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Red zone, blue skies, white snow 18-Oct-2012 At 9:00:05 PM jezza

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Great trip report as usual - but fails to mention the dedication one needs to climb at Paynes.

Exhaustion sets in first thing in the morning, trying to chose the best place for a soy choc frappacino on the Takaka cafe strip. Then there's the epic question of breakfast. Buckwheat pancakes with hash browns or devilled eggs? Breakfast burrito with soy cheese or lentil burgers? What cafe has the right level of trashy hippy chic? Can I be f---ed climbing at all today? The cinema is right there, as are amazing beaches and hiking.

And then there's the drive to the crag. It must be at least 90 seconds.

I remember the first time we tried to find one of the climbing areas at Paynes. We chose something close to the car. The guidebook said it was 5 minutes walk. In that 5 minutes walk, we passed a very nice toilet, and a beautiful river bend with a slackline over it. The path was flat and extremely well maintained. Lush vegetation surrounded us.

We walked too quickly. In that five minutes 'hike' we'd actually passed about 20 or so good climbs hidden in the jungle and had to backtrack.

Depressed at the consumer friendly nature of this place, we decided that we'd f--- it up by cutting bolts and placing a few dirty carrots among the shiny hangers. But they actually have a group of people responsible for bolting the area. They've a phone number, and a wooden sign near the carpark inviting you to call if you'd like to make any changes to the fixed pro. Holy crap, they're organised. Better not f--- with them.

Anyway the best route we did was called Superconductor. But that was almost 15 minutes walk from the car so don't bother.