Snowboarding in New Zealand!

Woot! Michelle and I just got back from a week of skiing and snowboarding in New Zealand, which was absolutely awesome again :) Things weren't all smooth though.....I had to go to Canberra for work in the week before we left for NZ and, thanks to some ill people who decided to come to work and share it around while I was there, I managed to pick up some sort of cold/flu type virus from them. At least that where I'm laying the blame anyway.

So, I flew to NZ anyway and ended up with barotrauma and an infection in my left ear, a bit of a chest infection and a hacking cough that still won't go away :( Didn't stop me from snowboarding though ;) Man it takes it out of you being sick though......walking through deep snow dragging my board was way harder than it should have been! No concussion this year, which was a bonus :) I bought a helmet just in case (a Giro G10 in snow cammo colous), but didn't end up needing it thankfully.

It hadn't snowed since the 21st, so the snow was starting to get pretty thin on the ground by the end of the week, but there was still plenty in most areas.

We spent our 1st day at Coronet Peak, just to get warmed up again seeing as we hadn't been for nearly 2 years. We went back there on our last day too, but the weather had well and truly turned to shit by then and it was raining/sleeting some of the time.

Our 2nd day was supposed to be at Cardrona, but thanks to yours truly forgetting to change the time on his mobile phone to NZ time, the alarm I set was actually 2 hours later than it was supposed to be (oops!), so we went to The Remarkables instead. I have to say, I wasn't that impressed with it, but Michelle found a good run (one of the intermediate ones from the Sugar Bowl lift) that she could get some really good speed on (even in loose ski boots!), so she thought it was great! Too icy for me on the less-than-perfect rental gear I had (old model Burton Clash 154 with pretty loose boots and bindings), but still not too bad.

We spent our 3rd and 4th days at Cardrona, which is my pick of the fields we've been to so far. Nice wide open runs! Unfortunately there were some areas where there was grass and rocks exposed, but for the most part it was good.

We did the Shotover Jetboat ride on the day we got to Queenstown....that's a hell of a blast! Those guys must *really* know their way around in those canyons. The speed they do in such close proximity to the canyon walls is a huge rush, but I hate to think what would happen if you got it wrong!

We went for a trip up the Skyline Gondola and did the Luge on the last day. That's heaps of fun! A handy tip though....bring your gloves and your beanie....it's bloody cold when you get moving on the Luge track! I accidentally left my gloves in the car....I couldn't feel my fingers by the end of each Luge run we did! Still great fun though.

We also took a look at the Kiwi Birdlife Park on our last day. They've got all kinds of cool critters, including Kiwis (obviously), Keas and even some Tuataras! They're all cute too....here's a couple of photos:

Michelle having a chat with a Kea with a sore wing

Tuatara at the Conservation Show

You're not allowed to take pictures in the Kiwi House (as they're nocturnal), so no pix of them.

It was nice to have clear sunny skies, but it would have been nicer if it had snowed every night. But, you can't have everything! It was still awesome and now we're even more determined to get our own gear and to try to make it to the snow at least once a year every year.

We're going to try somewhere different next year.......maybe Australia. We'd like to try Canada or Europe, but the cost is right up there :(