We spent 2 and 1/2 days and 2 nights camping in Castle Hill, one of the most outlandish "moonscapes" I've been in. As a climber/adventure junkie, I fell in love with the place. Here's a brief rundown of our stay there:
Monday: arrived from Christchurch in the afternoon, wandering in awe of the over 20,000 enormous limestone boulderings (torrs as they're called), some of which are larger than freestanding 18 story buildings!
Tuesday: climbed and bouldered for a while, enjoying the heat of the day. Set up an ENORMOUS single-rope rappel, probably over 140 feet off a freestanding boulder. Went to this long (over an hour without the light of day), narrow, freezing cold, deep underground cave that we walked upstream, sometimes chest deep with our headlamps. Way cool, literally. Set up a big rock climb at night under the stars...it had this tricky frog-move crux to get off the ground and this commiting dyno jump to reach the top...a blast!
Wednesday: drove/hiked to the top of a big boulder to watch the moonset and the sunrise with Kate. Picked up Kat and Audra at the campsite, and drove out early to a full dayhike at Arthur's Pass. Yay!
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