Track back to Oz

Business calls in Melbourne, so time to make some tracks back towards Oz. The weather seems to indicate that icy/snowy roads are likely soon, so I waste no time in geting back via an Intercity express to Christchurch before any road closures are likely through the Lindis Pass to catch a really early plane back over the ditch.



With plenty of time to spare in Christchurch, its time to kick back a bit and take a holiday from the travel, and adjust the internal clock for Oz or probably a better reason would be adjust the clock for the 2am wake up to catch the flight over to Melbourne.

Coronet Peak Paragliding

Picture above is a panorama from the top of the ski lift looking back down to the valley. The actual landing area was about 4km around to the left of the mountain as you look out (which couldn't be seen from here)

Paul hadn't rang, which was a bit surprising, as I was sure he said he was going to one of the ski fields around Queenstown today.
In any case, I figured he might have just had another big night, and was late. I walked into town to offload some excess baggage back to Oz, and I thought if I'm going to hitch a ride up there, I'd better at least check what the weather conditions are. Weather forecast was for strong wind, but knowing how wrong the forecasts usually are, I really wanted to know from someone who might be up there. I give Keith a call from Elevation Paragliding (the same group I iniitially tried to do my license with but the weather wasn't looking promising at the time) and ask him what he reckons the conditions will be like and says he doesn't know but has a tandem flight booked at 11am (but not promising the customer anything) so he's going up there anyway. Keith says, "where are you now?", to which I later realise I'm about 100m away from him! So I get in, we pick up the tandem customer (Lee), and his pilot, Swannee and head on up to Coronet Peak. We get to drive right up next to the ski lift, hop on and ride the 6 seater chair lift with 3 people and a couple of gliders on board.

We're all amazed when we get to the top, that the weather is perfect. It's completely clear skies and a light 5km/h breeze blowing up the mountain at just the right angle. Swannee and Lee head off first, and I follow in a few minutes later (with a quick flight check from Keith) to glide from the 5400ft peak down to the valley below.

Above picture is the area down in the valley where we landed.

Ski Lesson at Treble Cone

Paul is on his way up to Treble Cone again today, and I hitch a ride with him. He lets me know that he's probably not going to ski much of the day, as he's been doing the skiing full on for everyday, and will probably head off to Queenstown early afternoon. I'm happy to hitch a ride to Queenstown too and if weather and circumstances permit I'd like to head up to Coronet Peak to Paraglide. (picture above is Paul standing at "Pub Corner" looking out to valley. TC base and ski lift is in background)

It's a very windy day up at TC, with snow blowing across the top of the ridge at around 80-90km/hr. Conditions are otherwise fine, but I opt out for paragliding here unless an expert is handy. It turns out an expert was taking off at Pub corner below, but before I realised it, it was too late for me to get down there. Not to worry, its quite nice at the base here by the outside fire.

Paul finishes up and asks if I'd like to use his skis and boots, to which I happily accept. I can't barely even remember the last time I put on some skis about 15 years ago at either Perisher or Thredbo, but I don't remember having any real trouble, on my first lesson that day. Whatever they taught me was just a complete blank. I don't even have a clue how the skis connect to the boots. I venture on down to the super easy 20m beginner slope. This is the one that has a magic carpet and an incline that's almost level. I ask Paul to give me a few pointers, and I go down this slope 10-15 times just practising the wedge stop. While I play around with this for the 30 minutes, he heads back inside and get a few more tips from a lady who has skiied a few times before, and is practising herself. She gives me a few more pointers about how to do the zig zag down the slope. She's a star teacher,, and after a few more runs I recommend we head on up to the next beginner slope which has enough slope to it that you can actually get a quite a nice bit of speed up.

Things are moving along nicely, and I reckon I've got this more or less sorted, and decide to go locate Paul for the next bit of advice and also rest the legs.

He comes on out, and grabs my phone and takes some video of me while giving me some more tips on refining the style.

Later, I learn that the reason he's heading on over to Queenstown is for ski instructor get together, and learn that he was doing ski instructing at Queenstown last year. No wonder the tps were so good! And he took the video for the "video analysis" to have a look at later. The funny bit was this was the component of his ski instruction course to get a level one pass, but it obviously worked for me, so Paul definitely passed in my books! (I'll up load some video later - after I've edited the boring bits out)

Snowboard at Cardrona

The day before, Paul had found some other ski bunnies down at Shooters. Allan and Deslee. They're repeat offender Cardrona junkies. They're from Australia too, and are here for a couple of weeks every year. They've got me interested in checking out Cardrona. They say, if you're a beginner and you're managing TC ok, then you'll just love Cardrona because almost all of its slopes are much gentler. I was enthused the night before, but hearing all these stories of busy slopes and lifts full of teenagers I thought it would be best to at least wait 'til school holidays is over. Meeting up at the pub at the scheduled 5-6pm happy hour, I hear that it really was a busy one so I was lucky I didn't go to Cardrona Tuesday, but they've still got me interested in these easy slopes, so I organise to meet up for a 8am ride today.

