The Airstrip

We were able to meet up with Waikato Region local Bevan Jenkins who came out of his office midday to give us the lowdown on the region. (Thank you Bevan!) We were destined for "The Airstrip" bouldering area which is situated on the Stubbs' farm near the Waitomo Caves. A unique point about bouldering on the north island is that most of it is on farmland under private ownership so permission must be obtained.
After contacting the owner, we arrived in time to find him elbow deep in lamb guts after having to slaughter the 6 month old due to a broken leg. A special occasion for a poor farmer, a special occasion for three grocery shoppers.
After a long walk around the property, we set out for a short evening bouldering session. In order to reach the climbs we had to carefully meander our way through adolescent bulls and sheep.
We arrived with the setting sun on the rock, perfect grassy landings, and smeary open-handed climbs. Unfortunately only the most classic problems of the area were over 10 feet tall but each one was well worth it.
"Wazzup" V8


That evening we parked our little red van on a hill overlooking the hilly region. As sheep filled in around us we nested in for a good nights sleep.
The next morning we visited Grot View Cave which is a large overhanging limestone roof with many fun climbs on it. I was able to peace out the classic thirteen move V7 "Franks Route" first try which left an entire day for falling off smeary sloping problems!


I continued my climbing day solo while Kyle and Ava ventured through yet another patch of sheep (which Ava happily chased away) towards a wetter part of the property.




We plan to head back to the region soon to check out the glow worm caves ad I suspect we'll probably be doing some more climbing while we're there!