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.