UKH

South Island, New Zealand:

Best single sports climb?

Best bouldering area?

Discuss.

Castle Hill , beautiful limestone boulders with an Alpine setting.

Flock Hill 

Best sport climb I did was African Head Charge (26)

And best bouldering area is definitely Flock Hill

Best single climb: as always, hard to decide on just one, but Wild Orange Yonder on the Sundial, in the Remarks stands out.

On searching for the route name, I see it is yet another NZ climbing area with no access anymore! Bloody antiquated land NZ access!

Best sports climbs are probably in Paynes Ford but lots of great stuff in Christchurch area and the Darrens as well as Queenstown and Wanaka. Best bouldering no doubt Arthur's Pass. We lived in Invercargill so frequented Colac Bay as well as some good stuff near Dunedin, Hulk Hogan and Elephant Rock.

Everyone is looking for something different in a good climb so I've given three suggestions for three different types of climbers:

Ravages of Time (20) Chinaman's Bluff: is one of the best adventure climbs I've ever touched. An old classic and well worth the walk in. 

Labours of Love (24) Long Beach: is delightful, technical and short, perfect for climbers just breaking the mid 20's

Dance of Silence (29) Castle Hill: is a gorgeous, fingery test-piece, the pinnacle of NZ slab 

Best bouldering is unquestionably Flock Hill, just like Castle Hill, but without the polish and the tourists.

Hi Mark,

My girlfriend and I will be in Christchurch from the 5th - the 10th of April (2023). If you're in the area and want to team up to get to Castle/Flock Hill let me know. 

Either way, enjoy your trip!

Just to throw something different into the mix,  Little Babylon is pretty special. Wildly overhanging basalt set high above Milford Sound.

The rock is miles better quality than Payne's Ford, and anywhere else we climbed. 

Disclaimer: I've not done nearly enough climbing in NZ to have any sort of meaningful opinion

Uno, Mt Somers, grade 21.

Second rec for this route, it's great

Would love to - but I'm only going in November!  Castle Hill is deffo on the list and I'mjust researching theother recommendations- thanks everyone.

That’s the one I mentioned up thread. Unfortunately, as well as far away, the crag is also now closed to access now. A shame, as I also meant to repeat it.