Pink on White Walls

Perisher, NSW, Australia
With a few days till the weekend, myself and Lauren decide to hit the mountains for the weekend. After booking accomodation on Tuesday, I had a couple of days to get excited about the best Australian snow season since I've been here.

I managed to make an early dash from work, and by around 4.30pm, we were headed out of Sydney, and by 10pm we'd reached the country town of Cooma, NSW. Up early, and - we made the hours drive to the Perisher valley behind many other snow-sportsman and woman with similar plans to ours. The last time I came here, there was no snow visible until the actual slopes, and all that was man-made. This time, there was heaps of the stuff from miles before the first lift came into sight. Today however, would not be about the search for powder stashes and hot lines, but about someone elses first turns on snow. So together, I did my best to teach Lauren to ride snowboard. Sadly, some kind of virus took its toll on me and we had to call it off fairly early - though we'd enjoyed a few fun runs on the Perisher front valley, we had decided it was a little too busy for comfort.

A night back in Cooma, and I think the extra rest sorted me out, and maybe a little help from the snow Gods, who'd been kind throughout Saturday afternoon and left some nice fresh surfaces to play on, on Sunday. This time, we hit up Smiggins and Laurens boarding came a long way. She was putting in turns both ways, along with some ancient falling leaf, and some 'ever funny, stacks'. While Loz took time outs, I would jump on the T-Bar and head to the summit for some speed. I was also fortunate enough to spot a short hike to a nice 5-6ft drop off cornice. I was content hitting this up several times for the day and cutting my way back through some fresh before hitting the groomers at great speed back to the car parks.

By my reckoning, it was about 2 o clock, when Lauren made her most significant breakthru yet... she stayed upright off a ski-lift!

After 3, we called it a weekend and packed the car for the loooooong ride back to Sydney. I do however, love this part of New South Wales, possibly the most of any part I've visted so far, and took many timeouts to jump from the car to take some photographs as the sun painted a watercolour sky behind weathered gum trees. Lovely. The 5hr drive home as usual, sucked.

Sunlight hits the snow

Gulmarg - a finale.


On our second Tuesday in Gulmarg, we found out that the forecast for the remainder of our stay would be ‘clear’. So for the first 10 days, we’d had unrelenting powder, and now we were to have my other favourite extreme of snowboarding conditions – Sunny cruisy days of having to wear very little in the way of insulation, along with awesome al fresco lunches at the foot of the mountain. The hunt for the untouched powder would also keep us more than entertained.

Our guide took us off the beaten track down some powdery gullies, and onward through the tree line to a village inaccessible by motor vehicle (at least, the wheeled variety) called Derang. On the way here, we entered a wide snow filled valley of snow pillows. It was relatively tough going on the legs as the track was so flat, but the views were some of the most amazing I’ve seen whilst strapped into my board. Here, local children greeted us shyly, and giggled and pointed at these strange looking white men wearing bulky synthetic clothing with huge over sized mirrored goggles. Some of the kids would come and stand on the back of our snowboards whilst we slid thru the village. Looking at what these kids had, we must look like space men gliding through on our shiny snowboards. I was a little aggrieved at having to rush through as quickly as we did, as it was a humbling experience to talk with these kids, and I didn’t get much of a chance to photograph things there as I would have liked.

Eventually we would arrive back at the main town of Tangmarg. After crossing a large flat bed river, the pathway elevated above the suburban sprawl and afforded us awesome snow capped views of thousands of Kashmiri’s homes. More kids would talk to us and practice their English, some would just ask to carry our board or ski’s whilst walking – for a ‘tip’ of course!

