Wanaka, a nice place to spend the rest of your life.
DoomedBefore I get to further deteriorating your senses, let me ask you this: If you were planning a shred trip to NZ with 4 scumbag mates, would you invite your mum along? Perhaps the ice you're smoking is particularly strong and you answered 'yes', would you then let her plan the whole trip? Another tricky one for you: If you have 6 people, how many beds should your mum be booking in each place? 5? 4? This trip was doomed from the start, but we only found this out the night before we left.
Yes mum, we'll be warm enough. No thanks, we don't need our own beds.
Things at the airport didn't really improve our outlook when traces of some kind of explosive were detected in my camera bag (I wish I were joking), and at the NZ end, the cute little beagle sniffer-dog took a seat next to Stu's backpack. Luckily, customs let me and my bomb making gear fly, and the beagle was only interested in Stu's apple and missed his collection of prohibited German scheizer porn.
Boonga pondering: "WHO DOES THAT?!?"NZ
As always, the approach to Christchurch airport had everyone frothing, everyone being myself, Stu Macqueen, Dougie Speed (not his porn name), Boonga Hallett and dude with his mum (they shall remain nameless, until you get a beer into me at least). It quickly became apparent that the one Tarago organised by our chaperone would not cater to all of us for the drive to Wanaka, so it was off to Europcar where the friendly coke-fiend behind the counter gave us a mega deal on a new Mitsub Delica - or Mini Hummer as he referred to it. 125 beers and a bottle of vodka later we rolled into Wanaka not in the mood for an early night.
The Mini-Hummer inspired some weird behaviour. It's all love baby.The next day we were reminded why we love Wanaka so much. In what other 'snow town' in the world could you drop your money-clip, chock-full of freshly exchanged kiwi paper in a bar and have it handed in - completely intact!!! - to the local constabulary, along with your 'stolen' jacket??? Good karma in this place!
Wanaka is a seriously good place
Beers at the Cardrona Hotel, always a good afternoon. I'm not sure why Stu has his period.QT
After getting our shred legs back at Treble Cone on a varied snow cover we had to make the move to Queenstown. The contrast between the two towns is amazing, and we were instantly caught up in the plastic, sin city feel of the place, getting right into the mix with all the other idiots on holiday.
Stuzo was buzzing for some action, and our first day at Coronet Peak provided the goods with a fresh snow cover over its naturally rolly terrain. We got our froth on straight away, hitting lip after lip on the first run down. Unfortunately Stu's new skis performed about as badly as they looked and we flagged any shooting for the day. We spent the afternoon following Boonga's massive lead and smashing the shit out of any fresh snow left untouched. The same day, Downunder Diaries episode 3 was being filmed up there, with Hyner, Browner, Heat and Mr Koia throwing down, check it out here .
Stuzo getting down to business on his favourite set of shit skis.
Next on our sliding agenda was The Remarks where, under sunny skies, I actually broke the camera out to capture some of the fresh snow being spread around by the boys after a short hike up the Shadow chair. Nice turns considering the snow was a couple of days old! Bad luck followed us however, and Stu came up slightly short on the 2nd kicker in the park, tweaking his knee a little, ending any real hammer throwing for his trip. Nevertheless, we scored a fun couple of days riding around QT, with a slightly disproportionate amount of boozing with the other dingos thrown in for good measure.
Boonga appreciating a good view.
Boonga annihilating a good view. Sick turn boss.Wanaka.....again
Thankfully we escaped the buzz of QT and headed back for one last short stint in Wanaka. Our last day riding at Cardrona was really fun as they had a long, very unintimidating jib line set up that us old dogs could get our stoke on. After a couple of runs it became evident that Dougie's spent some time in the park, as he threw down smooth combos on all the features with style befitting a young jib dawg. Boonga however claimed my trick of the day when on the last run he locked himself into a frontboard through the kinked box like he'd been doing it all day, styles for miles. Yeah old boys.
Dougie preparing to school us on the jib line.* The turning cirlcle on the Mini-Hummer, blew me away every time. Actually, the Mini-Hummer in general was a highlight, cutting sick laps of QT was high class.
*Stuzo being the funniest mthrtrucker on earth, but occasionally losing his hearing and having to lipread.
*Dougie and Boonga surfing the shit out of mountains like men posessed and then throwing mad steez down the jib line.
*Post-shred beers at the Cardrona Hotel, definitely one of the best spots to sink a cold one.
*Hearing non-stop about Freddie the gayest staffy in Aus.
*Learning the lesson that no matter how annoying someone is, you can still have a great time by character assasinating them behind their back ad nauseam.
Getting my skate on at Will and Abby's to prove (to myself) I'm not too old!
The lads helping out with the drive back to CHCH
