After I did a life-changing summer rock course 2008, I discover that I am such a potential talented rock climber. I wish I had started climbing 20 years ago. I believe that if I had I would be as good as Chris Shama, or even better. I went from knowing pretty much nothing about climbing to being a confident grade 15-16 beater in few weeks. This is huge improvement, isn’t it? I joined the NZAC right after the course finished, hoping to meet some even more talented climbers, go for some exciting trips, such as this one – a climbing trip to Kawakawa Bay, hoping I still have a slim chance for being another Chris, getting discount for entering climbing gyms to fulfill my dream, and a free subscription of Climber magazines (yeah…). There are 6 people in this trip: James Wright (the Club committee, trip leader), Kevin Patterson (the Club committee, experienced climber), Catherine Moger (the Club administrator, experienced climber), Shichang Hou (club member, a newbie but has potential), Marcus Manning (2008 Summer Rock course instructor), Steve Minchin (club member, confident climber, climbs without belay device). After a few weeks eagerly waiting, at the weekend of 10th May 2008, we met at Wellington Railway Station – the place where I found people in the club like to meet for climbing trips. I am always wondering if the staff at the Station notice we are using their place and will eventually blame or even charge us for using their resources. Four people bring their own ropes which means there is no shortage of rope. Steve has the biggest and heaviest pack but he didn’t have a belay device, so we were one belay device short. I was wondering if this has happened before in the club trips. Kevin kindly offered his Odyssey - seats 7 with roof pod, nice and comfy, perfectly fits 6 people. We were like a bunch of happy bees and headed to our destination, despite the uncertainty of bad weather. After a few good hours driving and had a nice kebab meal at arguably the best kebab restaurant in the country, we arrived at camp site by Lake Taupo. It started raining but for some reason it didn’t upset us. The rain stopped in the next morning, but there was still no sun. We took a water taxi to this small but nice Kawakawa Bay Bay camp site. On the way James pointed out a place where people can do water solo. “Water Solo”, what a cool term, I had never heard this before, after I understood what it means I started to imagine myself coming here in summer and doing it. Kawakawa Bay, is located on the northern shores of Lake Taupo, in the bays west of Kinloch. It offers an array of both sport and traditional climbing routes on the Crack walls, the Bluff and the Point overlooking the beautiful Kawakawa Bay. Once we landed on the bay we didn’t waste our time by quickly set up our tents and started to search for rocks. First we came to the Crack Walls. When I was about to jump on the rocks James said the rocks were still wet and there would be little friction between shoes and rocks, hence it was dangerous. True, true, I felt I just learned a thing. See, you always can learn something from experienced climbers. We kept walking and were heading to the Point to see if we could find some dry rocks. The rocks were slightly drier than those of the Crack Walls. The sun still hadn’t come out and it was already afternoon. We decided not to wait and chose a few routes that were dry enough to climb. Mellow Yellow (15), a 2 pitches climbing, Kevin lead it. This was a starter for me and Kevin. After that I did Raw Umber (15) with Marcus (lead) and Steve, to testify my absolute Grade 15 skills. My main course is Human Intervention (18, James lead it). I climbed after Marcus and Catherine. It was not horribly difficult for me so I feel quite happy that I finished it and had a grade 18 under my belt. It was my first attempt on grade 18 outdoor. Kevin and Steve were having fun on High Hopes (16) which is right next to Human Intervention. I constantly checked out what they were up to and share their happy climbing while I was in the middle of climbing. I was thinking High Hopes could be my dessert but it was getting dark. We didn’t think walking on the same track in dark would be as fun. So we called it a day. By the way, we had sunset on the way back. Kawakawa bay and the lake are terribly beautiful with sunset, we stop for a few times just to enjoy the gorgeous view which serves us well after climbing. At dinner time James lit up a nice fire to keep us warm. Everyone sat around the fire and made their own dinner. I only had some cans of chicken and sardine fish. I ate them with wraps. It wasn’t too bad at first, until I saw James was cooking his steak, frying pok choi with garlic, soy sauce, and all that stuff, on his fancy and powerful cookers; it looks like he brought an entire kitchen. Kevin had his expensive gourmet camp food that I had never seen before. Steven drank at least 4 liters of soup. He started making food and eating before everyone else, and he still keep eating after everyone finished. At the end he had another liter of hot milo. No wonder he had the heaviest and biggest pack, got not place for a belay device. We were all happy about the sun finally came out the next morning. We quickly finished our breakfast (by the way, I had my sardine fish wrap again) and came to the Crack wall. The rocks were nice and dry. Marcus, Steve and Catherine started with Rohans Little Sister(16) while James and me were doing the Gecko Groove(16, a classic trad. climbing route in Kawakawa Bay). Everyone looked fit and was in a good climbing mood. I guess everyone had a good night sleep, or simply because we had the sun. Then I climbed the Little Sister and finished with textbook-style which made me feel even better. I really like the rock has very nice friction and find I can grip the rock nicely - even on holds that are mono and small. Soon we started to tackle slightly more difficult routes. Marcus lead climbing on the Great Sco