***

Fatigue was truly setting in with the group, and everyone took turns in sitting mornings and afternoons out with burned out muscle groups. Those of us left out, were happy finding stashes of north facing snow that hadn’t become sun baked. I was after the money shot with my camera, and it took several attempts, and a couple of occasions getting covered in snow… but I was happy with the final results:

With a couple of days riding left, I decided to hang back in bed for a morning to give me one last strong afternoon and a final day with the “don’t give a @#$%” attitude toward getting an injury. Myself and Nick headed up for a final couple of runs, though in honesty, we had now seen Gulmargs best offerings and now we were just chasing a dragon which we wouldn’t find. We trudged back from the cat-track to the hotel to discover the other lads had also headed back in early. They were midway through building up a couple of snow park features right out the front of our hotel. I gladly obliged in assisting and after a few hours of grueling work, we were ready to leave the features to set overnight for a final day not in the midst of tall trees, not standing 4000metres above sea level, but barely leaving our hotel.

Friday was bright and sunny, some of the older guys staying there opted to take the day off completely and sit in the sun and relax watching the younger guys do their best to hurt themselves. I like to point out that we saw our guide take a knock to his knee cap earlier in the week and saw the standard of the local hospital… and therefore it was that we would try extra hard not to land awkwardly, concuss or even break ourselves.

The kicker offered many pops of fun, Hux and Jubs the keenest to hit it hardest; my kicker best sadly a few years past, it would seem now. Luckily I was there to take so decent shots instead and of course look pretty for all the fine young looking, err, hold on – snow monkeys.

Midday past, and the sun started to dip. The temperatures dropped off quite rapidly and before we knew it, Gulmarg was dumping again. Big chunky flakes of snow fell around us. The brown tinged snow paths becoming virginal white again, the tracks in the snow we had trudged out, being filled again. Gulmarg tries her best to forget it’s guests as quickly as possible, and before we’d even left, near all evidence we’d ever been there had been erased from the sands of time.

Darkside/Lightside

Week 2 - Gulmarg

The whole group took a lay day at around the half way mark of the trip to let our muscles recover from the intensive time they had endured and we went to try out one of the only Western food joints in town. Apparently, there would be an internet connection there too! To our dismay though, the current power outage meant no pizza, and no computer connection for the internet. The dodgiest Chicken burger ever managed not to upset our stomachs and we wandered back to our hotel past the ice rink… which had about 30 men clearing 1 metre of snow from its surface. They would bring a large sheet of tarpaulin down to ice rink level, fill her up and sling it over their shoulders. This would then be emptied off in a heap 20metres away. I wasn’t envious of them.

It was Sunday, when, the second phase of the Gondola finally opened its doors to us. As we rose up to its final altitude of 3950metres above sea level, there were only several lines below us and we had the pick of fresh to gun through on our way to personal snow sport hedonism.

As it was our guide’s day off, we had to be careful, so with some caution we headed back down virtually under the gondola – the only “patrolled” area in all of Gulmarg.

This was what we had come to Kashmir for.

An 8 month wait finally at end, as we bombed the Kashmiri slopes and sprayed more white powder into the sky than any Columbian drug baron could ever dream of. I lead the pack momentarily, and spotted a small hill that had perfect snowfall on it, untouched, glistening like a diamond encrusted wedding gown. As fast as I could, I carved one huge turn, looking back to see a huge rooster tail of snow thrown skywards and into the sun; a temporary eyeful of daytime twinkle stars. I dropped back into the valley to see Chris drop a 6ft boulder, land and ride away… we were both in some kind of wonderland; Kashmiri wonderland.

I now have a new “happy place” that I shall return to many times in months and maybe years to come; this was one of the greatest feeling moments of my life.

***

As people around the world faced the ‘dread’, my Monday morning was filled with anything else but… well, aside from the physically demanding task of summiting Gulmargs highest peak. From the top gondola station, our gang strapped boards and ski’s to their packs, put heads down and strutted up hill toward what had been the highest point visible for the past week or so. Winds were sweeping across rapidly, and to look into the wind would cause an amount of pain I’d rather not think too much about. I trudged in others footsteps, and got higher and higher. Roger and I reached the dizzy heights of the summit together, high fived and set about photographing our surroundings as quick as possible. The only problem here was the temperature; around minus 20 degrees, had all but killed my camera battery, so a few shots before thinking about putting a snowboard back under my soles and getting away from these inhospitable temperatures.

