Dreamtime Images Blog

Last time I was in NZ, about 6 years ago, I cruised with my friend Andrew to this place called Twin Stream. It's an amazing glacial valley high above the road to Mt. Cook. The guidebook said a 2 hour hike in from the trailhead and the weatherman said to expect sun. No...

After we finished our sea kayaking trip, we headed toward Castle Hill, which is basically one of the world's bouldering hotspots. The weather was perfect -- the sun, miraculously, seems to be chasing us -- so we climbed there for 5 days. The rocks are bizarre...

Just got back from our kayaking adventure through Abel Tasman National Park, which was a blast. It was a three-day trip that started on one end of the park and ended with a pick-up half way through it. We got worked by big swells and sand flies, but we also had some...

So we're a day into a three day kayak trip around Abel Tasman National Park, in the northern South Island. Taking a lunch break and I wanted to see if I could update the blog... Seems like it works. Anyway, we're being eaten alive by sand flies, so if anyone can read...

Had a bit of a mission today. First we had the obligatory climbing session at Paynes, then we took an afternoon off and went to Wharariki Beach, which is about an hour northwest. It's accessible by a long, circuitous dirt road, then a hike along a path winding through...

Takaka, tiny, two-block Takaka, threw a pretty wicked Mardi Gras -- even if the parade consisted of 15 people. But at least the crowd was huge! Yesterday was a super productive day of climbing -- Alicia lead a few lines and continued to get used to being on the sharp...

Ahh, just arrived at Paynes Ford, the coolest place to climb in all of New Zealand. It's in Golden Bay, in the northern tip of the South Island, in the Takaka River Valley. Paynes Ford is a band of limestone cliffs flanked by a huge river with lots of swimming holes....

Arrived two days ago at 11:00 a.m., and by 4:00, I'd scored a sweet camper van and a spare bed at my friend Ziggy's place for a few nights. Yesterday I equipped the van, got a cell phone, hooked it up to my email account, went grocery shopping and picked up Alicia at...

So we just cruised out to Joshua Tree for a final few days of climbing before the trip to New Zealand, and it was COLD. Like, so cold that our mugs froze to the picnic tables in the campground. So cold that we took a bottle of water out of the car and actually WATCHED...