Rock climbing on Banks Peninsula

As the pressures of modern life increase, more and more people are turning to a wide variety of outdoor pursuits to fill their leisure hours. While some are content to walk and jog, other more determined individuals seek out and climb steep and airy rock faces - this is rock climbing. Easy access and solid rock make Banks Peninsula ideally suited for rock climbing. This dissertation is an attempt to describe the origins and evolution of the sport to its present day status, that of a highly technical, competitive and physically demanding sport. One of the other purposes of this dissertation is to locate and describe the crags on Banks Peninsula. Finally, the dissertation will look at some use conflicts that have arisen in recent years and offer some tentative recommendations in an attempt to resolve these conflicts. Unfortunately, because of the technical nature of the sport, the author has had to resort to the use of a large number of specialist terms and jargon associated with the sport. For the uninitiated, there is a glossary of terms at the end of this document