As I awaited the rest of the group to attach their boards, my feet were yelling for help. They were the coldest I can ever remember them being. I wasn’t sure how they might react to having to steer me down a steep powdery mountain face. My bindings too, had frozen; I had a struggle trying to get them to lock into place. After they did, I took my turn in the first stage of descent, and to my annoyance, my left foot fell out of lock and I took a tumble. I whimpered down before I could get them fixed up.

Happily, the group including myself, made one of the best runs of the trip so far. Powder turn after wide, fast powdery turn… this is why I was here, this is why I went to Milton Keynes indoor slope all those years ago, this is snowboarding and the rush it gives me.

At The Foot of The Mountain

Gulmarg, Kashmir - Week 1

Gulmarg is Indias premiere snow sports resort. It has a 2 phase gondola section that gives a vertical rise of 3950metres. There are one or two drag lifts, but these are off limits to snowboarders… and they only service relatively flat areas anyhow. Once at the top of the Gondola, you can either ride one area of ‘patrolled’ terrain, or, if you’re experienced enough, you can go into some serious back country. It is for this reason you must have an avalanche shovel, a probe and a transceiver on you at all times.

The top phase of the Gondola is very subjectively open, and so on days when it is closed, there are many runs you can slash up under the tree line. The quirk here is though, you need a car to drive you back to the top.

Day one of our massively anticipated riding finally dawned. After breakfast, which was my first non-curry meal of the trip we congregated outside the hotel awaiting our guides arrival. The snow had stopped falling, and the sky was blue – it was almost too perfect to be starting this adventure in such beautiful fashion. Local dogs came to see what was happening, snow monkeys carried on with their business in the trees nearby and purple tinged crows flew over head as we tested avalanche beacon equipment. I’d sunk into the deep snow several times just heading over to where we would clip in, and as I knelt down to fasten my new board to my feet for the first time, I finally felt ‘on holiday’ – with all the long, lengthy, tiring traveling behind me.

I watched as a couple of others dropped off the snowy ledge and with the excitement now too much to bear, I too dropped in. My new Burton Fish surprising me with how easy it was to maneuver. A first look at the first phase of the gondola was something else to behold – bearing in mind, we still couldn’t see where it would finally end up – some 4000metres above sea level, for cloud cover still surrounded the upper peaks. The lift ticket system has been something that I think makes or breaks a good resort in Europe, America and Oceania – and I would quickly get annoyed if I had to dig out a pass each time I rode a lift; rather than an electronic pass system… Gulmarg has it’s own charm however. An Indian man sits in the corner near the pickup zone and sells each ride to you individually. In return you receive a voucher for your ride; the sponsors slogan mis-spelt “Stronger than the Stogest”. I decided this could get old quickly but didn’t realize how few times I would need to do this throughout the trip. To compare Gulmarg to anywhere else I’d ever been would be totally unfair however. This trip is the perfect fusion of my two favourite pastimes; traveling to remote locations, and sliding down snowy hills on carbon fibre core planks of wood.

At mid station, the relatively clear sky allowed our first looks of the mountain Affarwat, that just has to be seen to appreciate it’s full wonder. The peak still shrouded in cloud, and a queue solidly formed to get to the final phase of the lift, we rode the lower section several times. Fresh powder made the trips first few runs very enjoyable indeed, and each new run heralded a “better than the last run” feeling.

After a couple of these runs, we finally managed to jump on the gondola to the top station. The winds were blowing hard and the safety officer at the top informed us this would be the last run of the day; so to enjoy ourselves. And that we did. Although the light was as flat as a pancake, it was still easy to find untracked fields of fresh, and hit them at speed too. Before long, we had descended nearly back to mid-station, when I think I broke my personal record for fastest snowboard land speed along a cat-track.

