1st day Skiing, Southern Hemi style!

So on Sunday, our second full day, we got up to the mountains.
Quick geography, Christchurch is ~60 miles east of a North-South range called the Southern Alps. The prevailing wind pattern is from the West. So all in all it's alot like being in a pattern like Cle Elum, though less winds because there's no low pass like Snoqualmie.
Mt Hutt is our new Home mountain, roughly 90 minutes through some of the flattest country staring right out a huge range of moutains that continually grow as you get closer. The fold of the landscape are very different from the Cascades, I'd liken them to what little I know about the Rockies.
This view is to the Northwest and the only operations in this direction are Heli Skiing.









As we neared the resort there's a parking lot for the shutte where the road conditions are posted. As we passed we saw two girls raise their arms. We hadn't noticed the thumbs. Ok, we're picking up hitchhikers in a foreign country, awesome. Turns out the two gals(lasses?) are Irish, both ski a little, and one is a PT(Physical therapist) who's lived in NZ for 8 months, the other training to be a teacher who's been around less. It was pretty funny to listen to the conversation on the way up.
Let's cover the road real quick, definitely not an American road. 14Km of no asphalt, just gravel, and ice, oh and a little bit of sluah. If clings to mountain sides, avalanche valleys(I'm not exagerating) and gains the occasional ridge top with out a second thought of guard rail. Meanwhie our 4wd(awd) Mazda Wagon has 1/2 bald tires. All while listening to the Irish girls chat with Julie about their relocation and Grey's anatomy(they love that Patrick Dempsey). Oh and driving on the other side of the road. And it's sunny. Not my Northwest ski commute to be sure.
The Mountain was stunning. It's based in one large folded valley with lots of stream valleys forming amazing contours and tons of natural half pipes. It shone in the cloudless sky. Both Julie and were instantly enamored with the mountain. Ironically the one song we heard playing in the base was American Pie by Don Mclean. It almost felt like just another day of spring skiing at a New American resort.
After a couple warm up runs we decided it was time for lunch. As we walked to the car, we noticed a metal walk-way that extended some 50 ft out from a cliff band that was the parking lot(no guardrail). Oh yeah, bungee jumping from the middle of the resort. I did not partake(too cold), but was impressed by the Kiwi's persistence in the pursuit of all that is extreme. As we walked between the other cars, I noticed a large green bird. I'd heard of the Kea, it's a mountain parrot that resides in the Southern Alps. Somehow I thought it might go lower in the winter and that it was like a parakeet in size. This thing is big enough to eat! Apparently they'll chew on anything. Their known to drive motorcyclists nuts as they'll chew the seats, the grips, etc.. Eitherway, the bird and the bungees jumping was enough to thoroughly remind us that this wasn't back home!

We packed in some great laps after lunch and called it an early day as my quads were starting to burn already from all the jumping around.
It felt great to regain our skiing legs so fast and to do it in such a cool place.
Today it's back to a few chores and tomorrow will hopefully be skiing again(weather dependant).












Conditions/terrain:
The snow was about 1 week old. Groomers were firm and fast with smoke type spray rising off. Off-piste had a break-away styrofoam texture(soft crust) 1 cm of snow-dust on top with loose dry underneath (10 cm?) that was rarely reached through riding. Aspects that received sun slightly softened, but low temps keep event the solar melting to a minimum. Terrain is a great mix of complex fall lines caused by a very folded rock. Stream cuts have further refined the contours creating constantly changing steepness and contours. Summit was wind swept. Clear, reported -2 at base at 1PM.

Grocery store, Akaroa

This has been the longest day ever, because we were wide awake at 2am. However, there's no negative connotation meant to saying it's been the longest day; it's been a fabulous day. This morning we took advantage of the empty early Saturday morning streets by driving on the left hand side of the road (we're careful not to say the "wrong" side) to the grocery store. The meat section was my personal favorite-- so many different types of sausages! The weird flat fish! I picked up a huge bag of "savories" (meat filled pastries); I devoured 1 or 2 as soon as I got home. Afterwards I decided to check to make sure that the meat was cooked (it was). Lunch: kiwi, nutella and jam sandwich. Ryan, Roy, and Tammie all skyped with us-- that really helped to make us feel that we're not alone out here.

Then off we drove to Akaroa, an area that was a sunken volcano that is now a gorgeous bay. It looks like Napa. I am in heaven here. I can honestly say that this place is more beautiful than wine country; can you believe that? Oh and it's wayyyy less expensive. The drive out and back to Akaroa was worth the stress of driving on the wrong, errr, left side of the road. Bryce did all the driving but I can tell you that it's a bit scary sitting up front on the left hand side of the car with no steering wheel-- at one point I had such an adrenaline rush of fear (no fault of Bryce's, the car just went a different way than I thought it should) that my fingers hurt for minutes afterwards as if I had been electrocuted.



