Arriving in the Darrans

“I wonder what sort of Rental Car they’ll give us?”

“Ha, probably this ridiculous little gold Jellybean!”

Picking up the Jellybean at Dunedin Airport, we drove south to meet up with Al Walker in Balclutha. I’d been put on to him by a climbing acquaintance and had been yarning about the finer details of the routes we were interested in. Al was a very welcoming gentlemen and we enjoyed a tasty lunch and jucy climbing stories during our short visit.

Onwards to the Darrans, the blue skies and mind boggling views made a mockery of the dismal forecast. Like I have before in the Dolomites of Italy and the Canyonlands of Utah, I stared wided eyed and mouth agape. The slabs rose at ridiculous angles towards the gnarled and lofty summit pyramids. Waterfalls careered down canyons and chasms. Everything looked vertical. Everything looked scary. We’d certainly gone and bitten off a giant chunk of NZ… It was so incredible to see such mesmerizing terrain in my very own homeland.

Yvon Choiunard (that dude who pioneered a lot of the Big wall routes in Yosemite as well as Black Diamond Ltd and Patagonia Ltd) once said on a trip to the Darrans "This would be a better Big Wall climbing area than Yosemite... if it wasn't for the weather.."

We drove up to Homer Saddle and got out of the Jellybean to inspect the MacPherson Cirque. A hanging glacier fed dozens of tiny waterfalls that made a bee line down the sheer slabs. In that perfect evening we stood in awe before the chill brought us back to reality.

Back toward Homer Hut, we coaxed the Jellybean across the dry ford and into the ‘front lawn’ of the Hut. Unpacking our gear, we were soon welcomed by the Hut Warden, none other than Derek Thatcher, one of NZ’s hardest rock climbers. He offered us a brew, that we gladly accepted. Derek was joined by Jonothan Clearwater (!) who no doubt was slightly surprised when I mentioned that we were probably related..