Our last full day in New Zealand! Having camped up in the mountains near Castle Hill, it was only a short drive in the morning to the next port of call on our climbing tour - Flock Hill. The pesky Sandflies made sure that it didn't take long to pack up camp and get out of the shady forest. On arrival at the limestone Boulder fields of Flock Hill, we started the day by taking a walk down to a cave entrance. There were some 'safety' signs up that pretty much seemed to be encouraging anyone to grab a torch and make the through trip! We decided that we didn't much fancy half an hour of wading through cold waist deep water in the dark, so went climbing instead.
After a bit of pleasant bouldering in the cool of the morning, the heat of the sun suddenly turned itself up a few notches. Before it got too blistering, we got the ropes out and climbed a boulder called the pyramid. Technically it could be described as a boulder, but it was certainly big enough to warrant the use of a rope for some security!
It was a cool little peak to finish our New Zealand climbing adventures on top of! After a bit of puzzling over the question of how to get back down, we descended safely, then packed up and headed to Christchuch.
On the drive down from Castle Hill, we had a brief lunch by Lake Porter and donated some of the 'stuff' that we'd accumulated during our travels, to an appreciative lady in a cool old camper.
Further down the hill we stopped for celebratory coffee and carrot cake at a town called Springfield, where a giant donut celebrates its twinning with The Simpson's home town.
We'd managed to book into one of the last available rooms in Christchurch and counted ourselves lucky again. The headlines in the paper declared today the busiest day in Christchurch in eight years with hotels all at bursting point! Apart from the cricket world cup and the Chinese New Year, the Foo Fighters also happened to be playing a sell out gig in town! Thankfully, we checked into our little haven and spent the following hour or so packing our bags ready for tomorrow's 4.30am start to Fiji.
Once the bags were sorted, we drove into town to see if we could sell some of our excess equipment to climbers at the Christchurch indoor climbing wall. We had a bit of interest and managed to sell the (too heavy to carry around the States) New Zealand climbing guide, and would have sold the tent for a healthy profit, had a young instructor not had his wallet stolen last night! We decided to pass on some good luck to him and donated it to him anyway. It had served us well and hopefully will continue to get some use. While we were at the climbing wall, we realised we were very close to the crazy 'futuristic' café from the other day, so popped in for a quick drink, before grabbing a 'Velet Burger' with the cash from our sales.
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