Climbing at Kawakawa bay

On the shores of Lake Taupo there is a beautiful bay called Kawakawa Bay, and my friend Korbi and I headed down for some climbing at this amazing spot. There is some beautiful rock there, rising up out of the forest. The lake is clean and super clear, at night, by the light of a head torch, you can see tiny freshwater crayfish scuttling around.

At the top of the first pitch of Captain Caveman

We made sure to climb the famous Captain Caveman. I accidentally went slightly the wrong way as I was leading the first pitch, but we sorted it out and had lunch in the cave, which had a stunning view, as you can see.
Korbi led the second pitch with ease, which I was glad for, as it is definitely 'airy' although it goes through a kind of chimney, especially at some points you can definitely feel the exposure of hanging out in space. 

At the top of the airy second pitch of Captain Caveman

Great photo of the view behind the cave.

After climbing through the vertical cave tunnel, you can pop out onto a tiny ledge and really take in the gorgeous views. We also climbed some other sport routes and got in some trad climbing, although I don't really have such good photos of that. We got to watch the sun setting over the lake at the top of Gecko groove, one of the fantastic crack climbs there.

Amazingly, despite the wonderful weather, there was nearly no-one else there. We saw some people heading out on Friday, and we had glimpsed some people higher up on a climb on Saturday, but that was pretty much it. On the walk back to the cars we ran into Dan, one of the developers of the crag who was happy to see us climbing. I hope more people get out and climb there because it is such a beautiful place with really top quality climbing!