The day after the snow ...

The way things work out.. it baffles me. It snowed on Monday, and guess who got her first day's work on Tuesday. Yeah that's right me :). A blue bird day!! So, I got myself a part time, kinda, fill in when people aren't there, type job working as a liftie. It was fun, though, picking people off the ground when they fell, slowing the lift, stopping it - oh the power trip - ahem not. Because I was stuck in the one place all day - looking at the snow, I was so physched on my breaks and found lots of sweet powder. It was great. Unfortunately that was yesterday and today it is all gone. Grrr - oh well. Roll on the next powder day, until then, i'll learn how to jump and do 180's badly....

Snow Fields and Training

I am not sure exactly what the connection is, but I find being here in a ski resort, I need to train. Even though I am on the hill most days and snowboarding (and/or a little skiing) for between 2 and 5 or 6 hours, I need to do something else. I really want to start training at the climbing gym, but can't seem to motivate myself properly. If there was a decent bouldering wall, it would be different. Unfortunately, at the moment all there is one vertical wall. The leading and top rope section is not to bad, I am just not motivated terribly for routes. But what I am motivated (well this week) for is swimming. Its great getting swim fit again.
Granted its only my second big session, but I am getting into. The tumble turns are certainly making it easier and they are coming together.

My session today consisted of
300 m warm-up
10 x 100 m each in 2 m 45 s intervals
2x25m, 2x50m, 2x75m, 2x100m, 2x75m, 3x50m, 2x25m with 20 second intervals
10x50m with 15 second intervals
100 m legs only.
200 m back stroke and breast stroke.

So this is my base I need to improve on it - it worked out at a little over 2.5 km.

Training Day and a Shocking Discovery

I couldn't sleep last night, not at all. I tossed and turned all night long. Eventually at 4 am, I got up and starting playing on my laptop, writing emails, looking at photos and general doodling. Finally, at 5 am I managed to fall asleep only to bolt awake at 745 to the sound of my alarm. My day of training had begun. A quick breakfast and I was on my way to up to the mountain. My training consisted of learning everything their was to about the working of the lifts at Cardrona. I learned about the magic carpets, the poma, and the chairlifts. Lots and lots of flashing lights and buttons, kind of like a space ship. Now all I need to do is wait for one of the current staff to leave, break a limb, or something along those lines. Hopefully within the next few weeks something (part time at least will come up).

After a long day and a couple of runs through a whiteout (a white out lacking in snow, mind you) I headed off home, only to discover a dead deer hanging outside my bedroom. It was lacking in some vital organs and dripping with blood, as you can imagine, I went into the sitting room looking, lets say, a little paler than before.

Nothing much to Report

A few days on the hill, breaking in new boots, wipe-outs, bruises, whip lash, rest day, swimming - learning to tumble turn, finally (thanks Sean :), chilling in front of the TV, pretending half heartedly to look for work, playing with photos.

That about sums it up :)

For my photos of the day :)


double inversion layer (21 July 2007)

sleeping beauty (22 July 2007)



big boots (23 July 2007)

wanaka at night (24 July 2007) - ok the photo is terrible, but I am searching for a place to take a good night shot of wanaka - so far this is not it, but hey, its a work in progress..

Night on the Town

Finally after almost 2 months in New Zealand, we went out dancing. A completely spur of the moment decision, but sure aren't they the best nights.



It started with a few glasses of wine whilst watching the final tri-nations rugby match, Wallabies verses the All Blacks. Not a great match too much kicking .... The first stop was our local, the Albert town lodge, since we hadn't actually ventured as far as it yet.



From there into Wanaka for a wee bit of a pub crawl and ending with a eve of dancing. Very funny night indeed - lots of giggling...

Naturally, Sunday was a write-off - lots of TV and munchies and an evening in the cinema. Wanaka has a famous cinema - comfy couches, VW beetle and great cookies.

My Little Project 5, 6, 7: 18, 19, 20 July 2007

Letter boxes on the side of the road.



Flog (my pet fluffy frog) hanging on for dear life.



I decided I couldn't take it any more - new boots... aren't they shiny and white.

