By Sonia Flux, 30 August 2026
Lucy and I decided we wanted to run an outdoor bouldering trip to Turakirae Head, however one weather cancellation and 23 pikers later we thought it best to start at Baring Head.
In the end, 12 keen boulderers made it to Hunter Carpark on a stunning bluebird Sunday morning. They were amazingly patient with me while I took 15 minutes to open the gear shed (Lucy had to eventually call Finlay - sorry) but with bouldering mats and "Rock Deluxe: North" eventually secured, we headed out.
We decided against crossing the river since the week before it came up to my hips so we took a lovely 50 min stroll from the carpark with the bridge and enjoyed a gorgeous view of the south island.
Once there we started with the creatively named "Long Wall Far Right" and started gaining confidence bouldering outdoors. There were a few halfway-up-the-wall panics but all were worked through and everyone got up the wall!
Then people split up into groups and explored the boulders. There was a surprising amount of variety and everyone from the complete newbies to the pros found something to work on. Lunch, chat and sunbathing breaks were of course included. By 3pm people were still climbing at full steam and we had to tear ourselves away to head back to the carpark.
Once there Lucy handed out apples (absolute stroke of genius), we had a final yap, did some Tetris trying to get bouldering mats into the cars and headed home.
