Friday, April 30, 2010

last installment of overseas photos

we made it home in one piece, now busy unpacking and dealing with stuff we haven't had to think about for a year.

just posted the last installment of photos from australia, pretty much all climbing photos. they're in the usual place:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robin.h.liu

Thursday, April 29, 2010

final days...

i guess it's been a while since the last post. we're in the brisbane airport right now, awaiting our flight to SFO via auckland, last leg of our trip. we'll have a month in the US before i go back to work, planning on a week climbing in the valley and a roadtrip to montana/seattle/portland to visit erick's family and some friends.

quick recap, from melbourne we headed up to canberra. spent a couple days climbing on ACT granite, very tuolumne like with lots of slab and also nice cracks. had some fun bushwhacking, it took 2 hours of bushwhacking to get to the start of one climb.

from there we headed to the coast and climbed a day at point perpendicular. unfortunately we timed it poorly and the weapons range was closed the first day we were there. spent that day bushwhacking and found some really dirty climbs we didn't want to get on. had a good day at point perpendicular though.

then headed into sydney to visit some cousins i'd never met before, then up the coast to corindi beach to visit a friend we met traveling in jordan and egypt at the end of last year.

from there, headed to frog buttress, renowned in australia for it's crack climbing. we had the whole place to ourselves for 3 days and got on some really great climbs. definitely worth a trip back there one day.

which brings us to the end of our international portion of our trip, hard to believe that we've been traveling out of the country for 11 months.

Friday, April 16, 2010

arapiles climbing

we just came back from our first taste of australian climbing. we decided to head to mount arapiles, about four hours northeast of melbourne, probably the most famous climbing area in australia. we lucked out with weather and had 3 great days, two bright and sunny, one a little cloudy. the climbing there took a little getting used to, everything is near vertical, even on very easy climbs. we climbed a grade 9 (equivalent to YDS 5.4) which is the steepest 5.4 we've ever seen.

we got in 3 good days of climbing, did a few of the classic routes but way too many routes there, you could easily spend months there and not make much of a dent in the book.

we drove through the grampians on the way back to melbourne today, just to check it out. rock and scenery look nice, next time we come down here we'll have to check out the climbing there.

next up, we slowly head up to brisbane starting tomorrow. we'll stop and climb a few places, tentatively ACT granite, point perpendicular, and frog buttress, as well as visit relatives in sydney and a friend we met traveling in the middle east on the coast.

climbing pictures from arapiles posted in the usual place:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robin.h.liu

Sunday, April 11, 2010

melbourne and tasmania

we've enjoyed our first week and a half in australia, visiting relatives in melbourne, eating lots and lots of good food, and sleeping in a bed.

the trip to tasmania with my parents was good and relaxing. we went to cradle mountain national park and then spent a few days on the east coast, visiting freycinet national park, tasman national park, and port arthur. one day erick and i hike out to the totem pole (probably the most famous climb in australia, at least the most picturesque) and saw a group of coloradans preparing to climb it with a cameraman in tow. didn't recognize them though...

next up, we'll head to mt. arapalise for 5 days to check out the climbing there and also a side trip to the grampians.

tasmania photos posted in the usual place:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robin.h.liu

Saturday, April 03, 2010

melbourne and new zealand pictures

we made it to melbourne and have been eating constantly for a few days. it's nice having a good shower and sleeping in a bed again. tomorrow we head off to tasmania for a week with my parents...

finally posted pictures from rarotonga and the month in new zealand in the usual place:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robin.h.liu