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

Greg's New Toy

After much patience on Greg's part, his new truck has finally turned up! Thankfully he is a very patient person so it wasn't at all hard on Andrea...

A tad frosty

Recently the newspapers have been reporting that it's been cold down here. Last Sunday was the third coldest day in Queenstown on record (for July, at least). We've now had 3 weeks straight of frosty mornings, and Queenstown got down to -7, with -9 and -13 in places like Arrowtown. Frosts day after day mean hoar frosts down here (frost in the morning that doesn't melt during the day, with a new frost on top the following morning). In some places the frost has built up to 8 inches thick and looks like snow. There is also still a bit of snow around in places from the fall to lake level over 2 weeks ago - which is pretty much unheard of. Our driveway has had permanent ice on it for nearly 2 weeks, making getting the car out of the garage a bit more interesting each morning!

Unfortunately there hasn't been any fresh snow to accompany the cold weather, but we're making the most of the sunshine during the day and getting out and doing some of the things that we'd normally do in spring. So yesterday we headed back up Mt Crichton to get a bit of fresh air and get out of the house. In the bush it's relatively warm, but in the clearings there's still a bit of snow around from 2 weeks ago, and the hoar frost has built up on top since then creating awesome ice crystals. Some of them are 2-3 inches long.

We continued on up to the lookout over Lake Dispute, which we've shown you all before: http://gregandandreajarvis.blogspot.com/2009/03/lake-dispute.html but this time around it's a little more impressive:

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.