Cars, camping and climbing - a trip up Mt Turiwhate

Hoping to make the most of the day light, we were up early and on the road before 8. However, we were stopped in our tracks half way between Murchison and Reefton when my car – Sylvia – decided she had had enough.

What started out as the windscreen not defogging quickly turned into the realization the car was overheating. We found a hole in the coolant tube and without a new tube or coolant we were stuck.

Luckily for us a dairy farmer – Luke – picked us up and let us use his landline to call the AA. After a cup of tea and short stint waiting with the cows we were in a tow truck with Sylvia safely strapped to the back.

We are heading to a crag out behind Kumara Junction, up Mt Turiwhate. It was developed by Te Tai Poutini quite recently and features rock that migrated up from the Darrens. It is alpine-style climbing with Polytech-approved bolting.

After a quick pit stop in Murchison to swap into Felix's car and get breakfast from Lee at Tutaki (best pie shop in the country) we were back on the road.

By the time we started walking, almost 5 hours after originally planned, I was definitely starting to feel a bit tired. The good news was I only had to walk 8km with 900m of elevation gain. Easy, right?

Nope. There was mud. Lots of mud. But with my trusty Aarn Pack, the power of jellybeans and desire to crawl into my sleeping bag we made it up the hill in time to watch the sun set over Hokitika. Phenomenal.

Once the sun hit us the next morning we pulled ourselves out of our cozy sleeping bags, scoffed down some oats, and headed to the crag.

The climbing was fantastic. Sharp, mostly clean rock with some unbelievable scenery. The drop-off to the valley below made it feel like we were much higher than the 30m of our pitch.

We were a little concerned about the sharpness of the rock, and were quite careful with our rope management and had no issues.

We had planned to stay a second night but 20 minutes of torrential rain and hail made us reconsider. It was that kind of ‘death-from-the-skies’ type of weather that makes the Coast so enchanting.

The prospect of wet sleeping bags had us tucking our tails between our legs and skedaddling back down the hill.

Distance: 16k

Packs of jellybeans: 1

Climbs: 6

Broccoli consumed: 1

Elevation change: 1800m

Mud: Lots

Comments

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