Archive for June, 2007
Got up to the Remarkables this morning to find 4 brand new jumps in the park - dropped straight into 2 of the biggest, landed them - (in a state of massive adrenalin, as they were way bigger than I thought) and go back on the chair lift. Attempt number 2 ended in a face plant, and I crashed several times more on the various jumps. Needless to say, it blinking hurts now!
The slopes were ok, but very very crowded as Coronet Peak was closed - sending everyone over to the remarks.
Otherwise, I am working Monday and seeing Guns N Roses live on Tuesday.
June 30th, 2007
A snowboarder lands in font of me at just the right time to give this photo a foreground interest. You can also see the snow has gone fom low level here round Queenstown - and lake Wakatipu is in view.
Awesome views today, wish I took the Nikon up with me!
June 26th, 2007
Shot from the top of The Greengates Chair Lift at Coronet Peak today. Its awesome up here!
June 26th, 2007
After leaving the slopes early yesterday when I could not see, today proved to be a beautifully clear day. The views were awesome from the top - and it was ok for staying warm on the lifts. Today saw me playing around on some really old Snow Blades I picked up for $10 
so much fun. I even went and played on the jumps in the terrain park - and landed most of them! Next step is to get more height and then go for tricks. Theres also some boxes and rails to play on as well, so the possibility of me getting hurt keeps increasing!
Back down to earth tonight and tomorrow - got to do some work :-(.
June 26th, 2007
Getting from Christchurch to Queenstown on Friday night proved a challenge. A huge storm hit, dumping 20cm of snow all over the South of the South Island, causing crashed, road and airport closures and other general mayhem. On the plus side, it meant that there was loads more snow on the slopes, so off we went anyway, hoping to find some open roads….. A quick call to the Land Transport hotline suggested there was possibilities (and also said non essential travel should not be attempted).
We drove most of the way to Dunedin before turning inland - without seeing snow. As soon as the road climbed though it started to get a little white and then more and more slippy. It all got interesting when we stopped on a hill and started to slide back - with 2 scared women in a 4×4 in front of us. I had to turn their car round for them as they were about to slide off the road (nerve wracking) and then I fitted my snow chains and began a really strange 200km drive on snow and ice.
All the way the car would snap into ruts, powerslide, lock up and just generally mis behave. Good fun! Eventually I arrived in Queenstown after 600km and 11 hours - and awake for 24 hours straight.
The next 2 days were spent on the slopes - I seem to remember how to ski which is a bonus! I suck in powder and on jumps though, so thats something to work on…..
June 24th, 2007
View of Coronet Peak base station and out towards Queenstown.
Good early season snow and fairly quiet slopes right now.
June 24th, 2007
Still in Christchurch - been working in a carpet underlay factory for near 3 weeks now. Its not that fun!
Back off down to Queenstown on Friday night for Winterfest - and will be on the slopes on Saturday. My car is now fully equipped with snow chains, so nothing can stop me now…..
On another note, Congratulations to Dave and Cathy Bown who got married on Saturday. Pity I missed the wedding, but the 12000 mile distance was a reasonable excuse!
June 18th, 2007
Coronet Peak will open on Monday! This marks the start of the 2007 ski season over here :-).
June 10th, 2007
I still get traffic and comment on my original smoking ban post, so I thought I would revisit it here. I am currently in New Zealand (and will be somewhere in this hemisphere until December), so I have missed a lot of the hype and advertising that seems to be going on in England right now. As I write this there are 22 days left before the ban takes effect on July 1st 2007…..
I of course support the ban as a lifelong non-smoker. I have seen my Grandad die of lung cancer, so I really do not wish to smoke - I especially hate second hand smoke.
One interesting aspect of my time in New Zealand is that there has been a smoking ban in place over here for a while - all bars, pubs, restaurants etc are strictly smoke free. In practical terms this simply means the smokers have to go outside to smoke - to which purpose there are roped off areas of pavement, heaters, stools etc etc. Nobody seems unhappy about this arrangement - in fact it provides a social opportunity for people.
I will be interested to hear how this ban goes in England - and how the pubs without beer gardens etc deal with it. I think its illegal to leave a pub with a drink, and I cannot see people wanting to leave drinks on the bar while they smoke, so some clever ideas might be needed…….
June 9th, 2007
