Packing life into boxes

Its that time of year again. I move out of Wanaka tomorrow. The season has ended, the snow on the way out. Spring is here, the flowers are blossoming. It is time to pack the car and get on the road again - where will the dusty road lead... first stop Haast.

Feeding the Ducks.

The ducks swarm as you near the lake - in anticipation of break. Whilst sitting there watching the hundreds of ducks, two guys came down close to us with a whole sliced pan. They kindly gave us a couple of slices. It was a ducks Christmas.

Spring Boarding

so to speak...

Crunch in the morning, slush in the evening. The snow is rapidly melting. But to our pleasant surprise we got a sprinkling of snow a couple of days ago. What a treat that was. The ski resorts were ever so happy. As the much of the brown coloured slopes were once again turned to a snowy white (funnily enough).

Day in TC !!

I think I have had my last day in Treble Cone today. Maybe, I will squeeze one in next week. What a great day!! Loads of hiking to find some fresh lines and soft snow. It was great.

My time in Wanaka is rapidly coming to an end - 6 more working days left. Then it is on the road again, at least for a while. I wonder what I will get up to :)

Photos

I've put up a bunch of photos up on my flickr website from the last couple of weeks/months in New Zealand.

Back to Work

Back to work in Cardrona and I am down to my last 6 days of work. YAY :) The season is definitely on the way out. Snow is melting before our eyes. Punters are NOT arriving in droves anymore. The slopes are quiet. Its spring skiing - chunky crunchy slopes in the morning - slush in the evening. Boarding in tshirts.... time to have some fun :)

Carrot Juice is Murder

Just listen to it - its hilarious. Thanks Daire, I got a giggle from it.

Carrot Juice is Murder

Week in Christchurch

So, I spent a week in Christchurch, completely unexpected, except for the circumstances, it was nice being in a city again and some where different. I spent the last 3 days catching up with Patrick Davey. It was great to finally spend some time with him. Had a few lovely evenings. Christchurch is in bloom at the moment. Its springtime and it certainly shows. Weeping willows line the quaint little river (however I've told that they are not actually weeping or willows, but they do look like them and I can't remember the correct name). Even the gorse is in bloom. It certainly is a pretty array of colours. I wandered around Christchurch in a bit of a daze. I couldn't understand how I was meant to go back to Wanaka and snowboard when I was wearing shorts and a tshirt. It just seemed wrong.

Funny Signposts

They love their quirky signposts :)




Ok, so this one isn't terribly funny at first - but then I had to stop to take the photo :)

Cardrona Games

Last week, the ski resort have been hosting the Cardrona Games. Competitions involving all types of skiing and boarding were held everyday, but by far the most eventful was the Skidoo and the motorbike jumping. It was amazing.

Sean's Little Accident

I won't go into details as it is not my place. But just to let people at home know - Sean had a snowboarding accident on Friday. He smacked his head against a rock quite hard. Somehow he managed to snowboard down to ski patrol where he was given immediate first aid. They then sent him to Twizel for a check up, who sent him to Timaru for a CT scan, which showed a crack in his skull. They helicoptored him up to Christchurch where he was operated on on Saturday morning. Myself and Orla played a bit of a cat and mouse game trying to catch up with him, and finally found in the emergency room in Christchurch. The operation was successful and he is now the proud owner of 10 pieces of titanium in his head and a very fetching haircut.

On behalf of Sean, we like to thank ski patrol in Ohau and all the doctors and nurses in Twizel, Timaru and Christchurch, helicoptors and ambulances, who have taken wonderful care of him. He was given immediate and precautionary care and very quickly figured out the extent of his injury. Considering his family were on the other side of the world, they were very forthcoming with myself and Orla.

First Powder Day :)

As we sat on the bus this morning in the rain listening to the radio, we hoped of good things at the mountain. It had rained down low all night long and was still raining. Cardrona was on hold. The staff vans were not moving. What will the mountain look like? Will the wild predictions be right - or will we have another 2cm of fresh powder.

After about half an hour we were on the way up the hill, smiles came across all faces, when we realised it had snowed down quite low. Walking out to the lift I was almost knee deep in powder. Now, I am not that tall but none the less there was about 20cm at least of powder at the base. We were in for a fun day. Lots of digging of ramps and shovelling of snow, raking, flipping chairs, sweeping magic carpets - we finally had the beginners slopes open. Time to get the other lifts open. Scottie skidooed me up to my station - the top of captains. All was not plain sailing though. Not sure how it happening - but one minute we're cruising along Sean's way. The next minute we're lying in the snow. The skidoo beside us on its side in the snow. No one was hurt - so we had a laugh - pushed it right again. The it was onwards and upwards to Captains.

I had a fairly cruisy day up there, the mountain was not at all packed - and we got lots of powder runs in at lunch.

My Goggles :(

Let me remember for a just one second :( Its so sad - this is what my goggles used to look like - weren't they pretty.

I rode in a Heli bopper

I will translate. A friend of ours, Sacha, works for a heli-copter repair company. He promised us, that when one comes in for repair he would get us a ride in it to Queenstown. That happened on Thursday. Let me tell it was amazing. Myself and Orla were a bunch of giggling girls. In true style, we laughed, squealed and giggled all the way to Queenstown. The sensation of hovering is odd. One minute we were staying in the hanger getting a pret talk on heli-coptor saftey, then next we are ducking under the propellors and boarding the craft. Safety belts locked, headset on and we were hovering above Wanaka airport. We flew out of Wanaka, through the crown range, over the Cardrona Saddle, into Arrowtown and down into Queenstown airport. It was amazing.







Back in Queenstown that evening, I met up with Glynn and Patrick for a couple of drinks. It was great to see them and catch up with them. Even though they are both living in different parts of New Zealand, I haven't managed to spend alot of time with them which is a shame. But it was great to see them. We met up again for a little while boarding in Cardrona the next day.

After a rather miserable day yesterday, myself and Orla headed up to TC today. It was a glorious day. Sun shining, blue skies and powder. Ok lets not get carried away, it was only pretend powder. At least it was one of the better days here.

My enthuasiasm is fading..

Overcast, icy, slush and then more ice. No sun and yet no snow. Today my enthusiasm faded. Snowboarding across chunks of ice down towards the icy base of white star, I thought to myself, oh my god - this is going to be a long day and so it was. My two ride breaks were short lived and lunch was spent in the staff room and not ripping it up on the hill. My heart just wasn't in it today. However, a text from Patrick and Glynn soon cheered me up when I realised that one was here and the other on route. I can't wait to spend some of the weekend boarding with them and catching up on old times.