Damn so sorry to hear about your developments! We are in methven now , flew in to Christchurch on Saturday. Btw for your flight back if they booked you in with qantas it could be ran by Emirates and is an a380 so hopefully it would be fairly comfortable. Take care!
Also credit where credit is due. Thanks to @Sandy for talking me off a ledge for a second time this week.
So in more positive news breakfast at the Hilton is up there with one of the best hotel breakfasts ever. As a Hilton Honors member I got an a la cart eggs selection, cooked to order. And the top photos are the press your own juice available to everyone. Apple carrot, celery and ginger! The home made baked beans were the best I have ever had. Although the huge amount of bay leaves left in it may have caught some people unawares. I think the Aussie breakfast he’d had something to do with the great food! The scrambled eggs and other eggs are real and there was a cage free flyer. The roasted tomatoes had seasoning and herbs on them. Tater tots and mushrooms along with bacon cooked a variety of levels (crispy to barely warmed) rounded out the hot stuff. Along with fruit and cold selections and the Asian style. And a few Indian curries.
Love a good hotel breakfast Fingers crossed you get a good seat for your flight back home and you get well looked after on the flight. At least you can do Queenstown to Sydney direct. No such luck for us Adelaideans, not even a direct flight to anywhere in Japan.
To end my trip... the hosties got me drunk. Bless them. Still taxing. Maybe I should have asked for a wheel chair after all!
There was a guy sitting next to me editing his heli boarding footage. I made a comment 'so no injuries in your heli group then' Def think he thinks I did mine on a beginner run! He kind of scoffed at me. Twas funny. I should have said "didn't try hard enough then mate!"
Hey! Glad to know you made it back safe! Hope you have a speedy recovery! Too bad we didn't get to ride together as planned though, maybe next time! QT was really fun and I visited all 3 mountains. Definitely liked the runs at Coronet the most but Cardrona's snow was so much better. Hopefully the airlines don't lose my luggage again if I do decide to make another trip next year.
Yes! I was in bed when everything started shaking hahaha. My friend didn't feel it at first but when I told her about it she began to panic.
I did wonder what her reaction would have been! I wouldn't have been bothered so much if I wasn't on crutches!
Ha, I can't even go down blue runs well. My objective for this trip was to get comfortable linking turns on green runs. Big easy was surprisingly good to practise on. One day in and I was finally confident enough on the greens to start trying out M1. Unfortunately I still fell so I took a group lesson and as usual, didn't learn much. Instructor said I'd be better off spending my money on a 1 or 2 hour private lesson, which I did and now I can get down blue runs without falling badly, though my turns are still not closed well enough. I got to try some boxes too so that was a plus! Didn't manage a single landing without falling on my ass though. But hey! I accomplished my goal for this trip at least, and will continue to try and improve on my next trip to Japan. One step at a time.
I had to calm her down by telling her to look outside at the people who are carrying on with their lives like nothing happened.
Day 1 of 28 South Island. Pretty average at Mt Dobson for a 1st day. First time here what a great place. Not a life queue all day and that's a Saturday. Imagine today at Thredbo Signature laps under the chair in some nice pow and then a 10 min boot pack back to the lift. The view from the top out to Mt Cook was pretty damn good.
A bluebird powder day at The Remarkables today. Love this place, awesome if you like a hike to some steep terrain. Alta chutes was so good, filling up with wind blown knee deep all day. Still finding fresh lines at 3pm and the carparks were full.
@climberman and I just had an amazing time in Canterbury, really awesome! https://www.ski.com.au/xf/threads/un-tele-and-climber-go-for-a-jaunt-in-nz.85660/page-2
Yep, it's a thing, there was some existing fallen from the sky powder that was aided through the day by the wind blowing more in.
Spent the last 3 blue bird days at Treble Cone. Very impressed with the Motutapu chutes, although not perfect snow in them it was still very skiable and I loved how steep they are and the amazing rock features such as the fickle finger. The boot pack out is pretty cruisy as well. Other highlights would be the Gunbarrell, what a thigh burning long vertical treat. The Mineshaft, the Crags, similar. Credit must also go to the customer service and quality of food and coffee at TC, outstanding.
That's the beauty of the chutes. If there's a hint of a breeze, it's free refills all day. If you know, you know.
Pulled into the Mt Dobson car park Saturday 8/9 to be greeted by a sign stating, "it's our 40th birthday today and lift tickets are $20" And then to get fresh powder tracks all day for that investment was priceless! What a great ski field this one is, so many hike to options not far from the lifts.
Well I really stuffed the dates up didn't I. I just dropped these two vegemites off at Cairns airport this morning. If you spot them wandering around Queenstown over the next week be sure to say hello to them.
Mt Hutt, she can be friend or foe. Have skied here many times in the last 25 years and Monday/Tuesday just gone were Epec! Amazing first tracks on South Face Monday and on Tuesday the Raikia Saddle chutes and Bluffs were opened with some great hero snow. Monday was freshies all day.
Day 28, home tomorrow. Finish with some sweet spring corn at Porter Heights. Lucky if there were 100 people on the hill. 2nd photo is the east facing ridge line just out of bounds past Big Mama. The snow ran out about 100m above the last hairpin on the road up. It was a very sweet run, about 500m vert and took about an hour to skin back up.