the powder room

Sunday 8th-10th
Te Anau and almost Doubtful Sound

Unfortunately, our night was a bit spoiled by noisy neighbours blasting out bassy tunes until 4am! Doh! Morning greeted us with a calm sunrise, followed by gale force winds. Not really wanting to hang around too long, we packed up and headed out to Te Anau, about 2 1/2 hours drive south and west of Queenstown.

Great drive down, with beautiful views, but the winds made driving a little tough and it took a bit longer than expected!

After a bit of hunting around, we camped up at the Top 10 Mountain View holiday park. Nice little spot with good facilities and close to the centre.

The weather continued to worsen into the next day, with heavy rain and winds. Undeterred, we booked up 2 day sea kayak trip round Doubtful Sound with Fiordland Wilderness Experiences, run by Daphne and Bill, a lovely couple who really seem to have found their calling.

Quite excited and a little daunted by the thought, we bought some supplies ready for the adventure. Jen was understandably a little worried about the thought of it all, particularly having cold wet feet for 2 days!

Unfortunately, the next day, the weather continued to worsen and the trip was called off. But determined to make the best of a bad situation, Jen and I fuelled up Doris and trekked off to Milford Sound.

7th October 2006
Queenstown

So we left Wanaka on Saturday and headed for Queenstown over the Crown Range road – the highest sealed road in New Zealand. Bit of struggle with Doris and quite hairy on the way down, but fine!

Queenstown was beautiful, but quite built up and hectic after the serenity of Wanaka. It felt heavily commercialised and every second store was an extreme sports booking office. All in all, it was a little disappointing, but we headed on through and down the road to Glenorchy. About 15 minutes out of Queenstown, we pulled over at a neat little Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite, where we got to camp right by Lake Wakatipu, looking out at the Remarkables. The perfect spot for our first proper night in Doris.

2nd October 206, 19.51
Bits and Bytes

Well, it’s all change here, we’ve moved out of Alpine Resort and back into the Mountain View Backpackers, but most importantly of all, Jen’s arrived! Finally, we’re back together again, I didn’t quite believe it would happen, but she’s here and we’re loving it!

We’ve got a lovely little room in the Mountain View and we’ve made it all cosy. Really quite enjoying being back there, it feels like home. Been up at Cardrona for the past 2 days, teaching Jen to snowboard – I think it went OK, she did really well and managed to link turns after only 1 day (personally, I put it down to the high quality instruction she’s been getting ;p), plus she’s still talking to me, which is a result!

It’s been quite sad too cos everyone’s been leaving over the past few days. Pete and Claire disappeared off on Saturday and Ryan left today, so it’s been quite mixed. Still, it doesn’t feel like a goodbye, cos I’ll see them all in Colorado!

On other news, Doris failed her Warrant of Fitness (equivalent to an MOT) – her suspension and brakes need work, it’ll cost about NZ$500 to fix, quite a lot and a bit of a pinch, but in the grand scheme of things it hasn’t cost that much to have her and it’ll make it easier to sell her.

10th September 2006, 22.38
In bed

My quest for space took me up Mount Roy today. It’s been ages since I’ve done any proper walking, so it was quite a nostalgic relief to go up the side of a mountain.

Mount Roy (or Roy’s Peak) is at around 1500m, so is over 1000m above the road – pretty vertiginous climb, steep switchbacks snaking all the way up. It took Kev and I nearly 3 hours to get up (via a small diversion into some prickly tussock – oops!). The views were spectacular – right the way down the Matukituki river to Mount Aspiring, over to Treble Cone and right back over to Wanaka. Couldn’t have asked for better weather – clear blue sky and not a breath of wind in the air.

As we reached around 1200m, we hit the snowline and had to dodge the odd patches of spring snow. Right up the very top, we were forced to trudge through snow to climb the last few metres up the ridgeline.

I was supposed to be having a rest day before BASI, but I’m glad we went. I needed to get out there and do something (not that I don’t do that on a daily basis, but you get what I mean).

I’m looking forward to starting the exam tomorrow – not sure how I feel, don’t feel worried as it feels just like another week of training. Well, we’ll see how it goes. I feel much more confident about my riding (and feel that I’m now riding like a Stage 1 qualified instructor!) and the teaching is pretty much the same, so am quietly upbeat about it. I’ve just got to focus and consistently show that I can do it.

21st August 2006, 18.16
Watching ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’

Last day before training and the morning conditions were rubbish, light was terrible and it was snowing heavily. Neil pushed us hard in the powder. But as we sat eating lunch, the clouds parted and out of nowhere the most glorious day emerged. Fed and watered we raced out to the Saddle Basin.

Riding the quad up to impossibly blue skies, we looked up to see the summit slopes, untracked and covered in fresh snow. The temptation was too much and we hiked on up.
We carried on right to the end of the ridgeline and looked out over untouched snow.

Chewy led with a huge drop-off and we were off, racing down, straight into the Powder Bowl Chutes, then hiking up Sundance Ridge before dropping into Hidden Valley (bit sketchy without transceivers). Fresh powder all the way, a few hits and drops – summit to road, dropping nearly 900 metres, fresh all the way – awesome.