As the snow fell, none of us realized that it would not be until the following Sunday that the top of the mountain would be accessible again.

The hotel continued to host us in charming Kashmiri style, the food was tasty, and dinners became romantic for the fact candles were oft used as the power failed several times per evening.

The storm which had shut down the upper gondola phase, raged on for several more days. I have never seen so much snow fall in such a short space of time, and so it was that every morning for most of the week, there would be plenty of fresh, and a constant snowfall. Since we were forced to stay low, we made the most of our guide Fayez, who showed us some awesome lines through the trees and along some steep challenging terrain that eventually delivered you at Tangmarg; a town based at the foot of the hill up to Gulmarg.

I attended an avalanche safety meeting on Tuesday evening which went some way to educating me of the dangers of back country snowboarding, and also gave a prediction of when the upper mountain would once again open – Friday lunch time at best, and this would be after several controlled detonations of explosives to shift some suspect avalanche hot spots.

The snowfall thinned toward the end of the week, and we lapped up the last of the untracked areas of fresh powder as the weekend landed. But still, by Saturday, we had only made one descent from the top station, way back on day 1… we were getting hungry and restless for all that fresh neige to be made available to us.

I'm Not Working

To India!

And just like that, I’m there… cruising the skies at several hundred miles per hour. I’ve had my last client, I’ve had my last experience of the rat-run and I’ve had my teary goodbyes. All that’s left now is 5 more additional hours to the 2 I’ve already killed till I reach Singapore. I’m being treated to a ride along in a new Airbus A380 along with the ability to plug in my USB memory stick and start word processing, rather than watch some brainless movies (of which I did also!) from the comfort of seat 52C.

***

My short experience of Singapore, incidentally comes exactly 2years after the day I flew out of Chiangi airport to Perth (not to mention 1 year since I made a trip to New Zealand for a visa run). I can see a thoroughly soaked runway through some windows, and an absurd amount of Fuscia bursting from every orifice they seemed to be able to grow a plant from through another. The taxi’s that wait to pick people up from the front look like crash test vehicles in a very plane and dull blue… I’m not regretful I won’t get to look around here further today.
***
Now back to more conventional means of mobile computing, I’m on my second flight from Singapore to Delhi, just shy of 5hours flight time, I’m now being blessed with a short, fat slightly disgusting Indian man sat next to me, who at around every 3 minutes, snorts the excess mucus from the back of his throat and then coughs without holding his mouth. He seems hell bent on getting everything he can from the in-flight menu too, I think I’ve counted 5 requests for peanuts… and they don’t even taste that good!

***

I’m a little sad to be sitting in the middle of the airliner as I miss the descent into Delhi – my foray onto Indian soil, but I get my dose of culture soon enough as I make it out through passport control and into baggage… My snowboard bag is waiting there for me, albeit with several wet boot prints on the top, so just my clothes to come now… What seemed like an hour with the hunger that was starting to build in my belly passed me by and I was finally on my way out to the hoards of taxi pimps awaiting my pickup.

Luckily one of those guys had a clipboard with my name on it, and I was able to kick back and let someone else take care of the rest of the evening.

I made friends with a few other guys here to snowboard, and we all laughed at the crazy Indian highway code “Beep to be seen” code of conduct. From the moment I got out of the plane, the air smelt like something had been burning that shouldn’t have been, like when you see a tire on fire on some derelict land; the atmospheric sky both foggy, smoggy and unclear.

I was soon at the airport hotel and was re-united with my old travel companion Nick, who’d flown in today also; from New Zealand. That’s another country we’ve traveled to together. It’s about 10pm local time when I think about sleep, though my body thinks it’s 3am and so I drift off into slumber as quick as I had anticipated. Sydney catches up with me at 2.30am local time when my body thinks it should be getting up for work, gotta love jet-lag!

***

So now everyone had made it to Delhi, and a day that had lasted 29 hours instead of 24 was behind me, we could all sit down to breakfast to compare travel stories and expectations of what lay ahead of us in Kashmir. The spicy curry breakfast was about as Indian a welcome as you could get.

