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Published: October 11th 2008
Finally after nearly a year later I have arrived back in New Zealand! I had a long 13.5 hour flight from San Francisco to Auckland, followed by a 2 hour stop over then a connecting flight to Christchurch. So this now technically means I have been around the whole world, I had to fly here last year and than back through Singapore last time but now having come back here through the USA I have now circled the whole world - Wahoo!!
So anyway I was feeling tired after flying all through the night but was eager to get to Wanaka, so after catching a bus into the city I walked into a information office to find out about buses, to which she replied 'the only one of the day leaves in 10 minutes from just across the square!!!' Oh great, I thought I would at least have time for a cupper tea or something, but no I just jumped straight on to that bus for the 6.5 hours journey to Wanaka (I thought it was only gonna be 3.5!!), where I arrived totally knackered to say the least, I had forgotten what nearly 30 hours of travel is like
As most of you know the whole reason for coming here was to catch the last couple of weeks of the ski season, so straight away I booked myself onto a lesson, which consisted of a lesson in the morning and one in the afternoon! I headed up to Cardrona ski park early the following day which was 45 minute drive from Wanaka up this windy as hell track with huge drop off either side. The morning lesson was very slow with everyone learning all the boring stuff like how to put on the skis on and how to walk up hill and how to do the snow plough etc. I have to admit at first it did fell so strange with them on because as soon as you’re on any incline you just slip down the hill, so we all had to learn how to stop pretty quickly as well. I also had forgotten how bloody uncomfortable ski boots are, they really kill your feet, but luckily as soon as your skiing you forget all about this!
So anyway the morning lesson went very slowly and as soon as lunch time came we had 2 hour break till the
afternoon lesson, so I decided to spend this time by practicing a little and I found out quickly that the faster you throw yourself down the hill the easier it is to turn and you don’t fall over as often because you know its just gonna hurt more, so therefore you have more will power to stay up lol.
So by the time everyone came back from lunch I had taught myself parallel turns and was having a great laugh getting faster and faster (bollocks to all that snow plough crap!!) and felt very held back by the rest of the group. Shortly after Nicola the ski instructor decided to push me up a group so that I could go up a proper slope instead of this silly nursery one! I then made my way up to the top of the mountain with my new ski instructor and 3 other people in her more advanced group, but once we started skiing down the mountain they were also slow as hell too!!
I don't know how I managed to pick this up so easily but within a few minutes my new instructor said that I should go up another group again,
but we came to the decision that I could look after myself and just headed down the ski run on my own! Well this was all fine except that I took the wrong route, which took me down a much steeper slope that I was instructed to go down, well it was great fun even though I fell over a couple of times but it was just a steep learning curve and I think its the best way to learn ha ha.
I end up skiing another 4 more days, I had wanted to do more but it was so expensive once you have rented the equipment, paid for the lift pass and then the transport to get there and back, That 2 whole weeks of skiing was just gonna cost too much.
I had spoken to a few people that had mentioned about hitching a ride up to the mountain as it's free! So I was there on the side of the road at 8 o'clock in the morning with my thumb out hoping that someone would pick me up as I have now already bought my lift pass and rented the equipment and dammed well wanted to
Lake Wanaka
This is the awful site that greets me evertime I step out of my hosteluse it! Well luckily enough a bloke called Rob picked me up and took me up to Cardrona. I skied around a bit by myself and then later on that morning I bumped into Rob again and as he was snowboarding by himself he decided to show me a few runs. Well I was just happily going up and down beginner slopes until this point, and then Rob started taking me down some of the intermediate slopes which were loads of fun and a whole lot steeper and consequently faster! The more I kept pushing myself to follow Rob down these steeper slopes the more I found I could do it and by the end of the day we even finished by going down these really steep black run (advanced/ hardest!). The whole day Rob kept saying I can’t believe this is only your third day skiing! Having him there to push me down all these slopes gave me on of the fastest learning curves I have ever been on, I think I spent half the time going down these runs, doing the stupid laugh you only do when your shitting yourself and you don’t know quite what else to
do!! But oh boy it was an adrenaline rush and a half!
By the time I got back to the hostel and started chatting to other people, everyone was thinking I was crazy, most people hadn't been down the runs that I had been down and they have been skiing weeks or in some cases the whole season lol.
I had to have a day off in between as my legs were so sore and aching like hell, you really do use muscles you don’t know you have until you start skiing!! The following day I could hardly walk ha ha!
