Club Field Holiday

Last weekend we took a couple of days off work and travelled up to Arthur's Pass, northwest of Christchurch to check out a few of the Canterbury club fields. These are small ski fields run by groups of like-minded people who found a good spot and decided to put in some rope tows. They vary from very basic rope tows with the notoriously difficult and well named "nutcrackers" to slightly more technologically advanced fields with t-bars. Even those with t-bars have limited grooming and therefore the snow can be a bit variable, but the atmosphere is great and queues are non-existent.

We stayed at Flock Hill Station, which is a working farm with a variety of different accommodation options including the self contained cottages we were in. Fantastic scenery and only 10 minutes drive to the bottom of the access roads for Mt Cheeseman, Craigieburn and Broken River, and just a few minutes more to Porters and Temple Basin.

On Saturday we went to the Mt Cheeseman club field. There had been some fresh snow on Thursday night/Friday morning but when we arrived on Saturday at 10am (to find a total of 20 other cars there), the soft snow had been replaced with sheet ice. So after an initial run we waited until after lunch for the sun to soften the snow. We had a few good runs in the afternoon including one into the back bowls where we found a few pockets of untouched powder. It was near vertical in places and a decent long run with only a couple of hundred metres vertical to hike back out.

On Sunday we decided to take a trip through Arthur's Pass itself to Greymouth and back again as the previous day's high temperatures had not helped the snow conditions.

Arthur's Pass is spectacular. If you haven't done it yet, put it on your list. Here's a taste of the scenery:

One of the little lakes just past Flock Hill Station:

River Delta just before the middle of Arthur's Pass:

Only slightly less impressive than the scenery - the amazing feats of engineering. This is the world-famous-in-New-Zealand Otira Viaduct:

And while we were at the Otira look out we were greeted by a very photogenic Kea. We had to chase him away from the car a few times - we're pretty sure he was eyeing up the wiper blades 8888888888888888888888888888888888885 (the last intelligent contribution courtesy of Burton walking across the keyboard - maybe he was eyeing up the kea...)

On Monday due to the snow still being spring conditions we headed across to Mt Hutt (about an hour's drive away) for some great spring riding. We had a fantastic day experiencing the luxury of groomed slopes and high speed chair lifts, and again with no queues. It was a warm sunny day - no warm jackets required! One guy was even skiing in shorts and a singlet top but we weren't quite that keen.

Let the clean up begin...

A view from our side deck of the igloo we built at the neighbour's place yesterday:

A close up of the igloo:

The wind lip of snow built up overhanging the gutter. It's nearly a foot deep, which makes you a bit careful when you step out the front door as if you slammed the front door too hard you might end up with a bucket load of snow on your head. We've cleared it off with the rake 3 or 4 times in the last couple of days but this is what has built up again since last night. The house 2 doors along has lost it's gutter - it's sagged about half a metre and he's propping it up with long bits of timber. Possibly a bit late for that!

The vege garden. Nothing planted as yet.... Thankfully some good hardy snow tussocks

The driveway this morning. It was cleared of snow yesterday, so the 10cm on it now is from overnight.

And the down side of all the snow - shovelling!

We have between 30 and 60cm of snow right around the house. Although we've been clearing paths, there will be a good day or two's shovelling to go yet clearing the drive etc. It's warmed up a bit this morning to a tropical 3 degrees which is helping to melt a bit of the snow, but as we speak another wall of black is approaching from Kingston so we don't think it's quite over yet. On the bright side, we haven't lost power or phone and still have heaps of food for us and Burton. The roads are nearly clear now (Graded to only 2-3 cm deep, but that's sheet ice so chains are necessary) - council have been doing a fantastic job. We can get out to the supermarket and the gas station... both of which are running out of supplies very quickly due to panic buying.

We're delighted to hear there has been snow in Auckland too - must be pretty exciting!

Snow again!

We woke up to a very light dusting of snow on the back lawn and gale force winds. Then the winds started to ease and the snow started to build up. And build up. And build up. So much so that we were able to do this:

That's Andrea sliding down our driveway on a real estate sign (Thanks Michelle!).

And this one is Greg skiing down the driveway! Much earlier in the day, before the second lot of snow.

It's still snowing so hopefully we'll be able to post some photos tomorrow...

Powder Day

This morning we got up bright and early after deciding last night that we were going to take a bit of a walk with our snowboards and avalanche kit (which includes a backpack that carries our snowboard, transceiver, shovel, probe and first aid kit). The avalanche danger had dropped and the forecast was for the freezing level to rise, which meant that for the low altitude snow, it was now or never. We voted now.

We parked one car at the bottom of the run and used a second car to drive us as far up towards the top as we could get. During summer there is a 4WD track right to the top of the hill we were climbing but after this much snow it's not accessible so we had to walk the last couple of hours.

