Welcome to 2010

House Work

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:25:10 +1200

I woke up late, still suffering from my sore throat and related cold, but gradually as the morning and afternoon progressed I found myself getting better. At first any cough was like swallowing broken glass (not that I’ve had the experience), but eventually it got better.

As neither dad nor I went up the field today, we devoted the morning to online business, and the afternoon to touching up the unit.

This evening, being a friday, we started at Pog’s for a couple $4 pints of Guinness, before heading on to Ballarat for a cider for me and a stout for dad, and eventually to Brazz for the usual. Tonight we learnt that NZSki personal get half price drinks all the time, which neither we nor Muz knew, but we might be using that offer a bit more in the future.

This evening I bought dinner for dad at Fish Bone, somehow not spending too much and managing to pay all by myself. the food was great as it always is, and we both tried something new on the menu again.

No photos today unfortunately, but we didn’t go anywhere that was worth taking a photo of. My Facebook photo album has been updated though. Do check out the latest pics.

Sore... Throat

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:29:41 +1200

I’m feeling a little unwell. Last night I had a little difficulty breathing, though it wasn’t an asthma attack, followed by a sore throat, that didn’t disappear over night. So this morning I slept in and dad caught up on some work.

After some breakfast, and some Lemsip, dad headed up the mountain while I stayed home to recuperate. I also had some Strepsils and cleaned the kitchen.

This evening I still went to happy hour, though I’m not sure the beer on my throat was that good an idea.

This evening I again felt a little short of breath, but nothing too alarming. I’m going to have to get to bed early tonight and hope I wake up feeling much better in the morning, because right now it’s not a good feeling.

Epic Wipe Out

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:28:02 +1200

We had another late start to the day, due in part to dad needing to send off some emails to Hong Kong, but also because it was simply too cold early in the morning to want to ski.

We eventually got to the field for the afternoon session, and skied non-stop until it was time to head down. With the wind still a little strong, and the cloud not obscuring things too much, we decided to try Outward Bound, and thanks to a mistake by dad that sent us too far out of bounds, we found some great powder that we wouldn’t have found otherwise.

Partway down this run I had an epic wipe out, while doing some turns for the camera. I simply caught the tip of my ski as I turned and went head over heels. Thanks to a high DIN, by skis stayed on though, not that it would have mattered on the slope we were on. The result is in the picture above.

After Outward Bound we had a small hike above Homeward Bound to sample some slightly nicer snow we’d seen, but only got a few turns in before traversing back to the base building to finish our day.

Depending on what we do tomorrow, I might be able to upload some new photos to Facebook.

Powder

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:26:54 +1200

As I laid in bed last night I could hear the rain fall down hard on the roof and knew there’d be more snow on the field tomorrow, so tried to get some sleep immediately.

This morning though, the weather was bleak with some rain still about and the webcam showing clouds, not to mention low temperatures and a forecast for afternoon good weather only. So I slept in till almost 9, by which time the webcam looked better.

Unfortunately, by the time we got up the hill the weather wasn’t as good as it had looked and we spent several runs in and out of cloud and wind. When in the wind we weren’t so happy, but when in the calm and sun, it wasn’t too bad.

We managed to do Homeward Bound in a whiteout, before lunch, and then we had one last run after lunch to the carpark, and home.

This evening Goldie and Scoot were again in town, so we met them at Brazz, where I secured Scott a “loyalty” card and had a few drinks with them over dinner.

Dad and I then ate out at Searle Lane & Social, a new place very close to Barmuda that’s advertised on the chairlifts, but we also had free dinner passes thanks to a pickup we did last week. The food was very good, and I think we’ll definitely be back again.

After some beers and a half bottle of Pinot Noir, I’m ready for some water and bed!

Windy

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:30:36 +1200

Today was a bit of a windy and cold day on the mountain. not what we were expecting really as we’d seen the weather and snow reports this morning and they didn’t mention anything of the sort.

Driving up the road past Outward was a bit of a shock too, to see how much snow had been stripped away in just the week we’ve been here. Compared to when we arrived, it’s almost as if it’s not even winter anymore.

That being said, we did manage to find some decent snow to ski on, though no two runs were the same today, and out last run had a bit of Spring snow on it, that’s fun to ski, but is probably better suited to Spring time.

