Hugh,
I spent 4 months over there last summer mountaineering and climbing, there is some great stuff all over the place.
I reckon the best value for money, and time, is to head down towards queenstown and stop at Mount Cook Village and Wanaka on the way. There is some great easy slabs on sebastopol bluffs in MCV, great views, easy three pitch routes.
Wanaka has tons of great climbing all reasonably close around hospital flat. All grades can be found and you can climb in all conditions on at least one of the cliffs there.
If you go to Queenstown, go to Wye Creek. AWESOME. Perfect view over the lake back to Queenstown and stacks of well, newly bolted sports routes, which is a pleasant change to some of the manky gear that can be found around teh place.
I'd probably forget about the mountaineering at that stage in the year, it usually turns to slush and gets pretty cut up after mid Jan.
Hope that was of some help. |