Whats good Steemers ???
Recently my girlfriend took me to New Zealand to see snow for the first time for my birthday ☺
Best present ever!!!
We rounded up some more friends to come on this adventure and 2 of my mates from another state were waiting at the air bnb as a suprise, was super rad !!
Our destination was Mt Hutt about 50 min out of Christchurch. But the locals call it Mt Shut as the mountain closes due to high winds regularly.
Our air bnb was on a golf coarse in an area called Windwhistle which was very fitting as it was super windy. Not too sure how good playing golf here would be. But from our veranda we had an awesome view of the mountains.
This was a short trip and we were only able to go to up the mountain for 3 days.
On our first day I was super excited to see the snow! Every adventure overseas I have ever been on I have chased the summer. And when we got to the mountain it was -3 which is the coldest I have ever been.
We hired a Rav 4 which was a 4 wheel drive so we didnt need to put chains on the tyres.
The drive up the mountain has amazing scenery.
And we tried to get to the mountain early before the mountain got too packed full of people.
We got our lift passes and board hire etc. The ladies booked a private lesson and us guys walked up the beginner run and strapped on the board. Now two of the guys I was with have done it many times before and gave me some pointers. I said if I can get down the beginner run first go with out falling I would jump on the chair lift and go half way up the mountain.
I successfully made it down the beginner run, so we got on the chair lift and made our way up to the easiest run the mountain has to offer.
Here is a list of the runs on Mt Hutt
Now getting off the chair lift is quite hard at first, it takes a couple of goes before you get the hang of it. So I ate shit the first 5 times until I finally got the hang of it.
Now as I have been rollerblading most of my life, I instantly thought I cant wait to hit some jumps! But as I learnt how to stop on the board and got the feel of going fast, hitting the jumps was put on hold as I have never bombed a hill as fast as this before. Never on my rollerblades or skateboard or bmx have I committed to go this fast down a hill. The fear of hitting the concrete is not there and you can slow yourself down alot faster.
Dont get me wrong, I fell over alot but it is snow and alot softer to what I'm used to falling on.
We caught up with the ladies after their lessons and went half way up the hill.
We all fell of the chair lift haha and regrouped with the rest of the squad.
It was so cool to bomb the hill together. Watching each other fall over and trying to dodge each other.
It wqs a great first day at the snow! We ended the day with a snow ball fight then headed back down the mountain.
There is so many sheep in NZ.
Also alot of deer aswell.
We got back to our air bnb just as the sun was setting. What a view!!
We all bought duty free bottles of alcohol so we cracked them and cooked a feed and talked and laughed late into the night.
The next morning a little bit hungover we got in the car and headed back to the mountain.
There was a little bit of snowfall over night. So we had some nice fresh powder to play in.
I had one run down the beginner run and thought I had it in me to go straight to the top and try bombing the mountain right from the top!
The view was amazing up here. And I got to capture the long white cloud that New Zealand is known for.
The moment I strapped my board on, stood up and looked down the run. I totally forgot everything I learnt the day before haha. The run we picked was steep and narrow. And my skills were totally not up to scratch. It took me about 45 min to get to the bottom haha.
Caught up with the crew for lunch then played on the middle runs for the rest of the day. Finished the day at the snow with some snow angels. Then we headed back got, cleaned up then went for dinner at the Blue Pub in Methven.
Not the best food I have ever had but the beer was cold so I was happy.
Our last day at the snow was so much fun now I have a feel of snowboarding.
Halfway through the day we were half way up the mountain and we could see the clouds coming up the mountain. And then all of a sudden everything was white. We couldn't see more than 2 meters infront of us. And then it happened. The thing I thought was only CGI in movies, the stories I always heard about.... It started SNOWING !!!!
I was so stoked to see it actually snow!!! This was very high on my bucket list and I finally got to tick it off.
This was the slowest run of the day going down the hill as it was snowing. Everything was white - the ground, straight ahead and up all looked the same it was so surreal.
We had some burgers in the snow for lunch ☺
And a couple of beers as the snow blew over the mountain. Once it cleared we got back out there and shredded the new powder. It was so much fun!
After it snowed, they opened the corona bar at the top of the middle chair lift so we all had some beers there.
It was the best way to spend the last day at the snow.
When we got back to our air bnb we were greeted with another amazing view of the sunset on the mountain.
What an awesome weekend. I can't belive I put off going to the snow for this long. Snowboarding is so much fun and now I have caught the bug 👾
For more info on Mt Hutt click the link right here
On our last day we did some jetboating up the Rakaia Gorge. Check out the post here
https://steemit.com/travel/@vcclothing/jet-boating-in-the-rakaia-gorge-new-zealand
It's just a shame I live so far away from the snow. But I will try and do it again asap.
Happy travels
G