July 23, 2003
Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown
Well I've now been in NZ for a week and a half so I thought it about time for another update. The flight over from LA to Auckland was nice enough if a little cramped and painful due to my not putting sun tan lotion on my back in the morning on venice beach. On that matter Venice Beach was lovely on the Saturday morning/afternoon, I should also mention the waves were about 3 metres high and breaking very close to the shore which made for some swimming, although the chap (Christian) I'd gone to the beach with from my dorm returned to the hostel after me with a nasty looking injury where a wave had knocked him down into the seafloor.
Anyway the flight had some good films, namely Old School which could be in the running to be the next Road Trip, another great comic performance by Will Ferrell (Marshall Willenholly in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) and a cracking cameo by Sean William Scott as a Redneck petting zoo owner. It also had the ability to play somewhat old computer games which was a bit fancy.
We arrived in Auckland at about 4:55 on the Monday morning (crossing the International Date Line meant missing out Sunday the 13th). Sailed through customs and past the sniffer dogs, checked my bags and headed to the other terminal to fly to Christchurch, and despite the flight only being an hour or so, they still gave out a breakfast which given they'd also served one on the LA->Auckland flight was nice. After I got into Christchurch I picked up my hire car (a Kia, lovely!) and headed to the hostel, after an hour or so I managed to find it and then after another half hour I managed to find somewhere to park so I could go and check in. Their car park was full so I had to park in the multi-storey over the road but fortunately they have an agreement with the hostel that meant my parking from 11am on monday until 9am on tuesday only cost $5NZ which is less than 2 pounds (and a lot cheaper than the $26 anyone else would have paid!) The YHA hostel in Christchurch is really nice with a great common room/kitchen and lots of showers which is always a good thing. I spent most of the afternoon/evening drinking tea and walking round the town (really not much to see at all).
The next day I headed down to Dunedin for a couple of nights, stopping in Timaru for lunch and to pick up an adapter so I could play my discman back through the car stereo. The hostel was again quite nice even though the area looked a little run down (appearances can be deceptive). My room even had a balcony, which didn't get much use as it's so cold down here at the moment. Didn't really do much the first night except sleep. On the wednesday I did the Speights brewery tour which wasn't bad (a lot better than the Granville Island one, although not as much free beer). Then in the evening headed out with some English lad whose name I forget and an Aussie lass to what was supposedly one of the better drinking establishments in town, except it was pretty dead and got raided by the police looking for under age drinkers. Then in true bolt the door after the horse has run fashion, the bar staff came round id-ing everyone (well except me) after the police left.
Then on Thursday I headed down to Queenstown, stopping in a little town called Alexandra for lunch, at a swiss cafe. What was swiss about it I don't know though. The Queenstown YHA is lovely although lacking in the open fire department which is what you want after a hard day skiing. After I checked in the lass behind the desk asked if I was planning to ski and sorted out all my rental gear and passes for the next 11 days which was a little handy. All I had to do was walk to the hire place and get a pair of fitting boots (they then delivered boots, skis and poles to the hostel for me, which was nice). I also got a new snowboard jacket and trousers (they look so much better than ski gear and are more comfortable) from a shop that carries last seasons gear (at a cheaper price). So I've now got a lovely Jack Burton jacket which still looks good off the slopes. I should also add that buying 11 days worth of hire, passes and clothing was actually quite cheap compared to daily hiring and pass purchase. Still this afternoon should be entitled how to very easily spend just short of 600 pounds in a couple of hours. Spent the evening drinking with an English lad from my dorm (Brian) and his mate Bob.
Friday was the first day of skiing and despite the fact that parts of the South Island are currently experiencing their coldest winter, there wasn't much snow up on my chosen field (the Remarkables) but I still had a pleasant time. Saturday was better as there was 5cm of fresh snow overnight but the weather was pretty awful (cold and gusty). I also learnt how not to put snow chains on:
As the instructions were in German I got some help off the staff who were renting out and generally fitting chains (the road to the remarkables is a 13km unsealed windy dust track). So this helpful (or so I thought) woman fitted one of the chains and left me to the second, I then received some more assistance with the second and headed off. After about 400 metres there was a bad clonking, the chain I'd fitted was all over the shop, so I drove back down to get it re-fitted by which point it had all but come completely off the wheel. So that was then re-done by someone who knew what they were doing and I headed back off. About 1km from the car park the first chain that had been put on started clonking and the bloke who patrols back and forth on such bad days pulled me over and sorted it out. Anyway the skiing was great despite getting a very bruised calf from where (the same woman who ill-fitted the first chain) didn't slow the chair lift down as I was getting on (they normally grab it just before it gets to you so it doesn't injure you). Bob and Brian were also up at the Remarks taking their first snowboard lessons, I tried to get them further up the mountain with no success.
Sunday was also spent at the Remarks (and I managed to fit the chains perfectly myself as there'd been more snow) and Bob and Brians morning lesson had them doing a green run (as opposed to playing around on the baby slope), so I managed to drag them up to the very top and down the other green runs.
Monday Bob and Brian took a day off boarding so I headed up to Coronet Peak (or Concrete Park as one receptionist at the hostel calls it). It was shockingly bad, although it did have a sealed (paved) road all the way up. However since there's been no snow at Concrete Park for a week (today 23rd), the runs are awful (covered in crusty powder or just plain ice) and not helped by the fact that fake snow blowers were going all day which didn't actually produce a decent powder at all. Still they did have a decent express chair lift and a pretty long run (1.8km) but I won't be going back unless they have about another 20cms of snow.
Tuesday was another day at the Remarks and it was absolutely perfect conditions, the sun was out all day and the powder was just right, so I managed to get around to doing all the blue runs (still haven't tried any blacks) and improved my technique a lot. Bob and Brian had their last lesson in the morning which had taken them down an easy blue, so in the afternoon I persuaded them to go down the other easy blue (in my book at least) which is just a very big drop (and below is a picture Brian took). In the evening we headed out with another English lad from my dorm (Dave) to a few bars, well about 5 in total.
I then spent today skiing at the Remarks again but suffered a little from last night so didn't ski as well, and also the snow just wasn't as good as yesterday given no fresh stuff (and the Remarks only make snow on the heavily used Alta Green run which is fed into by all the runs down the mountain).
I've got another 5 days skiing in Queenstown, so I'll probably spend them all at the Remarks. Then I'm up to Wanaka for a week and I'm going to ski 5 days up there (Cardrona and Treble Cone).
Posted by Alexis at July 23, 2003 07:18 AM