A blissful nights sleep. There was plenty of 'Jungle Sounds' but we were too tired to be kept awake. We got up before eight to make sure that we could climb in the main cliff before the sun hit it. Simple living - out the tent, got the stove going for breakfast on the blanket looking out to 'sea' (lake), then a short jungle trek over to some great climbing.
The climbs were high above the deep blue waters of Lake Taupo. The rock was great quality rhyolite again and the first route we did was two pitches long and considered to be the best climb of its grade in New Zealand.
We'd intended to return to camp for lunch, but it was gone 3pm by the time we got back as the climbing was so fantastic and I ended up on a route that was pretty tricky!
Although we were famished, we were also filthy from the sweat, dust and ropes so had a swim and clean up before cooking more noodles on the beach. Today there are quite a few boats moored up and some noisy jet-skis which disturbed the tranquil settings, but we still managed to drop off for another nap after lunch!
I awoke with a start at 5.30 and literally crawled down into the water for a wake up! Still psyched for more climbs, we went upto 'The Bluffs' area and did a few more great single pitch routes.
Our supplies are running low now, so we had to ration our food and water at dinner time. It's all been portioned out nicely and tomorrow we intend to hike back to Kinloch. We had only intended to stay one night here, but it's so good, we've eeked out our food to last an extra day - and it's been more than worth it. Climbing dawn till dusk - nine climbs (all superb) and two swims in a remote tropical setting - All in all you could barely imagine a better day's climbing and exactly the kind of thing that we wanted to be doing with our time here.
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