Southern rock climbing enthusiasts will soon have a world class indoor climbing wall to practice on at the Real Journeys Fiordland Community Events Centre in Te Anau.

Te Anau based outdoor adventure group, FEAR Society, has teamed up with the Fiordland Community Events Centre Trust to bring this project to life. At the beginning of November, following 12 months of planning and fundraising, the Trust President, Mike Schuck signed a contract with Christchurch based climbing wall designers and builders, Uprising Industries.

Work can now begin on the steel and plywood climbing wall in Christchurch. It will be installed in Te Anau in February 2021.

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The Fiordland Community Events Centre Trust will own the climbing wall and the FEAR Society will be responsible for its management and staff training.

Mr Schuck said the Events Centre Trust was very positive about the project.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring more people and events to Te Anau and make more use of the Events Centre building.

"The climbing wall will add a $400,000 asset to the Events Centre at no cost to the community. Andy and Vaughn have done an excellent job of fundraising and managing this project,” he said.

Fiordland College Outdoor Education teacher and rock climbing instructor Vaughn Filmer and President of the FEAR Society Andrew Magness have championed the project, raising $245,000, more than enough for the first of the 3-stage project.

Stage 1 will see the 200m2 climbing wall installed on most of the north wall of the Events Centre stadium.

Stages 2 and 3 will add another 50m2 in the east and west corners respectively, bringing the total estimated cost of the build to $349,000.

Re-positioning the basketball hoop and purchasing climbing equipment will bring the total project cost to about $400,000.

The grey and blue colour scheme represents Fiordland landscape colours of rocks, water and sky.

The project team is now waiting for the outcome of their Lotteries Grant application to see how soon stages 2 and 3 of the climbing wall project can be implemented.

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Before diving into the project the FEAR Society ran an on-line opinion poll among the Fiordland community.

Of the 500 responses they received, all but five were in favour, showing an overwhelming support for the project.

Offers were also made for machinery use, voluntary labour and free accommodation for workers.

Mr Filmer and Mr Magness are full of enthusiasm and positive energy for the project.

Each spent well over 100 volunteer hours on fundraising and project management respectively. 

“We are very passionate about it. We are both into climbing – we are already doing it and we want to see it [the climbing wall] happen,” Mr Filmer said.

Mr Filmer teaches rock climbing to about 24 young people at Fiordland College, with six climbing at a time on the college climbing wall, plus belayers.

The Events Centre wall will cater for up to 50 climbers/belayers at any given time, he said.

The FEAR Society has organised climbing wall supervisor training, starting yesterday (Tuesday, November 24).

Twelve people have signed up for the national qualification run by the New Zealand Outdoor Instructor Association.