Back through the crazy Delhi traffic, where vehicles seem to be able to travel whichever way they feel, along any roads and around roundabouts – most junctions and by-ways seem to serve more as an obstacle to most drivers than something that forms order and safety on the roads. We arrived at the airport where we checked in, and even had to go and ID our luggage out on the tarmac before it was loaded onto the airliner. It was also here that we would discover something of a recurring theme in India; the power cut. The domestic terminal plunged into darkness a couple of times, though the public don’t really panic… it’s just normality here.


We landed in Srinegar, Kashmir amidst a much cleaner air than we had so far been used to in India. As we walked across the tarmac to the terminal building, armed soldiers were periodically posted to check all was in order. The conflict between India and Pakistan that has continued since the earlier stages of the last century, still casting doubts over the future of Kashmir.

Out in the near-zero temperatures with our bags, we walked out of the airport along a muddy lane lined with barb-wire fences, I felt more like a Prisoner Of War than a tourist; the locals equally interested in us and our long board bags as we were them, and there traditional winter attire.

Once our gear was loaded onto the car roofs, our drivers sped off along the rubble streets and then onto tarmac. Many shanty style houses were there, though strangely, much like the new terminal building being erected, extremely modern blue reflective glass buildings popped up; that wouldn’t look out of place in Dubai or any major modern city.

Some brief flashes of snow covered peaks, and the weather was cooling rapidly – as we arrived at what seemed to be the last town before the bendy roads that would lead us to our home for the next fortnight. Local men mulled around our cars for no particular reason, it was quite unlike any other snow resort I’d ever approached before.

As we started up the final roads to Gulmarg, the snow was falling hard and the roads became more treacherous. Our driver seemed a little too naïve for my liking, and didn’t seem to realize that a vehicle has more traction the more gear notches you go. As a result we got stuck, many, many times. The other half of our group would arrive at the hotel a whole hour earlier than we did and for all my efforts, I just couldn’t educate the driver. He finally saw some sense and got the snow chains out, except in true Kashmiri style, there was only one – which meant the back end of our car was constantly fighting ahead of the other side of the car.

Regardless we were happy to finally get to the snow covered hotel in Gulmarg, still with snow landing heavily around us.

The Gift That Keeps Giving

Mount Hotham, Victoria

This year has seen some records broken in Australian weather. The tropical Gold Coast resort of Surfers Paradise recorded its first EVER sub zero temperatures during the crack of dawn. Sydney has also been really cold, rivalling Wintery days of my homeland. However with the last few weeks, the clouds and low temperatures have fallen away. The sun is once again shining and I've been able to lose my jacket whilst wondering the city streets. This week though, I couldn't wait to be cold again. The destination and reason: Mt Hotham, Victoria - snowboard riding.

As I left my final client in Bondi Junction, I got a call from Az asking if I was gonna be late (as per usual), fortune was on my side as I stepped straight on a bus that would drop me at the end of my road. Pretty soon, Todd had joined us and we had his car packed with our boards, clothes and supplies.

We were united with Wedgie, Alison and Rog but just had one Lowen to arrive... Human tetris on YouTube helped pass those final moments of city confinement. Then the fun started... 6 hours driving to Albury, with the most amazing bouts of 20 questions you'd come across, and err Maccas... Luckily, at some point around the time we crossed the state border of New South Wales to Victoria, I fell asleep in the back for around 2hours (a rarity for me) and combined with the other 5hours sleep I got in a bed at Wedgies parents place, I was set for my first days riding.

So after a ridiulously early start, we arrived at Mount Hotham at around 9ish, parted with "I don't want to think about how much" for a 3day lift pass and set about cutting some new lines. Initially, I was pretty disappointed with the snow quality. It's not that there wasn't much of it, more so that it had rained the day before and made it all incredibly wet and slushy - like the stuff you see packed around fresh fish at the local mongers. So after the least enjoyable days riding I can ever remember (all aside from a day of rain in Austria 05), I wasn't hopeful of much for Hotham.