It was definitely worth it. The run was a total of 700 vertical metres (about 4 times the height of One Tree Hill above sea level). It took us about 15-20 minutes to get down - with a few stops for photos etc... and to jump fences!

Our flatmate Mark took this video - it's a little jumpy at times as he was trying to snowboard and video at the same time (not overly successful!). The first person you see is Greg, the smaller person down the hill further is Andrea.

White Christmas part 2

Late last week, Greg went up to the top of the driveway and took a few photos of the Remarkables. Because it had finally started snowing up there, and things were looking pretty and white. You'll see in the photo that it's been so warm here that the rose hedge is in full bloom.

It turns out (as you have seen from the videos) that we were wrong. That wasn't snow. This was:

Our backyard covered in snow (while it's still falling)

The cars and boat

And last but not least, our new Christmas card house.

3 Seasons in 1 week....

After the summery temperatures the day Andrea climbed Ben Lomond, the following weekend she headed out with the same friends to do a bit of walking near Arrowtown, where she was greeted with the spectacular Autumn colours it's famous for:

However, Autumn didn't last long, as only 2 days later, it was most definitely winter.

This photo was taken from our deck outside our lounge looking towards Cecil Peak on Monday morning:

By the evening a bit of snow had melted on the northern faces but the Remarkables still looked spectacular right on dusk from our kitchen window:

Afternoon Tea

As we have lots of visitors booked in for the next few months, we bought an annual Gondola pass each. Being an unusually dirty afternoon, weather wise, there wasn't a lot else to do other than go up the gondola for afternoon tea.

The ride up was... interesting. A front hit Queenstown as we were about halfway up, resulting in very strong winds and snow. The snow was actually going UP instead of down as the wind hit the mountain and blew the snow up and over. The second we stepped off the gondola up the top, they closed it down as it wasn't safe to continue operating. Apparently the winds were 85 km/hour, gusting 100 km/hour, and blowing straight across the gondola line. So we decided the obvious thing to do was to go and stand outside in the wind and snow and take a few videos.

Windsocks not necessary to determine wind direction or strength - Andrea's hair does the trick!

And for those of you who can't read lips, Greg was saying "Please honey, could you possibly hurry up and take the video as it is rather cold out here. Please."

Honest.

A brief respite

The "storm the size of Australia" that's currently spreading nasty weather over the country has brought snow to lake level and gale force winds for the past 24 hours. It cleared out briefly this morning, long enough for Greg to run out in his PJs and take a few photos! He's glad he did, as it's now just started snowing again.

Cecil Peak covered in snow, taken from the main guest bedroom upstairs. One of the benefits of living where we do is that the snow doesn't settle on the ground here very often due to living on the Peninsula and being surrounded on 3 sides by the lake. Because the lake is 8 degrees all year round it keeps the ground a bit warmer (the rest of Queenstown and Arrowtown has snow on the ground - and to be honest, scraping snow off the driveway gets boring pretty quickly!).


Ben Lomond and Bob's Peak up above the Gondola, taken from the deck outside the lounge.

Looking down towards Glenorchy - you can see the next front already charging up the lake towards us!

With snow forecast off and on for the next 5 days we're grateful for our woodburner. It's looking like a DVD weekend...

Powder Day

We had our friends Max and Fin and their little boy Morgan (2) staying with us over the past few days and on Saturday we all decided to head through to Cardrona for a day on the snow. The reports said a few cm of fresh snow overnight so we were pretty excited about getting up there for a day's boarding.

We decided to see just how much fresh snow had fallen in the back bowls (down towards Arrowtown from Cardrona - i.e. over the back of the ski field) and were rewarded with some of the best powder runs of our lives. Most of our hiking involves hiking up and then getting the reward of riding back down but yesterday we had to do the opposite (snowboard down, stop and then walk back up in the snow). The snow was so good that it required great willpower to stop - it was only the length of the walk back up that stopped us! After 3 hikes plus some time on piste with the others we headed home tired but VERY happy.

Sorry about the quality of the photos - we only took Andrea's phone up with us which doesn't have a very good camera.

Our 2 tracks in the snow

You can see the type of terrain and why it was so hard to stop:

Looking back up the hill

Greg at the bottom of one of the runs in between our two tracks

And now for something completely different...

Today we decided to make the most of SnowFarm's "Locals' give it a go day" and headed up to try Nordic Skiing, otherwise known as Cross-Country Skiing. The SnowFarm is the other side of the valley from Cardrona Ski Resort (on the sunny side!).

It was definitely different. We both tried "classic" x-country skiing where you are mostly kept in tracks on the snow (like train tracks). The skis are really light, with no metal rails, and a section in the middle of the skis with "grippy bits" that look like fish scales to help you push forward (and not slide backwards going up hill). It's definitely hard work but really rewarding (especially on the bits where you get to fly downhill without slowing down). Next time we won't be wearing thermals underneath our snow gear - it's hot work!

