On Thursday morning myself and a couple of friends, Sam and Steve, left Dunedin for the Darrans. We drove through drizzle most of the way but had the weather forecast on our side, and the sky became clearer as we neared our destination. We began our adventure with a possibly illegal walk through, and then climb on, the Homer Tunnel on Thursday night.

On Friday we headed up to the base of Moir’s Mate via its intimidating North ridge, which has seen many parties turn back, and even the occasional death. Friday afternoon saw Steve and I climbing Lucky Strike, a fully bolted (more or less) multi-pitch climb with great moves on great rock.

After spending Friday night right at the base of our main objective, we spent Saturday ambling up the Bowen-Allan Corner. This was a truly memorable climb - very adventurous, including stiff (for the grade) and wildy varying styles of climbing. Some pitches involved thin, technical climbing with intimidating run-outs, whereas the higher pitches contained amazing corner and crack climbing with loads of gear. Regardless, the entire climb was on incredible rock, with awe-inspiring views ever present in the background. So good, so much fun.

And that was my last trip in New Zealand. I’m off to Australia for the rest of 2013, and then (I think) off to the UK for work. I’ll miss this place and all of my friends here, and I hope that I can come back some time in the future.