My Little Project 4: 17 July 2007

wicked kea sitting on top of one of the campervans

Doubtlful Milford

A day off and a trip to Doubtful Sound. Well that was the plan. Myself and Chris got up early and were on the road to Queenstown at 6am. Parked my car in town and headed toward Te Anau, a small town about 2hours SW. Te Anau is the the gateway to Fiordland and the most famous of which is Milford Sound. However, our plan was to visit the more remote, slightly less travelled Doubtful Sound. As we all know the best laid plans are always broken. So on arrival to the tourist office in Te Anau, we found that the only trip of the day to Doubtful Sound had just left. How typical. It was rather amusing though, because we'd heard of this great two for the price of one local deal in one of the local newspapers. But to get it we had to prove we were a local. Of course as soon as either of us opened our mouths, well - it was clear we were a kiwi. However, spending the season in Wanaka we decided to chance our arms and ask if it was good enough proof, if we got Devin (my landlord, housemate) to call up and say that we were living here, would that be sufficient. They seemed to agree. After a few phone calls that was sorted. Only then did we find out the trip had just left. Milford Sound it was so. Back in the car and another 2 hour drive into Milford. My turn to drive. An hour into the drive and some 56 km of the 100 km journey - I look at the petrol gauge, it looks low. Hmmm, then it starts flashing - uh oh, I thought we'd enough petrol. Halfway there, we thought well not much point in turning back the nearest petrol station is 50 odd km in either direction. So on we plod, hearts in mouths, willing the car on. Popping the car in neutral at any and all possible times, to conserve petrol. I was beginning to panic as you might imagine. As I was popping the car in neutral, I managed to over the shoot the mark and hit reverse whilst going at 60KM an hour, not so good, damn automatic cars, what's that all about. I gave up and let Chris drive... For the next 20km we free wheeled down the valley road into Milford Sound. All around the hair pin bends. And cruised into Milford on the fumes of other people cars, we ran out of fumes a long way back. Went straight to the petrol station only to find that it (the only petrol station) was closed for servicing. Luckily they would be open later that afternoon.



The views of Milford Sound were worth the panic. Amazing fiordland. We took a 2 hour cruise out to the sea front and back again, passing all the wonderful glacier landscape. Apparently Milford sound was incorrectly named. It should be a fiord. A geographical different. But the name has stuck. The sides of the fiord are laiden with trees barely hanging onto the rocky cliff lines. The waterfalls line the sides of the cliffs with snowcapped mountains in the background. It truely is beautiful. On the way back we stopped at a few places, a temperate rainforest, the chasm, a little frozen stream. It was a long drive back. Boy was I tired by the end of the day. But it was certainly worth it.



Yesterday, I was back on my board again. Last week I delaminated the tail of it. Not a huge gash, but enough to warrant repair. Sasha, one of Devin's mates, kindly fixed it for me, only for it to delaminate again. So the second attempt at fixing it, he used glue that is used in aircraft. A flexible when dry glue. Perfect. Only catch is it took 6 days to dry. Not so good. But it got tested yesterday and going strong. YAY YAY :) Just as I thought the day was going really well, though, when we were packing up the car to go home, I realised I had left the handbrake on and it froze the right back wheel. No movement what so ever out of the well. It took alot of reverse / forward action to finally free it up. The manager of Cardrona, managed to eventually free it for us. DOH, I promise, I will never use the handbrake again, even if it is for all the right reasons. Parked on an icy hill !!

My little project 3: 16 July 2007

Frosty morning, afternoon and evening... the frost never seems to leave the plants.

My little project 2: 15 July 2007

Self Portrait.... playing with self timer and tripod..... ah the joys :)

My little project 1: 14 July 2007

Chocolate, Blueberry and Coconut Muffin from Kai Whaka Pai. My, so far, favourite coffee house in Wanaka.

A month through my eyes !!

My new project. One photo, every day for a month. Maybe it will tell a story, maybe it will be about me, maybe it will be just random photographs, maybe I won't stop in a month, maybe I will. Who knows, not even me - I guess in a month I will find out. Watch this space. It might be interesting - or then again maybe not! Confused?? I am but hey its a challenge and I like a challenge. I think I will call it my little project.

defrosting the car

It 7 degrees below, white as snow and foggy. Yes, its definitely a winter morning. I am getting into the habit of early rises. Its hard the first morning, but after that, its easy (ish). But what is a killer, it defrosting the snowy white car at dawn.

Its not like home, with a kettle full of cold water, bingo car sorted. It takes me 10 minutes of persistence to get the car defrosted and at that its not, but I can see through a gap in the window. As I pour the water onto the car, it froze in the bottle onto the edges. Its an art, trying to get the water temperature right. It needs to be warm enough not to freeze and cold enough not to crack the windscreen (not that I have ever seen that happen).

Today, in parts of Central Ottago (the general area or province around Wanaka) it actually dropped to 17 degrees below. That was a lot further south, but still it gives you a feeling. The frost only thaws in places during the day, and shady parts remain frozen all day long.