Luckily, we brought a good party to Victoria and the mood wouldn't be dampened by a bit of rain. Myself and Aaron kicked off the long weekends cook fest with some chicken fajitas. Several beers each later, the physicality of the day and the extended travel meant every one was soon crashed out.

A second days riding didn't offer much hope first off. The lower temps had given the pistes a bullet proof sheen which would finally soften up after lunch and allow for some fun, though still not much. The sun was out for a while though, and my riding mood most definitely improved. A late arvo whiteout would provide the best find of the day though. Todd and myself headed where there were no people. Skiers right off the Heavenly Valley lift descended a short way under the cloud line, and a clear lightly covered gulley awaited.

Rog and Todd stepped up to the wheels of fire and prepared one of the most memorable meals of all time... Goulash. Several hours of cooking time ensured everyone was pretty well 'relaxed' by the time the food was served up, it finally arrived and was gobbled up by everyone around the table. It wasn't the last we'd experience of the wonderful delights of goulash though. uh uh.

Day 3 - a dump! a whopping 10mm of snow meant there was at least something to cut out the icy sounds booming up with every turn, and finally, we could start to appreciate the terrain that Hotham had to offer. Snowmaking was now full steam ahead too, and so it was technically snowing all day long.

That wasn't the only dump that started the day off though... on their first visit to the little boys room, certain members of the party were once again re-united with the familiar smell of last nights goulash... and one member in particular would be sniffing that oh so distinctive, pungent smell all day. On just about every lift. And just about everytime his jacket puffed out some air - that smell would be there to haunt he and all around him... for the next 36hours. He wasn't impressed, nor was the poor woman that had to share a room with 3 croaking guys for 4days... ah, heck, why talk in the third person eh!?

So back to day 3's riding... and, well, it made me realise just how great a resort Hotham really is. By far the best of the 3 Australian ones I've been to thus far, the terrain is varied and interesting with something for all snow sports lovers... except maybe air quality (during my stay in the village). By late afternoon, our lift tickets were dwindling to an end, and we just had to make the most of the heavily falling snow as it made the pistes and back country great fun to ride in. That snow continued to fall, on and off most of the night... until the early hours.

Most of the gang headed out to Jack Frosts, though we soon moved on the General Store as we'd heard there was some kinda band playing a gig there. And indeed there was, though what the guy singing was like, I have not much recollection... as the night slipped into morning just as the twanging guitar strums slipped into a bangin' DJ set. I'm thinking it was about 3.30am when Todd and I made it back to our rooms; heck we didn't have to get up for anything the next day!?

7.10am day 4, I start to stir. I'd fallen asleep in the clothes I went out in the night before (always nice). I felt like a small rodent had taken up residence in my head...

7.14am day 4, Lowen, who had been sensible enough to boycott the previous nights musical frivolities looks out the window of our room and notices the 15cm dump of snow. He comes back past my bed and says "I'm off for a ski". I says "really?". "Yup". So within 90 seconds, I'd whipped on my board riding gear and was out that door quicker than a round of jagers being emptied.

With no valid lift passes, we'd have to be careful... and the fact we had to vacate our rooms by 10am. This meant 2 things. We'd have to go hard and fast to make this early morning jaunt worthwhile and I'd just have to deal with the overriding feeling in my head and gut.

Fortune favours the brave they say. I'd say I was pretty brave since I coulda blown chunks at any moment. But instead was blown away by this quality snowfall... this quality snowfall that we would have to rape and pillage, before leaving it to the sleepy heads that still had time left on the mountain.

Myself and Lowen duly left our mark on several runs, and managed to not get challenged by any lifties... our conscience' were clear after the amount we'd paid for lift passes... and it was now time to wrap up our time on the mountain.