We managed to score a beautiful day, and the snow conditions were also close to perfect. The atmosphere up there was great, everyone was so friendly and helpful. Not too many people either, which is a pleasant change at this time of year (being Winter Festival and the beginning of both NZ and Australian School Holidays).

Here's Andrea with all the gear on, midway through our last run of the day

And a photo of the two of us, courtesy of Greg's ex-workmate Kane (from Element)

Mountain Road

On the way down the Remarkables Mountain Road on Sunday (4 days after Wednesday's snow to lake level):

Lake Hayes Estate in the foreground, looking towards Coronet Peak

Snow Glorious Snow part 2..

A short video showing the big fat flakes falling!

Snow Glorious Snow

As you can probably tell from the last photo, it snowed and settled to lake level on Wednesday morning this week. We woke up at about 6:30am to see the rain turn to snow and within half an hour it was building up on the roads. By 8am they had closed the schools for the day and were telling everyone to keep off the roads unless necessary. The rain had frozen under the snow creating a layer of sheet ice underneath the snow, making driving conditions dangerous. So we did as we were told and stayed home.

Terrible!

Here are a few photos of the snow.

Our Christmas Card house:

Not such a great day to hang the washing out!

Greg on the "Beach" across the road from home


Andrea on the path through to the beach

Unfortunately, at about 10am, the sun came out and just as quickly as it had built up, the snow on the roads turned to slush and it was safe to drive again so we had to go to work.

There's still snow on our backyard tonight (Friday night) and over much of Queenstown - just not on the roads thank goodness.

Snow and Helicopters

No, not together unfortunately (eg Heliskiing)!

Winter has finally made an appearance. Better late than never! Last week's snow continued into Saturday with snow to lake level almost all day (slightly unforecast... as per usual). We reached a high of 3°C on Saturday, which we would normally be delighted about - but as our chimney blocked up on Friday morning and we couldn't get it cleaned until Monday morning, we were a little on the chilly side. Lets just say that 5 heaters couldn't match the fire's warmth.

Burton was less than impressed and spent the weekend getting acquainted with an oil heater.

On Sunday we went for a walk towards Jacks Point and took these photos:

Ben Lomond, up above the Gondola and Bob's Peak:

The view towards Wye Creek and Kingston:

The Remarkables from Jardine Park:

This morning dawned fine and clear. And frosty - minus 1.5 in Frankton at 9am. We're not sure if we're looking forward to the minus 4 forecast overnight tonight. At least we'll get up to a massive high of 3 again though. It makes steel capped boots less than fun.

Greg's job is going well. The site has the lake on one side, the main road (complete with overhead power cables) on another and existing houses on the last two sides. So a crane to lift in the large steel beams simply wasn't going to work. Enter the helicopter - as seen below (photos taken on Greg's phone). Quite a sight with the flat lake and snow capped hills behind it. Apparently quite a crowd was gathered up on the road watching the goings on.

And last but not least, one of our favourite Queenstown views; The Remarkables at sunset, covered in snow. Snapped from Greg's phone as he walked home. It's a hard life.

Goats.... and snow

We left bright and early... well not really bright, and not particularly early... this morning to head into a hunting area near here. It requires us to apply for a special permit, which Greg was able to get for Friday (today) and Saturday.

Halfway to the hunting area the steady rain turned to hail, then sleet, and finally snow. Thankfully it had mostly stopped by the time we started walking. We explored a couple of valleys without seeing anything, and then climbed to a high ridge to look over into a third valley where we spotted a herd of wild goats. Unfortunately we were unable to get to them from where we were due to a 600m vertical cliff so we had to walk all the way down the valley and then back up the next one to get to them. But we did finally get to them and were able to sneak up and do a spot of pest control. Andrea took the first shot and dropped a smelly old billy without it blinking an eyelid. Greg then took over, which was just as well, because just after he'd got the second one, two others decided to charge us. Quite scary! Unfortunately for them, Greg still had 2 rounds in his magazine....

A final goat was rounded up after taking off up a nearby ridge and also neatly dispatched.

The highlight of the trip back to the car was coming across a late crop of alpine strawberries. They are tiny (the size of large peas) but have about as much flavour as a whole large one.

And of course, we have photographic proof of both the dusting of snow on the hills:

And Andrea's smelly old billy goat:

Dilemma

Greg was going to mow the lawn this morning........

But there appears to be a minor technical difficulty

Cracker of a Day!

We woke up on Saturday morning just in time to catch the most incredible sunrise.

After much oooooing and ahhhhhing, in that order, we thought we should make the most of the day and headed up the Remarks for a couple of hours on our boards, closely followed by a couple of hours on skis. On the way back down, we stopped take a look at this "wind lip" - which is formed when a big dump of snow is accompanied by gale force winds. This one was about 25 feet high.

