To my surprise when I arrived in Queenstown my bags where sitting there waiting for me. Too easy! Next on the morning agenda was to pick up my rental car, which was referred to in the brochure as a Juice Box. Quite an apt description of what the car looked like and how it preformed Not a bad deal, $25 a day to rent a car plus a free ski pass to Treble Cone. Thankyou Jucy Rentals.
The sun was shining I was in Queenstown and it wasn’t even 10am, what to do… Maybe ski? Up to the Remarkables I went, hurtling up the dirt road in the Juice box. Nearing the top of the hill things got a little slippery, and the Juice box struggled a bit with traction. Once at the top I geared up, boots on, time to hit the slopes. It was a pretty nice day, slushy snow, no crowds and clear skies. It was definitely not an epic pow day, but it was certainly better than a day at work.
After ripping up The Remark for a few hours I headed down the hill and over the Crown range to Wanaka, where I was going to be staying for the majority for my trip. I met up with good friend and fellow Jackson Hole skier Nick Hooper. He has been living in Wanaka all winter working for Southern Lakes Heli Ski. His house mates were nice enough for offer me there spare room for a week or so.
The week continued on, I skied up at Treble Cone with alright conditions. Meeting up with a couple mates along the way. Little be of fresh with good visibility. Nothing spectacular though, so I though I would make the most of my Jucy rental and head back over the Crown Range and check the conditions back at the Remarkables.
I caught up with some old mates from Melbourne on the way, Luke Carter key and Quieten Adams. To be honest these guys weren’t the best ski partners, the whole snowboarding thing really lows them down… However they do make good drinking buddies!
So after a cruisie day at the Remarks we headed out into Queenstown to see what kind of trouble we could find.
We ran into fellow Melbournians, James Willis, Will McClure and Matt Demarco. Next thing we knew we found our self’s in a bar complete with skate board ramp, which was great entertainment!
This night took a dramatic turn when I received a phone call at about 9pm. My mate Nick Hooper who I was staying with in Wanaka was at work, on the front desk for Southern Lakes Heli ski. He rang to tell me they had a last minuet cancelation and if we wanted we could fill the chopper for next to nothing…
So I proposed the question the boys.., They were in. Tomorrow, things could get a little interesting. I could see the excitement and anticipation surging out of the group immediately. None of them had ever been heli skiing, let alone a heli before.
The next morning we met up at the Heli skiing office, geared up and headed out to the heli port. Unfortunately no new snow had fallen in a couple days, the skies were a little cloudy.
Never the less, we were going Heli skiing! How could you go wrong?
We had 4 runs, each one progressively worse then the other. Not really the result I was looking for. But the other boys were totally stoked. Which along with the awesome heli ride made it worth while.
A couple days later it was pack up time for Wanaka. Time to head north to the Canterbury ranges near Christchurch. The reason for the trip was the Big Mountain skiing competition know as the Chill series. This year the Chill Series were held over one week, at two locations, Craigieburn, and Mt Olympus.
I wasn’t travelling alone we had a 4 car convoy consisting of skiers from all over the world, NZ, Aus, USA, Norway and Sweden. We had an epic trip up through an amazingly scenic part of New Zealand. One of the high lights was stopping at Lake Tekapo for a bbq dinner. We had a spectacular view of the sun setting over Mt Cook while we feasted on fresh local salmon.
The journey continued on, and we made it to Craigieburn that night.
We woke up the next morning to fine weather and good snow, I sight not always seen in NZ. Which meant that there was no stuffing around, today would be comp day.
This gave me very minimal time to ski or even see the terrain that was on offer. However the first challenge was getting up the mountain and learning to use a nut cracker. Which is basically a over sized metal clam the you through over the rope tow. I worked it out fairly quickly, which was lucky as it gave me time for 2 practice runs before the competition began.
To be honest I felt pretty overwhelmed with the new area, the lack of preparations and lack of ski fitness, I wasn’t on top of my game.. My skiing reflected this, I put down a very average run, getting lost about half way down and missing most of my features. It was still a great experience and an awesome opportunity to ski and new area. On the up side It gave me more time to free ski, explore and practice for the next round at Mt Olympus in a couple days.
In typical NZ fashion the following morning the weather closed in and the final was cancelled, time to more on to Mt Olympus. The convoy headed out through some amazing country. The roads became tougher and my little Jucy rental was only just keeping up. Steep hill climbs, dirt and gravel roads and even creek crossings on supposed ‘Short cuts’ really pushed the limits of this little beast. By the time we made it to the base of Mt Olympus I figured this vehicle was un stoppable. By this stage it was late, and we were on need of some rest, so we made our was to the basic but comfortable cabin at the base of the mountain.
The next morning the weather looked marginal to say the least but it was the final day of our window for competition so the Chill guys were going to do their best to run an event. We loaded up the Juice box and crawled up the gravel road.
At point it would have been nice if someone mentioned that the road up Mt Olympus was pretty rough, but no one really did, as I figured that this car had been through quite a bit over the last couple days, one more hill climb shouldn’t pose a problem. Or would it?
The road went from bad to worse. Steep gravel switchbacks as far as I could see. At one point I had to get everyone out and push while I floored it in first gear just to get up the road. Bumping and jumping around the rocky road. We finally made it to the top, wondering if we would be able to make it down in one piece.
As soon as we opened the door, we knew there was a serious problem. There was a very strong smell of petrol in the air. I looked under the car to see a hole about the size of a 10c coin with petrol pouring out… Not good!
The rest of my morning was spent ringing rental companies and tow companies working out how to get the car back down and to the repair shop. After 20 or so pone calls things eventually worked them self s out. So I decided to get out and make the most of the day.
The competition was called off due to weather, so I was glad in a way I didn’t miss out on that.
The afternoon rolled around and I managed to bum a lift off some mates back to Christchurch as I was now car less. My flight was at 4pm the next day.
Not the nest way to end a trip, but it was an adventure. Meeting new people skiing new areas and having a good time.
Never a dull moment skiing and travelling in New Zealand!
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