Carry

The stunningly flat Cantebury plains wouldnt be a stunning without the massive maintains that protrude from them. Quite a contrast to the surrounding pastoral land, to see rock ice and snow. We arrived, yet again, with luck on our side. The mountain had been closed all week, one meter of snow had fallen, fresh powder was waiting for us on Mount Hutt. A hefty price for the lift ticket has somewhat scarred my impression of a really nice, but small mountain (equivalent to Whistler's prices , for perhaps a tenth of the size of mountain). However it was still an awesome day, skiing down both sides of the mountain making fresh tracks in the morning and enjoying the afternoon sun. It was bluebird days both Sat and Sun, making our experience so much better. We stayed ... read more

A last minute decision to "go bush" this weekend turned out to be an excellent idea. The Levin side of the Tararuas weather forecast was for full sun both days, something that never occurs in the usually cloudy and overcast, rainy Tararua National Park. It must have been the first time I have ever seen the tops so calm and clear. The pictures say it all. We hiked for 5 hours up to Waiopehu hut, mostly uphill in typical backcountry terrain. It was tough, to say the least, as we were going up we wondered how we used to tramp for so long. It takes a couple of hikes to get back into it, after a year of being away from NZ it was expected. The hut is perched just below the bushline, and overlooks the ... read more

We spent one last weekend with our mate, Thomas doing a big road trip in and around Washington. The first day was to be spent at Vantage, for some rock climbing/ hiking , and then head off to Stevens Pass for a bit of skiing the following day on the way back. Our trip to Vantage took much longer than expected. A 5 hour drive turned out to be like 7 hours, and we ended up getting to the rock early morning, just before sunrise. We set up camp next to the rock called the Feathers. It is a dry and arid looking place, quite different from where we'd come from. The next morning the bright sun and peoples voices up woke us up, and we crawled out of our tents feeling knackered. The climbers were ... read more

These photos tell it all, really. But a few words cant hurt. We headed up to Whistler on one of their busiest days. All the indications for crowds were there - Presidents day in the US, weekend, fresh powder and sunshine - we should have known. The line up for the Blackcomb chairlift ran down into the village. Nevertheless, no matter how many hundreds, or thousands, of people were there that day, we still felt like we got a piece of untouched snow. Whistler/Blackcomb is so big, crowds dont seem to bother you when you're actually skiing. We decided to go for Blackcomb, and stick around there all day. Getting to the top takes a while, its a big mountain, and we had to take a few chairlifts to get to the top. Well worth it ... read more

Our weekends have been taken up with skiing - both Saturday and Sunday we have been going up to Cypress ( 30min drive from Van), not just to breakeven on our expensive season pass, but for fresh air, exercise and most of all fun!! Since realising that there is no future for us on snowblades, we decided to buy new skis through my work. A pro deal offered to employees enabled us to get the latest skis at a very good price. So here we are on a very clear day on Cypress, sporting our new skis - mine the Rossignol Attraxion V (Grrrrr) and Benoit's Head Xenon 7.0 (aka The Professional). With clear blue skies for the first day on my new skis I managed to semi comfortably go down some of the hariest blues ... read more