On the forth day I was luckily enough to catch another lift up to Cardrona again with Rob, and as I was so pleased with what I had done the previous time I hoped I would be able to do it all again, but in no time we were literally flying down the slopes, I felt like I was going so fast at times, we were over taking the large majority of the people coming down, but the whole time I thought if I come of now I’m really gonna hurt myself and there were a couple
of close calls from pushing a little to hard.
We headed down loads of black runs that day as well, some of which we stopped above and they looked nearly vertical, but just thought bollocks to it anyway, what the worst that could happen (ok I know I could break my leg!!) so just headed straight down it! I was finding that after a few runs you could get half way down the slope then just face your skiing down the hill and just go for it, this was awesome and we were able to go so fast, I mean really, really fast, I don’t think I have ever had so many endorphins in my body all at one, I was just laughing my ass of the whole way down!
Rob was laughing at how everything he suggested, no matter how stupid it was, I just went along with, so the next thing was to head down the race slalom course, which is a fast track and has loads of jumps etc! Now I know this was well above my level but went ahead with I anyway, well what else was I gonna do?? Chicken out....no way!!!
Rob follow me
down as I went down the first straight, then missed jumped the very first ramp and went crashed down, and as Rob was right behind me, he had no room to move and hit me square in the chest and somersaulted right over the top of me, this must have been really funny if anyone had seen it. So we dusted our selves of and got back to the task in hand, I made it the rest of the way down the course with out coming a cropper right to the end where there was a finally double jump which I didn’t see to the last minute and hit a such speed that all my arms and legs flew out like I was half way though a star jump and spectacularly landing going head over heels down the hill having lost both skies and poles!! I really don’t know how the hell I didn’t hurt myself! I swear I have someone looking after me!!
The final day of skiing, unfortunately wasn't nearly as good as the 2 previous days as the snow felt very sticky and it was really hard to turn, so we ended up finding a good
nearly there!
it looked a lot higher when i was climbing it! couple of blue runs and stuck to them, as we had found a very icy slope when we first arrived which I slipped up on and ended up losing a ski and skidding head first most of the way down the slope, picking up more and more speed, I can only imagine that the people on the ski lifts above me must have been wetting them selves at the sight of me! The real pain in the ass was having to climb the whole way back up the stupidly icy slope to retrieve my ski and gave it another go which consequently landed me on my ass very quick and again I slid the whole way to the bottom but at least this time I had both skis!
At the end of the day Rob and I headed of to try and do some cross country skiing which was really fun and the finally was a go on the half pipe, this I was really concerned about but luckily I had Rob to push me into it! And it was great fun, I didn’t even know you could go down them on skis but it was awesome skiing horizontally! what
a great way to finish this ski season, I have be well chuffed with what I have done over the past 5 days of skiing (I think I have been down every run on the map and including some that weren’t shown) and now cant wait to next season where I’m gonna have a go at pipe again and try snowboarding!
While spending my time here in Wanaka, I was really happy to meet up with an friend, Sarah, from back home who I haven’t seen since she was in Sydney nearly 18 months ago, so I had a couple of nights out with her which she introduced me to loads of people as she’s been here since Sydney. Though Sarah I met this Taiwanese girl called Mau and a fellow English man named Andy who is an avid rock climber, so one night after a few beers Andy suggested we try some rock climbing. So a few days later we headed out of Wanaka on the most picturesque country road to find some rocks to climb and in New Zealand there is never a shortage of them! We all had a great laugh, even though I have forgot
how hard it is and how high it feels when you near the top, I remember thinking at the bottom that it doesn’t look that bad (and you’re probably think the same looking at the pictures) but once your on it your opinion completely changes ha ha.
In between all these adventurous activities I still had plenty of time to walk around and take in all the incredible scenery and views, I couldn’t get over how unbelievable beautiful this place was (Jack you very explain this very well to me) every time I was either in my hostel (which had huge panoramic windows) or at the bars which looked out over the lake, you were greeting with the most picturesque views back over the lake with the most impressive snow capped mountains of the southern alps as a backdrop. I went for many walks around the lake and from every angle the place looked different but never any less stunning!
Wanaka is such a small little place, I believe of only around 3000 people but is so captivating. I have heard from many people that once you experience it you never want to leave and I can well believe
it. Many people come for a few days and end up staying months, if it had not be my first stop I could have easily stayed here for quite a while.
