Words and pictures Stacey Wong With November leaving unfinished projects and scores to settle, our Wellington team promptly rebooked their tickets back to seek redemption at Paine’s Ford. Unfortunately Cyclone Gita had other plans. Not wanting to deal with the dawn convoy going over Takaka Hill, our team decided to head West. South West. All the way to Bullock Creek in Punakaiki. After all, it was Scarlett’s last trip with us and the West Coast was the missing piece of her NZ adventure. Geared up and ready to climb; what we weren’t ready for was some classic West Coast Bush Bashing. With the previous storm washing out parts of the road obscuring the obvious entries to the crag, we entered through what we could have sworn was an entry path and we found ourselves bashing through the 3 metre high dense flax fields with Eric boldly going where clearly no man had gone before, throwing himself down in the flax in the effort to find/create the path that we were so adamant was there. With the spirit of adventure and determination to climb some rock we managed to find a crag, although it took us a few hours to actually figure out what crag that was. Marie and Stacey, running on enthusiasm and flu medication, eyed up a beautiful layback “16” on some classic stacked limestone. With extreme effort and great determination they managed to switch out leads enough times amongst themselves to get 4 clips up before admitting defeat. But who can save these lost draws?!? Eric’s ears burned as he heard the pleas of these lost draws. Our knight in chalky armour danced up the rock making one more clip before admitting defeat and confirming our suspicions that this was not a 16. Closer to a 25. Whoops. RIP bail biner. Being at an unfamiliar crag, we spent much of (see: most of) our first day just trying to get our bearings. The remainder of the day was spent drinking cups of tea and having chats. But that same ol’ spirit of adventure prevailed and a brave few embarked on a 5-pitch multi-pitch at The Arboretum and gave the rest of the team a show. And alas, at the end of pitch 4; Eric spied a proper access path, through a dried out river, which was much better than the flax bashing, post apocalyptic jungle we had come in through, our walk out time got slashed by a huge percentage and to the great delight of our tired climbers, we found markers! And yeah, a very straight forward access route. Marie and Stacey battling through the flax Bullock Creek from the road Day 2 fared better for the team, heading to Weka Wall in Punakaiki to crank out some moderate level quantity knocking out the entire crag before lunch. This crag proved to be the perfect wee crag for our team of mixed grade climbers with everyone tying into the sharp end for at least a couple of leads. But the best part had to be the three star, sorry…three metre access route from bumper to bolt. Then back to Bullock Creek to tackle the multi-pitches at Two Towers, whilst some would call what we did as gardening, we thoroughly enjoyed the laybacking, crimping, pulling, jamming, and chimneying on Bullocks finest, dustiest offerings. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the phrase “The tree is in” so many times, nor have I ever been so thankful for a well placed mid-route tree on a climb for when you’ve run out of handholds. And special mention has to go to our wee birdy friends, the wildlife was stunning and the climbers and hikers must be scarce as we had many curious robins and wekas coming to see what these weird humans were doing. The chaos that was Bullock Creek made for some very interesting rappels straight into the bushes and the fun game of: Try avoid the stinging nettles! Whether it be whilst belaying, walking, falling, climbing, or rappelling. It was a trip of many firsts for some people in our team. First multi-pitch, first rappel, first trad melt down, first time climbing a tree mid route, and plenty of pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones and just having a great time outdoors with a great group of people. So it all added up to a really great adventure and we all left grinning from ear to ear, exhausted but ecstatic, and vowing to come back for another crack at the crag. We had perfect weather, perfect sunsets, and Jenny was ecstatic that the sandfly count was “O for Owesomely” low. Staying at Punakaiki beach camp was a real treat, the beach was a mere 20 metres away from our tents, and we had hot water and a full kitchen for a cheap as chips price. It’s no Paine’s Ford, but it really is something special in itself, I know I’ll definitely be back. Above - Marie and Matt at Weka Wall Below - Matt, Scarlett, and Jenny climbing at Weka Wall Eric rescuing our gear on the 25 that was not a 16