For the greater part of most days, we wake up to the inversion layer. A low lying system of clouds that cover Wanaka and Albert town. The sun sometimes burns this off but for a lot of it, the village does not see sunshine. However, up on the ski fields, the weather tends to be glorious, as they rise above the inversion layer.

There's no trees :(

Just what I said - there's no trees. No droppy snow laiden trees. Ok so there are trees in the vallley and around the town. But not on the mountain, none at all. Not that Chamonix last year was swarming with trees - but there was a significant number of forested areas none the less - there was a tree line. Here there is nothing. Its strange.




Healthy carole - hmmm - started today. Decided its time to get in shape again, need to get fit, build strength and gain my stamina. Hopefully, I haven't actually lost much - its only been 2 months of no climbing. But I don't want to lose it.

So, I found myself (well, ok I was pointed in the right dircetion) a nice little single track down by the river. It runs from Albert town, pass the back side of Mount Iron all the way to the lake. And what a pretty run it is. Next time I bring a camera.

Chilling - I need a plan

Up late on Sunday, I couldn't motivate myself. I sat all morning in my PJ's watching Wimbledon, the women's final, V. Williams versus M. Bartoli, was on. Not the best match, I've ever seen - dominated quite strongly by Williams, but Bartoli certainly put up a very good fight and certainly didn't give away the match. The match was certainly thrilling enough for me to forgo snowboarding for the day, replay as it was. But as i sat watching the match, pondering, I realised I need a plan. Not necessarily a big plan, just one to get me through the next couple of months. Being on the road for 7 months and now living here in Wanaka, I do feel a little lost. I think routine might help. But its brought back the, oh my goodness what am I going to do with myself thoughts.
I think I also need to get a job - yuck. Anyone know of any programming or web stuff that I could do via correspondence - eh?? No I didn't think so, oh well.

So my plan so far is :-
• Get up early and have breakie.
• Go snowboarding till the crowds hit.
• run / swim
• Hopefully do some volunteer work at the climbing wall.
• Chill and repeat tomorrow

Hmmm, sounds optimistic :)

Albert town

I don't think I have mentioned my new home yet. Myself and Orla found a place to live in Albert town, through a friend of a friend of friend type thing. We are living with 2 kiwis, Devin and Cameron, and a dog, Butch. Melanie lives about 2 km away from us which is great. It is certainly a experience. My room is in the basement - basically a room off the garage, away from the rest of the house, but its a nice & spacious, with my own bathroom (also doubling as a utility room). The guys are great - although a little (a hem, a lot) different from my previous housemate. One of them is a fencer (no not the sport - he builds them) and the other likes to dabble, an ex-new zealand skier, he spent many back to back seasons between here and the states, at them moment is chilling, contemplating on more skiing, and hunting or back-country motor-biking every weekend. I came home today to find 2 wild pigs hanging from the ceiling of the garage, dead obviously, this weekend's trophies, I guess, and food for the next few weeks.

Oh my goodness, I got such a fright, the first day I moved in here, though. As you know I am a vegetarian and don't like meat - let alone killing animals. Yeah, well, can you imagine the scream from me when I went investigating the fridge downstairs. Oh, in my naivety, I say, look at all the fridges in the garages, I wonder what could be in them. Now, in hindsight, that was stupidity in my part. But yes, I do have to have a peak, and a peak was all I needed. I yelped, yes, loud and girly - I yelped. There, in the fridge, was half or more than half a deer, fur, legs, the lots (not sure about the head), I gave up looking at that point and ran outside to the others. Enough was enough.

Its funny though, hearing the boys talk about their day hunting off with the dogs and their guns, killing rabbits by the bucket load, 40 or 50 in one sitting - they are pests you know. I think they enjoy telling me - I must screw up my face as they they me. Apparently, the noise a wild pig makes is horrendous, it squeals loudly.

Ah, the memories :)

I decided after, oh I don't know, 4 months to finally take the photos off my dinky little camera. Ok, so I don't use it very often, because, well the quality on the my D70 is just streets ahead. But my little camera has the advantage of being well little - and there were times when that is all I brought. I got a giggle looking at the photos - ah the fond memories.

A day wandering around Hobart - seeing all the blue around :)



Easter in the Arapiles and tent city :)



Getting ever so lost on the classic route - but still smiling :)



The Pines campground - from a great height.



New country - first glimpses of the snowcapped mountains of the Southern Alps.



The beach north of greymouth - as the rain clears.



Sean first day on the board and he's cruising.




The boys after a great day on the slopes.