Wanaka has some really unique little places as well, one of which happens to be the local cinema, I have been a few cinemas in my time but never have I been to a cinema quite like this!! Its only a small cinema and is attached to a Cafe, when you walk it you are greeted with row upon row of soft comfortable sofa's as well as some old converted VW beetle which you are able to sit in a watch the film! Also because it has cafe attached to it, you are allowed to drink beer, wine, tea and coffee etc as well as order full on meals and sit down with them while watching the film!!! (This is what they need back in England).
Also half way through the film there is a small 'smoko' break where everyone is able to replenished there beer supplies, go for a smoke or grab some more food. I couldn't get over it, it really was one of the best
cinemas I have ever been too and is truly unique experience lol!
The last couple of days I spent in Wanaka, Andy, Mau and I decided to head up to Mount Cook, which is Australasia’s highest mountain at around 3700 meters above sea level, I didn't realise quite how big it was when the previous night we were all sat in the bar and I was suggesting we should climb it, this was however before Andy started laughing and explained exactly how high it was and that I would need to be an experience mountaineer to even attempt it! What a bummer!!
Well Mt cook national park was a 2 hour drive from Wanaka, which as usual when travelling in New Zealand look us through some breathtaking scenery along the way, but as well drew closer to the national park the weather got worse and worse and by the time we actually arrived it was absolutely pissing it down, we had planned to camp the night but after a quick vote we all decided that probably wasn’t gonna be the best idea and ended up staying in a this really nice hostel for the rest of the evening till
the weather cleared up. Considering that this was the largest mountain in NZ and were meant to be encompassed by mountains all around, the weather was so cloudy and wet we were unable to see anything! So all the walks we had planned to do today were then pushed back to the following day.
I would like to say I woke up peacefully to a lovely clear day, but unfortunately as I soon found out Mau was a morning person and woke me up by throwing all kinds of things at me. As many of you know I am really NOT a morning person and the more I tried to hide and carry on sleeping the more Andy kept laughing and encouraging Mau to wake me by laughing, shouting and throwing even more things at me!
It didn’t last long before I eventually gave in and had to get up and I was greeted to a wonderfully clear blue ski!! Finally some walking could be done! Over the day we trekked down a number of trails, one of which took us near the whole way to the base of Mount Cook where we were also able to see the
Hey Mart, imagine taking your scooby up that!
or even better, imagine me taking your scooby up there ha ha! Hooker glacier. The views of Mt Cook as we walked down the rocky and stony path were magnificent, it looked amazing in its sharp snow covered menacing way, just asking to be climbed!
One of the other walks took us to another part of the valley where we seen some other great scenery and Mt Cook again, at the end of the trail we were able to sit and just admire the view and here we were also lucky enough to witness a small avalanche from one of the other mountains around us which was great unexpected surprise.
Towards the end of the day we then drove to another part of the park for a short walk up this rocky terrain to see New Zealand’s longest Glacier at 28KM's long! We had read that it was also said to be the ugliest glacier too and as soon as we seen it we could agree with that! It looked more of a used quarry than a glacier, but it was strange to think that quite while ago, it would have been over 700 meters higher than where we were currently standing!
The views around Mt Cook national park were magnificent, the
walks and the sheer enormity of Mount Cook where fantastic, no matter how many times you look around at all the mountains that surround us, and you just couldn't help to be captivated by it all!
So far from what I have seen of NZ, I have been blown away by, I have heard so many people say about how stunning it is and until you are here to actually witness it in person you are unable to comprehend what its like to be placed in an environment such as New Zealand, Now having seen the beautiful lakes of Wanaka and the sheer size of Mount Cook and not managed to break my leg skiing, I cant wait to hit the road and start exploring more of this fantastic country.
Sorry to all of you that have managed to read all the way down to hear, I believe I have really gone on and on in this blog, so thank you for taking your time to read this and put up with you my ramblings! Next stop the world famous Queenstown, which has the reputation for making people do very stupid things like bungee jumping, canyon swinging, white
water rafting, lugging and jet boating through canyons! I have a feeling I’m going to like it!
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chris hargreaves
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Awesome mate so jealous that your back out there having fun. i only spent a month in nz but i know its amazing... south island is just so beautiful and i think the most amazing things we saw were actually in transit looking out the window. We skydived lake wanaka, which u have got to do sometime in nz. But i think the highlight of our trip was walking up Mt tarankei in new plymouth (north island) when your up that way check it out. hardest thing i have ever done but such a good adventure. have a good one buddy