KINLOCH – K1 Crag
Day Two of the ACYDC Camp focused on the great outdoors with a full day of rock climbing in Kinloch which is about an hours drive from our basecamp in Turangi.
Kinloch is on the shores of the Whangamata Bay on the Northern side of Lake Taupo. There are four crags in Kinloch and we were climbing at K1 which is located in Kinloch itself (on the eastern bay) – it’s location is perfect for a group like ours as parking was freely available and the walk to the crag itself is very short (there was even a relatively fancy port a loo – which from what I was told is an upgrade from the previous long drop facilities).
Being a large group we had a crew go in earlier in the morning and set up the ropes for us, (handy huh!) Incidentally one of those guides was Travis, who we’d met when we climbed at Raglan, he’d mentioned he would be there, so it was nice to see a familiar and smiling face!
And speaking of familiar and smiling faces – a friend of mine who I “met” through an online parenting portal bought her kids to Kinloch to climb with us AND apparently I’d never met her in real life! I honestly had no idea, it seems like I’ve known her forever (and technicially I have known her for longer than both of my kids and two of her three have been on this earth!) Isn’t it random how you can feel like you know someone but don’t actually “know” them?!?!
But I digress, let me tell you abou the Crag where I met my friend for the very first time –
It’s pretty cool! It’s kind of split in two – although the right hand side is out in the open (oh glorious sun), the left hand side is tucked in the bush – which is actually quite nice when you are climbing as your brain doesn’t get fried.
James and I climbed 6-7 walls during our day at the crag – Issy climbed all of the walls that had a top rope on them and because the walls the other kids were leading looked “scary” we pulled down a rope on one of the lower graded walls so she could lead climb on that (we set the top rope back up once she’d topped the route).
All in all – it was a brilliant day climbing on real rock. I think this could be my fave outdoor climbing area to date. The highlight? Perhaps the possum freaking Issy out on “Summer at the Beach” – yep a very real (and apparently beady eyed) possum!
Till next time