It was exactly what we needed today and the moment that stands out in my mind was as we peered over the edge of the summit looking at untracked powder, Neil delivered a rousing speech. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but for a moment, NZSIA, BASI, Stage 1, front knee steering, board performance and all that vanished. Whatever happens over the next week, pass or fail, what matters are moments like that, standing under glorious sunshine with a happy crew and nothing ahead except unblemished snow – that’s why we all do this.

To borrow from Shakespeare (Henry V):

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that rides his board with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That rode with us upon this fine day.

3rd August 2006, 18:00
Alpine Resort, after an exhausting day

Today was a bit cloudy and the sunrise was awesome but as the day rolled on, the clouds rolled in and visibility dropped. The cloud was kinda mid-level so the very top of the Saddle was nice and clear, but from about halfway down, it was pretty much zero!

Not to worry though, cos Tom decided to hike us up to the summit of Treble Cone – totally awesome! Mindblowing views as we looked down on top of the clouds!

After tip-toeing around and getting a bit giddy, we dropped off back into the Saddle, snow was a bit scratchy, but lots of nice powder patches – well worth it!

6th August 2006, 18:00
Alpine Resort – exhausted and happy

Despite last night’s celebrations, struggled my way out of bed and crawled to the bus for a day’s riding. Glad I did, cos it was well worth it and got to enjoy another perfect sunrise over TC.

I’ve been so lucky over the past few weeks to have so many moments of sheer pleasure and beauty. This place just blows me away – every morning we are treated to the most spectacular commute you could wish for, with a different range of colours spreading out over the horizon in the most perfect of sunrises. Even on the bad weather days, the cloud makes for a spectacular lightshow.

Then we get 5 hours of training with some of the best snowboard trainers in the world and some of the most fun people to be around that I’ve ever had the priviledge to meet.

After all that, we get to come home to luxury apartments, maybe have a few drinks or just chill with mates and watch the sun set over a perfect day, safe in the knowledge that it’ll all start over again in the morning.

Yeah it’s hard work, mentally and physically challenging, exhausting at times and far from home, but a bad day on the slopes still beats a good day in the office hands down!

5th August 2006, 18:00
Alpine Resort

Wow. What can I say? One of the most amazing experiences of my life. After two weeks of waiting, we finally got the go-ahead for heliboarding.

So we bundled onto a coach and headed down to the staging area in crystal clear blue skies, where we were briefed on heli safety and using avalanche transceivers. Then it was onto the heli before being whizzed off to the North Harris Mountains and our first run down pristine powder!

I was in a group with Ryan, Kristine, Nick and a random Taihitian guy called Michael. Laetitia was our guide. We crouched low around a pack as the chopper arrived before cramming into the small 6 seater and taking off.

As we came in to land, we could see the first group setting off and you could feel the adrenalin rise. Seconds later, we were coming in and crouched low as the heli took off. Then there was silence as we peered off into the distance and gathered our kit together.

Laetita gave us a quick brief on snow conditions and headed off – the first run was a little crusty, but still great and a good warm up!

Then we were off again, for a spot of filming – I got a bit over excited in my quest for fresh and lost sight of Laetitia’s tracks, ended up heading down a great line, but realised my mistake about halfway down and had to traverse off to catch her – got a little (and well deserved) telling off, but it was a great line!

We stopped for lunch mid-way through our third run, the guides had dug a little table out and laid out a fantastic spread – better than my normal lunch! Some of the boys got busy building a kicker (a jump for those not up to speed in snowboard parlance) so I took advantage and got ready with my camera. Got into a great position and shot my first ever sequences! Think they worked well, but are a little out of focus (damn!). Will put the photos up when I get a chance!

Then it was off again for our last run, all over too quickly, but left with some great memories of a perfect bluebird day, thumbs up and smiles all round – off for a few bevvies tonight upstairs, then out to Woody’s again. This is what it’s all about – love it!

2nd August 2006, 21:00
Alpine Resort, stuffed to the brim with risotto

So, heli was cancelled today (again!), but we all went for lunch instead – had a
full breakfast to nurse my hangover! Then Maria, Pete and I headed back to Diamond Lake and walked past it this time to a really nice viewpoint

Had some food (bit too much actually!) and now sitting around sipping a little local wine. Bit worried about tomorrow cos we need to prove outselves this week so that we can do both exams and I’m a little ropey at the moment – still, must think positive and will be fine!

1st August 2006, 18:00
Alpine Resort, after a stoked day!

Hurrah! What a birthday, woke up this morning with some presents sent from Jen and great snow. After our warm up, Tom took us (Steve, Rob, Mark and I) over to the Saddle Basin. Just as we got to the top, the Motatapu Chute opened up, so we raced over and got first lines down! Absolutely amazing! The downside was the 30 minute hike out of there, but well worth it!

We’ve got a meeting tonight about jobs in the States and then we’re going for dinner at the White House (thanks for the recommendation Jane!), before a few cheeky bevvies at Woody’s. Can’t wait!

Decided to treat myself too, so just about to head out to buy myself a new jacket – got to look the part! Plus we’re going heliboarding tomorrow – top that for a birthday!