Photos
I have been snapping away like crazy since I got here, so it is about time that I shared a couple of my photos with you. I have scaled them way down, but I get the feeling that this page is going to start to get pretty heavy.... maybe some thumbnails next time.
The view from the top of Treble Cone:
If you want to get the good powder, and make your own tracks, then you need to do some walking. This one is of P 'hiking the summit' (as the locals call it). Obviously the further you walk, the better it gets. The top is at a lowly 2100m or there abouts, and it takes about 30 minutes to get to the top. If you want to get some *really* good powder, and are bit unbalanced in your quest for good snow, then you can always hire a guide. Last week P and I hiked for 6 hours for 2 runs (and they weren't even all that long!).
And this is what it looks like from the top:
Just in case you were wondering, it does get a bit parky here - especially if you happen to be living in a 22' caravan. Evidence - check out these crazy ice crystals. Each one is about 2cm long. They look like Eike's hair from about 2 years ago (especially when you catch them in the light and they look blue):
And finally... it wouldn't be New Zealand without a silver fern. Before any Kiwis out there start leaving nasty comments correcting my ignorance - I know it isn't THE silver fern, it is just a regular, bog standard one that just happens to be covered in ice ;-)
First fall.
It was inevitable - the first big fall on the mountain. Not at all how I imagined though. P and I hiked up the ridge from the bottom of the Saddle T-bar. It was about a half hour walk with our skis on our backs. The scenery was amazing - you can see for miles, over the mountains and down to the lake.
We dropped off the ridge and skied for about 15 minutes. It hasn't snowed for about 3 days, and the powder is starting to get a bit crusty, so the skiing was hard on the legs. About half way down we collapsed in a heap, and chilled for a while, finished our lunchtime sandwiches, and took in the view. Time to move on....
The snow on the lower reaches of the mountain is getting pretty thin. Even though it snowed about a foot on Monday, it is pretty early in the season so the base hasn't built up just yet. We skied down to a point where we realised that we were on the top of a 30m cliff. On a bit further and we found a little gully where we could drop down and make our way back to the piste. It was pretty steep - we could see the top 20m but not all the way to the bottom - the slope curved away from us, the gradient increasing towards the bottom. There were tracks leading down, and we could see more tracks just beyond the foot of the gully, so we were pretty sure that we could just drop down and make it back to the piste. About two thirds of the way down the snow gave way to grass and rocks. The first option was to hike back up to the top of the gully and find another way down, but being the lazy bastard that I am, that thought was only entertained for a split second. The other option was to climb down. As I unclipped my skis I commented to P that the first rule of off piste skiing is to NEVER take off your skis. P did point out that given there wasn't any snow, it probably didn't count. One step and half a second later I am on my arse heading rapidly towards the bottom. No drama - it might hurt a bit but no serious damage was going to be done. At this point a rather large clump of grass intervened - it caught my boot and flipped me 180 degrees. I was now accelerating head first down a 70 degree slope. I was not sure what was going to hurt more - reaching the bottom, or the skis that were following closely behind. As you have already realised, I lived to tell the tale. A moment of concern from P followed as I staggered to my feet, and immediately as if by way of sympathy she slipped and performed her own stylish decent. One strained shoulder, and a slightly twisted thumb were left as reminders of the event. Moral of the story... DON'T TAKE OFF YOUR SKIS!
First day skiing
First day out on the mountain today. Skiing in New Zealand is just a wee bit different from anything I have ever done before. Yes they have snow, yes it is on a mountain, and yes they have a chair-lift (just the one!), which all sounds just like skiing anywhere else. Getting to the start of the lift is where it all starts to take an unusual turn. You drive to the bottom of the mountain, and then you drive up the mountain to the chair lift. When I say up the mountain, I really mean up the mountain. Imagine a the steepest road you have ever seen, then make it a bit steeper, remove the tarmac and replace it with a deadly mixture of mud, snow, and ice. Now you might be starting to get the picture. This is what Treble Cone is like.
So everyone has been telling me the mountain is busy - it is school holidays. Kids everywhere, families.... 2 weeks of busy slopes. Apparently. There are 3 people in the queue for the chair-lift. Did I mention there is only one chair lift? Half the mountain is closed. This is the only one lift open. It is school holidays. THERE ARE 3 PEOPLE IN THE QUEUE?! What is a quiet day going to be like? I can't wait to find out, especially after a fresh snowfall. BTW - it is snowing up there now :-) but raining down here at the van :-(
Near Wanaka there are 2 main resorts - Treble Cone and Cardrona. They both come with reputations. Cardrona is for the beginners and intermediate skiers, and is family friendly. Treble Cone is very challenging - or so the reputation goes, and people here really seem to buy into this. I am not going to poo poo these reputations because as a result, there is not a bad skier to be seen on Treble Cone. I don't think I have ever seen a mountain before where 9 out of 10 people ski with there skis less that 2 inches apart! Even the 8 year olds.
Moeraki Boulders
There is this place on the south island of New Zealand, just north of Shag Point (yes, that is really what it is called), where they have these rocks which the locals call "The Moeraki Bolders". Now, I have no idea what Moeraki means (if I meet a Maori I will be sure to ask), but these things are seriously cool. Imagine that someone been playing boules using some seriously big rocks (about 2m in diameter), and then then just abandonded them on the beach mid-game - that is what the Moeraki Bolders look like. They are huge, almost perfectly spherical, and are just lying randomly on a beach in the middle of nowhere.
To satisfy the curious folk among you:
"The spherical boulders on the beach did not originate from bedrock in the way boulders normally do; they are concretions. The process by which the concretions are formed is not well understood, but it is similar to the way a perl forms around a particle in an oyster. The particle around which these boulders formed might have been a small fossil shell, a bone fragment, or even a scrap of wood.
The boulders are built up from a mineral called calcite. When they are exposed to the weathering effect of the sea, they lose their outer layers, and this leaves hard veins of crystallised calcite standing out in relief. As the weathering progresses the veins control the break-up of the boulder into small polygonal pieces.
A large concretion probably took about 4 million years to form."
So now you know.
No, I am not dead...
Finally made it to New Zealand. Australia was really fun - spent a couple of days in Sydney, and then up the coast to Byron Bay, with a night in South West Rocks along the way, and then all the way back to Sydney inland via Nimbin (hippies), Dorrigo (drunk teenage hicks), Arimidale (dust), and Gloucester (farmers). All very pleasant and uneventful apart from a half hour period where Pierra thought it would be a good idea to strand me in the back arse of nowhere! I got the last laugh though - I hid myself good and proper in the bushes by the time she got back, and boy, did she ever freak out when she started thinking that I had been kidnapped by some outback psycho :-) I am sure that she will have a different side to the story though!
I have lots and lots of cool photos of the trip but am having a little difficulty uploading them. They are on P's computer, but all the internet cafes seem to block everything apart from http :-(. As soon as I get settled in the caravan (I should finally get there tomorrow), I will endeavor to get lots of them up on the site, and write a bit more on what I have been up to.
Take it easy dudes,
S
