Climbing the Moai

I often say the joy of climbing is just being outside, and the actual climbing part is just an added bonus. This day of adventure - climbing the Moai sea stack in Tasmania - showcased this well as a day full of thrills and firsts. This fun was had while I visited Tasmania on holiday from Christchurch with a friend, Gavin, and his friend Rob.

The day before

The story begins the day before, when some climbing essentials were acquired - specifically, shoes. With holes in the old shoes, it was time for a new pair. Whilst I got my shoes, Gavin perused some literature nearby:

A pertinent quote was read aloud:

“What Tasmania lacks in diversity of snakes, it makes up for in abundance.”

After an evening of watching Tommy Caldwell & Alex Honnold speed climb the nose, a big lasagne, and some minor doom scrolling snake literature – we were ready for the day ahead.

The big day

A slow, steady morning at Gavin’s and some city traffic meant we picked up Rob at around 9:30am to drive to the Tasman Peninsula and Fortescue Bay Campsite. We arrived at a lovely campsite at the beach, kitted up, and got ready for the ~1h15 walk in. On the walk, the talk turns to my as-yet snake-sighting-free life. Being generally scared of things that can kill me, I am somewhat nervous about boosting through the Aussie wilderness. Before long, I end up spotting - slinking across the path - my first ever tiger snake. Gav and Rob are notably unfazed. I am rather fearful. This was a prevailing theme for our future missions as a team.

After the walk, we get set to abseil down to the bottom of the Moai, with some splendid views of the stack in front of us.

Our ambition for the day

After a short hop across the rocks at the bottom, we get ready to climb up the Sacred Site route (Graded 18). The conditions were near perfect aside from a few drops of rain threatening to ruin the fun (but thankfully they didn’t follow through). Gavin led the route with relative ease, and then I got tied, in ready for my attempt to summit the stack.

The scene was pretty idyllic, and I was excited. This was on par with the hardest route I had climbed on real rock, but I wasn’t thinking too much about it and just enjoying it, knowing that bailing was relatively easy if it came to that. Thankfully, I found the climbing reasonable despite a few tricky moves where finding feet took a bit of time. However, once the footholds were located, TC Pros (my new shoes) saw me right, and I reached the top of my first-ever sea stack.

First sea stack (for me)

Surprisingly, when I was climbing (albeit on top rope), the exposure didn’t feel too bad. I was pretty delighted to be up in the air with great views out to sea and across the Tasman Peninsula - or the ‘ninch as I’m told it is locally known.

Me climbing, almost halfway up the Sacred Site route on the Moai

After my ascent, Rob joined us at the peak, climbing again with relative ease, and our crack team was ready for a scenic abseil back to the bottom of the stack.

Gavin abseling with crystal clear waters in the background

Mammoth portions of lasagne awaited the victors. Sitting on the rocks after a part of the adventure has been successfully completed felt pretty rewarding. Gav and Rob went for a swim in the super clear water, but I know I’m still in work mode and know we still have some climbing out and walking to do.

In the distance, we can see the candlestick - a job for tomorrow

After some swimming, some cups of tea, and straight-up chilling in the sun, we begin our exit and return to our abseil rope. For me, this was an interesting part of the day as lots of skills and tricks were learned about self-belaying and general rope management. Some of the pitches here required a bit of ‘arse shifting’ but were fun enough climbing.

Once we were back ‘on dry land’, we sorted some more stuff and headed back out for the return hike. Once back at the campsite, we hop in for a refreshing swim with the mission for the day accomplished. Whilst in the water, I spotted some seaweed that was moving around rather quickly. I soon discovered that it was not in fact seaweed and instead - as Rob confirmed - ‘a pretty big sting ray’. Another first for me. Again, Rob was notably unconcerned.

A real day of firsts for me: the first time seeing a snake in the wild; my first climb up a sea stack; my first time swimming with a sting ray. Job done in surviving it all, hardened for the next adventure. It was a glorious day of fun that was physically and mentally demanding, but very well rewarded with great sea views, sunshine, laughs, and lasagne.