I went for a hike up here out the back of Cardrona Resort to the top of Mount Cardrona. There was amazing popcorn snow all over the rocks at the top…the result of seriously strong and cold wind….

Found out that Cardrona = “Windy valley” in Maori…and it showed that again yesterday with 50kph winds and horizontal ice pellets…

While hiking today, I also came across some guys skinning back up in to the resort from the massive Mt Aspiring National Park behind Cardrona where they had been ski touring…looks absolutely knackering but an amazing way to get right out there…

Been reading the Jeremy Jones blog – the winter story of an epic snowboarder who has, incredibly, got to the point where he was burnt out from being heli’d in to the mountains (and paid to do it), and instead decided he needed to climb to the top of every peak he tackled…so much respect for making that decision…

I came across the link to this one, where he is in Europe, and had to go back and read them all from the start of the winter in the Sierras and then Alaska…

I’ve always been fascinated by split boards and I’m gonna give one a go in the spring out here.

Back on a board and feeling content down in our little corner of the planet. It seems big from here.

Looking forward to the new Jeremy Jones TGR movie.

Yikes…

1st day at Cardrona – apparently the most snow on opening day in years – a good sign for the winter…

THE Best damn ice cream I’ve had in a long while – even comes with a proper good WARNING!

We got a little fed up with the cold and total lack of insulation in our house so we drove a couple of hours over the mountains to Haast. As you come down out of the mountains it’s like coming in to a new country, with palm trees and a tropical feel to it (including a temperature about 20 degrees warmer than Wanaka) We came out on a huge beach about 15 miles long, with absolutely no one on it at all…epic. There was massive rolling surf, huge oldgrowth trees with the beach covered in knarled piles of bleached drift wood…It was sooo good to wander down the warm beach in bare feet after the freezing temperatures in Wanaka…

I feel very humbled in this place. It has an ancient and weathered feel that I’ve not come across anywhere else, and with all the turmoil going on in the world, it feels a very long way away from it all.

However, with many, many different problems clearly on the horizon I have to doubt that anywhere is really safe from it all…..

Been driving round exploring lots, testing the car out, passing time til the mountains open, and work starts…

A phone call out of the blue, a trial morning, and the contract was signed…dropped her off at 6am this morning to start here as a chef…

Its a 5 star hotel with an award winning restaurant and another A la carte restaurant about to open, so lots of potential to gain experience and move up in the kitchens.

Also as an employee of the Accor Hotel Group, she gets hugely discounted rooms in any of their hotels. So far I have narrowed down our next holiday to either Fiji or Bora Bora…:)

More on her hotel here: http://www.oakridge.co.nz/

I’m going to use this site for all photos and updates from now on instead of fashbook cos I have more control over it, so here are some images from Wanaka the first few weeks here… Still smile every time I come over this rise by my house and look down towards the lake, and think I live here…!