9hours back in a car to Sydney, via Wedgies folks place, who put up an awesome mid trip meal... and I was dreaming of snowy times ahead... though this time - 5months ahead. Time to get some gym time in.

Thanks again to everyone involved... see you in the video; coming soon.

Away From Here

Thredbo,

Imagine that feeling you may have had once or twice only in life, that feels a bit like how, I figure, a vice clamping across your temples might start to feel; as a direct result of work related stress. I think I got to this stage with an unpleasent combination of long hours, cold weather, stressful factors at work and a pending cold, all creeping into my week together. It should've been for the best intentions; a good week whereby I had my sights firmly set on a great weekend. Unfortunately not.

Friday, the fight continued right through the day with my schedule getting stacked back toward clocking off time, just convenietly adding to the grey hair inducing stuff. I finally shook my last clients hand of the day, jumped in an elevator and decended down seventeen floors of green glassed skyscraper (as seen in the Matrix). Out on the street again, the urgence in my step was being driven by a new energy. A force aquired from the thought of where my body would be in 15hours time. The thought of what I would be doing and what I wouldn't be doing, gave my mind some solace.

An hour later I was home, and my good friend Rog was there with a Land Cruiser packed with his ski gear. All was left, was to add my snowboard gear and me... plus some long hours driving, petrol and the worst nights kip in a hostel of all my days. To speed past that, I found myself shivering whilst walking toward the same carpark I had parked in back at Easter in the centre of Canberra. Sleep depravated and still with lingering thoughts from the working week, some people may have questionned what I was doing when a choice to spend the whole weekend in bed could have been so easy to take.

As we made early tracks toward lake Jindabyne, it all became clear. Pastel shades painted a picture around us as the sun rose, almost a solid state rainbow with blues, pinks, oranges, yellows and greens eminating from the horizon in front of us. As we arrived in the Kosciusko state park, I was forced to hit the brakes to let a family of Kangeroos hop on across the front of our car (100% pure Australia!). This put a smile on our faces, a smile which would be with me for the whole weekend ahead in Thredbo.

With my T1's laced up, my Cartels latched and in perfect position, my little WorldWideWeapon gleaming, freshly waxed in the sunlight, it was time to slide down a slippery slope. I promised myself I'd go easy on my first run... I broke that promise as soon as I realised my legs had enough in them to warrant not having to go easy. A little shaky, never the less, I was back in a personal paradise. Cold wind on my face felt just as good as any beachy warm breeze today.

I've never needed such a fix of snowboarding as this weekend just gone by, and to think I have but 3 weeks to wait until the next excursion - well, I'm stoked.

Even though weekends in Australian resorts tend to get a name for themselves as being busy, I'd be the first to admit that things were really not too bad. The longest we ever waited for a lift was a couple of minutes, and once we'd found some enjoyable runs with good conditions, it was all the easier since T-bars tend to fend off large crowds by their very nature.

At the end of day 1, I think both Rog and I felt pretty overwhelmed, but still managed a few beers and games of pool before saying g'night to the starry night in typical fashion.

Sunday seemed to have sent some of the crowds home, so slightly less busy, the day involved me trying to get back to as close as I could to my personal best form of March 2005. I could certainly go fast, and I was grabbing mute and tails in no time. I managed some baby 360's and even got to riding some switch out of a couple of little 1's.

Aside from the muscular aches around my ribs, and dare I try to forget, my left groin I'm in great shape after the impromptu weekend of snow fun...

Again? Bring it on.

Day Tripper

New Zealand... again.

February 2nd 2007

6am. My alarm wakes me up at the now customary time, and after a shower, I throw the last few things I need into my snowboard bag. After a beans on toast, I set off for the bus-stop for a jam packed excursion.

Sydney is about 22degrees this morning, grey and gloomy, so I’m not too worried about leaving this time.

