There seemed to be loads of empty building lots which had been clearing of rubble and covered with hardcore. After a couple of hours wandering, we were left with the feeling that we had already, came, seen and done Christchurch, but this was only a tired, early evening first impression, which changed half way through the first morning.

Christchurch people must be huge!

So a classic short, road trip from Queenstown to Christchurch via Akaroa, and one leaving us with a lasting urge to buy a car of our own.

Last days of winter, day trips and learning something new

The last few weeks have passed merrily by as the seasons slowly change from cold southerly winds to warm, sunny days. Just as the snow couldn't handle any more sun a cold snap came a long, with some much needed snow we managed to time it with some snowboarding lessons. To try and bring in some more people up to the empty resorts NZSki put on a fantastic offer of three 2 hour lessons, hire and lift pass for two days for $150. With an offer like that we couldn't refuse and fitting it in with the best snow conditions for the past couple of weeks was a bonus.
 The snow schools were fantastic at the Remarklables and Coronet Peak and after the two days of lessons we were full of motivation and excitement for this new sport.

Bus up to the last night skiing

Unfortunately after our snowboarding days, the weather decided to warm back up and we decided that we were going to save our money and not buy anymore bus trips up the mountain. So all of our excitement and energy to progress in snowboarding will have to be bottled up and saved for the next winter we see.

View of Remarkable from near Fernhill

It may technically be spring, but the water is still baltic

To fill our time of not going skiing, we've turned to the tourist side of the area and have had a few day trips to different places. Our first trip was a free bus to Cromwell, as a couple who had tickets weren't going to use them and gave them to us. Having given us a plausible reason why they weren't going any more, we happily took the free trip however, after visiting Cromwell we came to the conclusion that they found out there's not much to do there and decided to play a cruel joke on us and give the tickets to us. The best way to describe Cromwell is to compare it with Ripley or Lacock, in which it has a mildly entertaining old town tourist attraction and some nice coffee shops.... It's not all dull and bad though, we were told that it has some world famous winery's out of town and a awesome gold mining museum even further out of town. At least we came, we saw and we know better than to accept tickets off partial strangers.

Standing under some giant fruit in Cromwell

Cromwell orchard

Coffee

Our second trip was to the old gold mining town of Arrowtown, just outside Queenstown. As well as having two film locations for The Lord Of The Rings, Arrowtown has an old school wild west main street and all the gold you can find in the river. Having read in the news paper the week before that some lucky chap found a gold nugget worth $1800, we decided that if we could score a nugget or two then we wouldn't have to work for the rest of the trip...maybe. Having watched a couple of YouTube videos on how to pan and asking the locals for the 'best' spots, we hired some pans and set off to find our fortunes. After an hour to two of digging, panning, digging, panning and cold feet, we came to the conclusion that our fortune wasn't here or, if it was, it was real good at hiding.

Panning for gold

A little more panning

Wild west Arrowtown

With spring coming along and summer not to fair away, we've been busy planning where and what to do and so far have some loose, rough ideas of our near future. We have less than a week left in Queenstown, followed by a trip north, some volunteering at an outdoor centre and the 'Greatest' walk in the world, which is also known as the Milford Track. Hopefully after all of that, some of the snow would have gone and we can have a go at tackling some more hills and climbs. Lots to look forward to.

Queenstown gardens

Putting the Frisbee

Best Frisbee throwing, one legged, flamingo impression in Queenstown...
At least in went in

Even the statues party round here