After almost a year of living with the bare necessities, it feels so luxurious to have furniture. We don't really mind too much that we don't have a spaghetti spoon to stir our noodles, that there's no plug in the bathroom, that the fridge is 1/3 of the size we're used to, and that there's no clothes dryer. It's like we've been training for this. :-) We're happy with the luxurious: heated towel rack, coffee press, internet, and heated mattress pad. The cold is something that we've been fighting here-- I can't understand why home owners here don't all replace their drafty windows with more energy efficient ones; all the heat pumped into a room lurks away the second the radiator's turned off. There's 2 extra doors in this house to help divide up the cottage so that part of it can be heated at a time. Oh, and speaking of doors,the handles are so high! Not good for hobbits.

Arrival

Wow, so much to say!
First, we made it with all luggage, no customs problems, no car issues.
Second this place is amazing, even flying around on a partly cloudy day you could see that.
Third, the books didn't exaggerate how nice the people are. We already got one invite to stay at person's house and our car rental offered to help me buy a car from the local dealerships(not from his fleet).
Fourth, the summer to winter thing is a bit brutal. It felt amazing to walk out of the hot airport, but walking into the cold cottage is another story. I'll have to document the fireplace that functions for looks only.
Fifth, it's just amazing so far. It's starting to sink in how long I'll be here now that all the travel worries are done. I can't wait to go skiing. Well off to unpack some more

Sunshine and snow, part one

Hiked up from Paradise on Mt Rainier with Jules, her Sister Laura, and Laura's husband, Geoff. For those that don't know he's an aussie, so we had lots of fun having him speak Kiwi. All in all and awesome day and I've got a great famer's burn (red-neck + red upper arms).
Tomorrow the Chaos amps up a level. We fly out!
Finally, 18 months of planning, hoping and madness culminates.
We've still got to work out the car situation, and our longer term home in Wellington. But we've got our home set for our arrival on Friday(1 day air-travel, 1 day 'time-travel').
Our new home resort has been hyping their constant snow. Roughly a meter since the 4th of July. It'll snow one day and they'll have sunshine the next, it makes for perfect blue-bird days.
I figured I'd share.

Talk to you you in 2 day!

Oh, Really?

Julie says I should write a blog... So I'm writing.
Originally this was going to be the story of our adventures, and trials and tribulations of moving to New Zealand. Not so much a blog as just a history. However it's impossible to tell a story without characters, and a good story has plot and character development. One could document that development through actions, but I'm more a fan of the first person, so I'll go ahead and say I'll continue the trend of sharing my thoughts.
In the last two days I've successfully sold both Julie's and my cars. Anyone that knows us, knows we were pretty willing part with our cars. While both had served us well, they were never quite ours. We both received them as part of hand-me-downs. Julie loved her V6 and options, and I loved the subie's utility which helped facilitate my outdoors resurgence. However the line of emotion ended there. They were good, practical cars.
I was thinking about how practical we were. I have just a bit of materialism, and it seems it bites me most when it comes to automobiles. I started like cars at 14 and just got fascinated by them. I love shiny, loud, faster, good handling, you name it. Yet as both Julie and I have been succeeding at work I'd resisted buying myself a new car, as did she. I've noticed over the past few year of working with more of my peers that I drove one of the roughest and oldest car. Most drove something at least made in the 00's and many bought their car new sometime after college. My friends and even most my family seem to have all upgraded in the last few years. I'd be lieing if I claimed I was never jealous. I've always wondered if I was being too miserly or others were too reckless with their spending. I've come to peace with defining it as a sense of priorities. It'd be unfair to judge others solely one purchase, and my small level of skill with a wrench has allowed me a bit more 'freedom' in my choice of automobiles. So they prioritized peace of mind and a bit of flash. I've prioritized this crazy adventure that starts in only 2 days.
Now both of our cars are sold, both to girls getting their first cars. It's kinda cool and funny in it's own way. I guess it's not too surprising it's not for people our own age. It seems like our cars don't fit 20-30 somethings. Both girls seem very driven and practical. I hope they have their own adventures too.
But enough waxing philosophical about cars.
We fly out in roughly 50 hours, and by and large we're ready. I'm relaxed in someways but I'm still get fits of nerves. The current situation of sold cars and a job for Julie was exactly the plan from the get go. It took some work on both of our parts, but 18 months after we first started talking about it, we're here.

I'm Done

So today was my last day. Scary, but relaxing. Julie is right that we've planned this so much it'll probably be almost boring... almost.
I was suddenly reminded of when I quit Les Schwab. I'd worked there between college & high school and again my Junior & senior years at UW. When I went to leave in Sept 2004 I was 3 months out of school and not having much luck in the job search. Working 50 hours a week busting tires wasn't faciliatating a good effort though. Ultimately I picked up some money doing some political work and ended up at B. At B I moved twice and manged to handily beat inflation/cost of living. B allowed me to learn lots and do things I've always wanted. I wouldn't be an instructor, have gone to whistler/tahoe or proabably started climbing again with out the income, and the boredom. It challenged me mentally and emotionally at times. But it's never been 100% what I needed to be happy, or rounded. The last years have been good and very comfortable. But I've been craving a different meaning to my life. Paychecks and having the yuppie staples are nice. But that's never been who I am. I always be a little punk, a little WT and a little too hyper.
So now here I am. Unemployed, with no near term prospects. I've been here before. I'm starting to grasp it'll all work out in the end