8.30am. Check-in at Sydney airport. I see my bags get carted off to the oversized baggage man and I make my way through to the gate, and start to anticipate what is almost a novelty since I haven’t done it in just over 3months. My passport gets stamped as “Departed Sydney 02 Feb 2007”, a few pages previous, a page has a stamp saying “Arrived Perth 02 Feb 2006” and a few pages prior to that one, a big sticky label informing the details of my work visa “Valid from 12 months from first day of arrival”. Time to leave.

10.10am. Back in the luxury of an Emirates flight, I’m watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2 as the planes tail tilts back as we lift off the Australian tarmac. Pretty soon, I’m being fed whilst cruising of the Tasman sea toward Auckland.

4pm. I pick up a shiny newish Silver Ford Focus from Hertz, and I’m in full voice as I drive through the rush hour traffic toward the Central Business District in the “City of Sails”.

5.50pm. Re-united with Nick and Lucy, who hang back from their trip North to catch up and have a bite to eat at a pub near their place. Great catching up, and over way too soon, the two of them were soon on their way and headed off to check in to my hostel.

8pm. I’m a backpacker again; despite having no backpack, and checking in with merely a towel and toothbrush.

8.35pm. Lift of Destiny. Unsure of what to do with myself this evening, I hit both up & down buttons on the elevator. If a descending lift showed first, then I’d walk the city and maybe find a bar to chill with a beer. If ascending, I’d check out the ACB roof bar where a “wild party” had been advertised.

8.36pm. Ding. Upwards. I met a Norwegian girl in the lift who was meeting up with a large group of Scandinavian friends and my night was set. Free punch meant everyone was having a great time despite some pretty dodge music. The English in the house were ecstatic after finally beating the Aussies in a one-day cricket match. The music was really terrible. I’m taught some great phrases in Spanish by a guy from Chile.

February 3rd 2007

1.35am (approximately). Head hits pillow.

8.30am. Dude in room turns light on thus waking everyone up. Kinda handy as an early start was needed regardless. I shower and check out and head for my wheels a little excited at the thought of what I’m about to do.

9.45am. I drive over my 3rd famous bridge in a year, as I head North of Auckland.

9.57am. I can only remember one of the Spanish phrases from the previous night.

10.10am. My throat is saw from ‘yelling’ too much to my music as I pull up in the car park at SnowPlanet. I check in and get geared up.

10.30am. I cut my first lines of snow since the Dubai dome, which had raised the bar in terms of indoor domes I’ve visited. Auckland SnowPlanet it pretty good however, it’s slightly longer than what I’m used to in England, and the snow quality if pretty good. The best thing however was the terrain park. I nice big kicker with a good quality landing zone meant I was busy all day. Later on I hit the straight rails and also had an attempt at a kinked one, a little cautious to avoid injury in a foreign country.

11.55am. An early lunch, I recommend the Bacon and Egg Quiche.

2.05pm. The sound system plays The Verves Bittersweet Symphony. I love this place.

2.34pm. Oops, I realise the time and leave sharpish. The car is loaded up and I have to head back to Auckland airport already. Regardless I’m well happy after getting the better part of 4 hours back on snow. I set off toward the airport.

3.14pm. I’m lost.

3.25pm. Back on track.

3.50pm. I arrive at the airport, drop the car off and repack my snowboard bag.

4.10pm. Queued up for the pleasure of paying $25 departure tax.

4.20pm. Standing in line to check-in. Flight due to take-off in 40minutes with about 20minutes of people in front of me waiting…

4.24pm. An angel calls out and asks if anyone heading to Sydney is still checking in. I get fast-tracked to the front.

4.26pm. Unable to check in, I overlooked pre-paying my tourist visa for Australia.

4.28pm. In another queue across the check-in hall, awaiting a woman to complete the necessary administration associated with the required visa.

4.47pm. Back at the Emirates desk and I'm finally given a boarding pass and an escort through customs and x-ray control.

4.58pm. Sat down at last as the plane taxi’s from the terminal.

6pm. After nearly 2movies, a great monkfish meal and 2 white wines, we touch down in Sydney and I’m home…