The 1000 Day Holiday

Off to the Gold Coast for Networkers, ooh goody a conference full of geeks

I would have to say that the red bull acrobatics plane ride is the best ‘experience’ I have ever done.

Its like your personal customisable roller coaster at 5000 ft, with the best vista in the world.

We topped out at -1g & +5g’s reespectively.

Doing stalls, vertical loops, 4point rolls to name a few.

A bit lightheaded in parts, I only felt sick after a red bull once back on terra-firma.

Go figure.
10 stars out of 5!

With no suitable winds for solo training flights on the paraglider, I decided on doing a red bull acrobatic flight over queenstown.

Up to +6 G-forces bring it on.

Will probably do the canyon swing tomorrow before heading for auckland.

The Hang gliding yesterday was awesome. Its a really cool feeling soaring on the winds and doing dives and steep banked turns.

With the rest of the crew heading back north, I hitched over to Queenstown this morning. only a 30 min wait even with a board bag & pack

This afternoon Im going hang gliding off the remarkables.
and tomorrow I am booked in to do a Paragliding introduction course, including 4 or 5 solo flights.

Sweeeet

Friday was spent at Snow Park.

Many years ago I was scarred from bad experiences in terrain parks, with badly hand shaped pipes and nasty tabletop landings.

A day at snow park has made me re-evaluate their cool factor. The Superpipe was a work of art & and table tops were ranging from small to massive.

The chair ride allowed spectating of some very cool jumps. reverce 540s, flips, etc etc etc…

We hiked into Mt Aspiring National Park & up to the Rob Roy Glacier.

This in an amazing view. The glacier has retreated to a rock shelf ~200m from the valley floor. And from the viewing area, the glacier view takes up almost 180 degrees of view. With avalanches regularly crashing down it was definately a cool place.

With Ohau getting rain, we packed up and left our huge alpine club lodge in Mt Cook and headed thru the mackenzie basin to Wanaka.

The afternoon was spent at Treble Cone. They are the only field to have recieved recent good snow. And even then half the terrain was unridable.

However, I cant wait to get back here. Just looking around you are aware that it is an awesome mountain. The new quad chair in Saddle basin opens up heaps of blackdiamond terrain.

An awesome day of spring conditions.

We have hung out at unwin lodge at mt cook. It has rained continously for 36 hours.

On good news. Mt tasman has had 3.5metres of snow in that time!

Avalanche danger is at extreme, so its a wait and see what ohau’s report is tomorrow.

Otherwise will be heading for wanaka. The forecast is clearing on thursday.

With all canterbury fields closed due to rain and wind we cooked up a roast for lunch before hitting the road again.

We stopped in a castle hill. An amazing location for bouldering in arthurs pass.

Then thru the lake coleridge 4wd shortcut and heading for mt cook.

The weather isn’t looking promising for tomorrow, but its cold outside. So we are hoping for snow.

Hoping to ride ohau tomorrow.

Snow is forecast for wednesday, and we are then aiming for treble cone for thurs/friday

I got my knee checked. And initially the doc was going to give me stiches which would have ended my snowboarding holiday. But after exclamations from me took a closer look and I hadn’t cut through the dermis (tissue layer) so taped it up, gave me a tetanus booster and some antibiotics.

So all should be well.

With all fields closed due to wind we headed into christchurch. drove up the port hills and did some outdoor rockclimbing. Rakaia rocks. Grade 16. First time climbing outdoors, and its weird having to find your holds.

We headed for a lodge in arthurs pass in hope of good weather with which to do a club field on monday.