Coming to a close??

The days are warm and longer. I can hardly believe that my time in New Zealand is almost complete. Sometimes I have this aching feeling to get back home, back to "normal" life. I doubt though that my life will ever be normal again. I think New Zealand has changed me in many ways! However, more reflection is needed before I divulge. Although there is a desire to return home, it is not because of negatives -- things that turn me off from this culture and place. I honestly do believe that I could live here! Four and a half months is hardly enough time to see everything here and appreciate this place. I think it is humorous that those words are coming from my mouth.

What am I doing now that classes are out? Yes, I have been out of classes for about two weeks now. There is much to study before my finals but Davidson has taught me well how to study efficiently in a few days before finals. This past weekend, I was lucky enough to find a ride to visit the Catlins, the southmost part of New Zealand. I have never seen sea lions in person and found myself stumbling upon them! It was good to do something other than climbing but I realized that I like actually experiencing a place when I visit instead of simply seeing it (i.e. a tourist).

Now I am back to my studies. I still have several days before the first final and afterwards plan for a wee road trip with some other kiwis for my last 10 days in New Zealand. That means more climbing and more reflecting. Everyday I am discovering something here, whether about myself (what I want to do with my life!) or about New Zealand and the culture. I shall enjoy these final days and am very glad for this opportunity to be here.

Bloodshed On the Remarks

It has been awhile since I have posted! This, I would like to say, has mainly been the result of school. The semester is already drawing to an end. I have turned in all my assignments for my classes and only have three finals a month away. I have not been doing much climbing on the weekends, which has been good and bad. I sometimes (more often than not) feel guilty for not traveling more and seeing more of the country. It does become tiring but I know that I will regret it if I do not take advantage of my time here. Unfortunately, this depressing me! I feel as though I am not seeing enough of the country. The good is that I have been able to hang out with people. I have made such good friends here, and I will be sad to say goodbye to them (they are already trying to get me to stay longer). Honestly, I have thought about staying...

Anyway, other than being busy with classes, hanging out with people, and the occasional climbing at Long Beach, things have been a little low key (which is good because I don't have an endless supply of money). I got another chance to go up to the Remarkables (know as the Remarks) this sunday to get revenge on a route that I was shut down on just two weeks before. It is spring here and with each day becoming warmer but with some freak low temps, there was opportunity for some good ice. I was willing to make one more final trip to Queenstown, hoping to get on "Friday's Fool", a mixed route (that means climbing rock and ice often at the same time).

The weather was beautiful: clear blue skies with a slight breeze. The fellow I met in Queenstown, James, and his friend, Rupert, and I were all stoked for some perfect climbing conditions. After making the 45 minute, exposed traverse to the bottom the route, already 1800 meters up the remarkables (one can take the chair lift from the ski field to the base of the West Face on the remarks), we finally reach the bottom of the route. We rock-paper-scissored for who would get the first lead. I won but there was confusion if winning meant getting lead (as if i wasn't obvious), so we played again and James won. There is no way to really know what caused the following events and if, say, I had won, if the following accident would have happened to me. After climbing approximately 25 feet, James was getting nervous and rightfully so. The ice was not that good. It was pale and brittle, the signs of ice being expose to too much sunlight and flash freezing over the night. Fortunately, there was good gear in the rock but the narrow strip of ice, which was dead vertical, was precarious. James, seemingly already shutting down his climbing mind and confidence, then strikes this convex, football-sized ice block, which breaks off hitting him in the face. Stuff like this happens all time. I think on every route I have climbed that has ice on it, I have at least once been hit by falling ice -- usually due to me pulling off as I climb. So no big deal. However, I immediately saw blood dripping from James. The block had removed a good quarter inch of his upper lip. Well that was obviously the end of the day! Ru lowered him, while I was frustrated with myself for forgetting my med kit (that I always carry with me). I then soloed up, following and smelling the blood, to retrieve our gear and while down climbing loosed a refrigerator-sized ice block, fortunately not taking it with me down its 1000 m+ fall. James, to say the least, needed stitches. Ru and I got him back to the ski resort and we went our own ways -- me catching the 3:00 bus back to dunedin.

It will most likely be the last time I will be on the remarks. The days are becoming too warm and I think the ice, if it can last, will be like it was this past sunday. So there ends my ice climbing/mixed climbing days in New Zealand.