It turns out to be an exceptionally good choice. Overnight its been snowing and the early morning weather looks worse than it really is, keeping most of the crowds away from the freshly powdered fields! Now and again you had to put up with a snow storm in the early part of the day or board through some low cloud at the lower end of the field, but this just made it more interesting. 90% of the day it was clear blue skies.

Allan and Deslee are spot on though. Unlike TC, where I can barely venture beyond the "easiest way down" (which is equivalent to an intermediate slope at Cardrona), I circumnavigate the entire place at Cardrona throughout the course of the day.

I expected to catch up with my Aussie friends somewhere on the field, but this place was so vast it just wasn't meant to be, so despite all our efforts to meet up for breaks throughout the day, I miss their ride home, but manage a hitch down the hill with another Paul who's visiting from Dunedin all the way back to Shooters with 5 min spare for our regular meetup.

More snowboarding at TC

"TC" as everyone calls Treble Cone, is again today separated from Wanaka below by another inversion layer, which means gliding is unlikely. Paul and I repeat the process of getting up early and cruising up the mountain to get perfectly clear skies above the cloud layer. Once Paul goes up the lift I never see him on the slopes til the end of the day. He's an expert skier that ventures around to all the advanced areas around the mountain. He's also expert at getting the best deal in town for ski lift pass. He's from Sydney and this isn't his first ski holiday over here. He's learnt from last season that if you hire a "Jucy" car rental and ask for the ski pack for an extra $12 per day, it includes snow chains, ski rack and..... a ski lift pass for the driver! (a daily ski lift pass costs around $100/day). So his total cost per day for renting the car is $45/day which is cheaper than the ski lift pass (yes ... he had to repeat this to me twice before I got it!) I have seen some other good deals around such as buying early in the season etc, but this one will be tough to beat.

Meanwhile.. I'm starting to get the hang of going down the mountain on the "toe - heel" doing the "S turns" most of the way down, but still lacking some fluidity. I'm making progress though. The first day it took me near enough to an hour to get down, but now I'm doing it in about 10-15min.. albeit on the easiest way down, and I haven't even had a look at most of the slopes on the mountain yet.

Treble Cone Paragliding

After the Christmas in July celebrations at Wanaka Bakpaka (an evening where everyone cooks something and then shared in smorgasbord style). Paul arrives in late, and misses the great feed which must have something to do with the premise's earlier life (as it was a restaurant before it got converted to a backpacker).

Paul is on his way up to Treble Cone in the morning and offers me a ride up there. We start the day with the best breakfast in town down at Kai Whaka Pai (keep in mind "wh" is side like "F"), and get up the hill with glider on board for opening time. I hang about by the outside fire down at the base of the ski field waiting for conditions to get perfect. I'm on my own here, and the take off area is extremely small, so I'm not taking any chances. At about 11:30am I walk down the area to lay out my glider on the 45 degree angle slope, and from the top Mal is calling out from up top. I later learn that Mal is one of the "speed riders" here, and is about to launch from a slightly different area just around the corner. He's got a camera on his helmet and a small glider that is probably smaller than a parachute and is off the fast way down the mountain. He jumps off, drops like a lead balloon, and then immediately executes a barrel roll before skimming the contours of the mountain all the way down (in about 1-2 minutes). He makes what I'm about to do look like a past time for fairies. If he can do that I shouldn't have any concerns taking off from here.

In any case, I'm setting up the glider on a sloping ground, it's muddy, icy and slippery, and only two steps before walking over the edge. I'm double checking everything. I wait for a small bit anabatic air flow up the side of the mountain, pull on the risers, the glider comes up beautifully even overhead, I take another step and launch off into the air. Phew.. it worked, and glide around the sides of Treble Cone for the next 15 minutes. It's a one way glide down as expected as the air isn't thermalling, so I land down at the road entrance up to Treble Cone below.

I end up hitching back up the mountain with Mal another three times and repeating the process, as was Mal except he was doing three flights down the mountain for every one of mine. He speed rided 18 times that day, which means he had to hitch up 18 times as well!

Here's some of Mal's first person view of what it looks like Speed Riding down Treble Cone.

Snowpark at night

Its been a rest day around here for all concerned... long breakfasts, and an early pub session, as Phil is celebrating his last days of drinking forever in his life. Phil's been travelling for about 8 years and while applying for a residency he's been asked to do some medical tests, and one of which revealed that his diet of alcohol for breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, early and late happy hour and every other hour in between has had some detrimental effects on his liver.. They say he might live for another two weeks, but two months is possible, and probably a lot more if he quits altogether very soon. The other reason Phil is celebrating is because it's his 31st birthday on Monday, and from that day forward he's going to be on a concoction of drugs, one of which will make hime immediatey sick if he consumes alcohol!

So its party mood fever and where else is better to continue on in the night than doing a cruise up to SnowPark to have a look at the snowboarders do their stuff at night. The action turns out to be non event, but the lounge at base is a great place to continue the theme of the day.