Further down the road we couldn't resist this photo of Lake Hayes reflecting the mountains behind it.

And after that, we topped the day off with a couple of hours' trout fishing down by the golf course, where Greg let all the small quinnat salmon go... and then remembered that it would have made a good meal for Burton. Oh well, what he doesn't know won't hurt him....

Spring??

Tuesday was officially the first day of spring. However, with the warmest, wettest August on record, we felt like we've already had spring for a month here. It was colder all round in Autumn than it was in winter this year!

Anyway, Spring arrived properly...... and so did winter, again!

Here are a couple of photos taken by Greg this morning from our balcony once the skies had cleared. It was a beautiful day today - blue skies, fresh powder on the mountain, and work committments that neither of us could re-schedule... annoying!

The first photo is a close up of the Gondola and Ben Lomond. We like the snow in the trees the best! You may also be able to pick out the gondola building - like a little island in the middle of the snow covered clearing.

And a wider shot, showing Bowen Peak on the right.

It snowed to lake level for pretty much all of Wednesday, being Andrea's birthday (she was pretty impressed with the 'present' from Queenstown). We went out for dinner to a place called 'Prime' on the waterfront and sat at a window seat watching the snow lightly fall under the lights outside. Very pretty!

A warm spell?

Since our last post, we've had Adrian here to stay. Adrian was involved with Scouts with us up in Auckland, and was the MC at our wedding. Pete, who married us, was also planning to come down but due to family reasons unfortunately had to pull out at the last minute.

With Adrian here, we took the opportunity to explore the options for possible Gold Level Duke of Edinburgh award expeditions down around here. It's possible that some of the kids from All Saints Birkenhead might be coming down here in a couple of years for a tramp, so we wanted to show Adrian the possibilities. We took Adrian down to Glenorchy to show him each end of the Rees-Dart track, which looks to be the most promising option. We also did a short walk through to Lake Sylvan, which we did earlier in the year as part of another tramp. http://gregandandreajarvis.blogspot.com/2009/04/going-bush-again.html

It's a short walk through Beech forest, coming out at Lake Sylvan - giving Adrian an idea of the kind of forest the kids can expect to see.

This photo is the Rees Valley, the start of the tramp.

This weekend, we decided to head up on Friday night to give night skiing a go. The weather has warmed up a lot in the past week or so, and the snow conditions have deteriorated. On Friday night we were basically snowboarding on wet crushed ice, which had been pushed into 2 foot high moguls. We're still pleased we went up, but the conditions made the boarding less than impressive.

On Saturday, with the weather still warm, we headed out to explore a new hunting area and have our first day tramp of the season. True to form, we managed to pick an area that was steeper than planned, and then made it progressively harder for ourselves by deciding to climb ridges to see if we could spot any wildlife (verdict: only sheep). The track we decided to take back to the car was mostly covered in snow, varying between ankle deep and waist deep. Very hard going! But loads of fun.

Here's Greg, halfway up the steep ridge we decided to climb:

And here's the view from the saddle, a couple of minutes walk from the car on the way back. We were up the back of Gibbston Valley, looking across at the Crown Range.

Rachael, Dave and JJ come to visit

It turns out that Jeremy (our nephew) is the bringer of snow. On the night he was born (last July) we had the biggest snow fall to lake level that Queenstown had seen in years.

This is our house on the morning of July the 5th, 2008. JJ was born the night before.

And here are Andrea and Jen in our backyard with the snowman we all built. We named the snowman Jeremy.

The snow season this year started with a bang, but after that there had been very little snow for 8 weeks. Until the day before JJ showed up - when we received almost half a metre of snow up on the fields, in about 24 hours. Not that we were complaining! The weather cleared out just in time for their flight to land, and stayed clear for the weekend, and packed in again on the evening after they flew out.

While they were here, we tried to help JJ experience lots of fun things.

Like swings and slides. This is the playground down by the little beach we wakeboard off. It turns out Jeremy prefers to be upside down on swings.

At the top of the slide, showing off the jumper that Gran (Louise Houltham) made for him. Sorry Aunty Jen, he had dispensed with the beanie by then!

Jeremy also discovered that he likes ribs.

On their last afternoon here, Dave and Jeremy came for a walk with the two of us along the beach. It was the coldest we've ever seen the beach - the sand had frozen! It was like walking on concrete - quite a bizarre feeling.

And of course we took him up to the snow. He wasn't so sure - everything was just so different to what he's used to. But he loved the chair lift!

And last but not least a picture of Aunty Andrea holding JJ in the carpark before we took off to hike for some fresh powder snow. Sorry about abandoning you guys for an hour or so, Rach and Dave.... but on powder days we have no friends... or relatives.