We came home early again, as we can when it’s not very good, so beat all the traffic once again.

I should mention the new ski passes this year allow you to register them online to see mountain stats, like how many vertical metres you have done (determined by the length of a lift) and how many runs (determined by how many times you’ve used a lift). Not exactly conclusive stuff, but so far with 7 days on the mountain I can share I’ve done 6144 vertical metres. Of course, the system has its flaws, as Sugar chairlift doesn’t have any scanning machines, so it’s almost never recorded unless a liftie randomly picks me (the first time was today).

I also want to point out that most of my photos lately have been taken with my iPhone. Not because it’s easier to use, but because the camera really isn’t that bad, and this is my way of proving it.

Day Off

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:29:07 +1200

Today was a day off, even though by all accounts it looked like a great day to be on the field. The webcam showed clear skies, despite cloud hanging around the bottom of the mountain, fooling the tourists.

Bevan was also off today, and while I would have liked to take him to the airport, I was still warm in bed and asleep as he left. I think the sleep-in I had was what saved me from a headache and feeling ill today. I’m not sure how he got to the airport, though a taxi or bus wouldn’t have been too expensive, and I know he got to his destination safely as I saw an update on Facebook from Auckland.

Dad went into town to do some errands through the middle of the day, while I painstakingly uploaded photos to Facebook of the trip so far. I say painstakingly as I tried about 10 times with varying success before finally getting it right. At no time were the errors my fault, but I blame bad internet and Apple’s inability to code anything other than for the iPhone that screwed me over. My saving grace was Chrome.

If you’re interested in seeing the photos so far, they’re on my Facebook profile, but incase you don’t have Facebook, don’t worry, they’re also accessible to you at this link.

If there’s request or demand, I can post higher resolution photos to my MobileMe gallery too. You know my email.

The day was pretty cool in town. Apparently in the sun it was very nice, but as I was indoors in the shade for most of the day I didn’t feel all that warm. Though sitting near the heater helped somewhat.

Tonight dad cooked spaghetti bolognese for dinner for me, while he had lamb himself, I think. It was a good filling meal. Also tonight, a full moon rose over the Remarks, which many people on the streets stopped to take photos of.

I helped a friend out with a Qantas award booking this evening and had a good chat on Facebook.

Peak 2 Peak

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:32:32 +1200

The plan this morning called for an earlier start than we have been doing, so we could get some runs in before the Peak 2 Peak race that started at 12:00. however it wasn’t to be, as I didn’t want to get out of bed straight away, so phoned dad downstairs to give him a wake-up call, and he then just rolled back over and went to sleep again. Half an hour before we were meant to leave, I was waking him up again. We eventually got to the field at 11:00.

As the weather was superb, Bevan set off to Alta and Sugar straight away, while dad and I were up shadow to scout out a spot to watch the Peak 2 Peak.

In the Peak 2 Peak competitors run down from the lookout to the top of shadow chairlift, where they put on their skis and then ski down the Highway and down Homeward Bound as fast as they can. At the bottom they get on bikes and cycle down the mountain to the lake, where they kayak around the Frankton Arm and into town, to then run to the base of Coronet Peak before cycling to the base building and finish line. It can be done individually or as a team with different members doing different bits.

So dad and I found a spot at the top of Mid-station Bowl, where we could see the whole of the highway and the whole of Homeward Bound, and then waited patiently for the race start. Luckily the wind wasn’t blowing too often or hard, so it wasn’t a cold wait particularly. Unfortunately it didn’t end up being very interesting, but at least we’ve seen the race start now.

Wasting half an hour sat at the top of a run, we then skied down and checked out Sugar Bowl and tried to find some good snow without rocks, and we accomplished that. We had a late lunch on the deck, which was nice as it was a blue sky day with little wind and as we sat, it started snowing. From where we don’t know, but it was pretty special.

After a few more afternoon runs, and a chance for Bevan to try Shadow chairlift and ski down a much bigger blue run, we skied down to the car and headed home.

This evening Bevan and I met up with Jeff, who’d flown in this afternoon from Wellington and before that Las Vegas, and had some drinks at Brazz with him. After Brazz we had dinner at @Thai, having some nice Thai food, and at the end of the night our waiter accidentally switched cards so dad signed Jeff’s bill and vice versa, they then had to double sign the right ones.

After dinner we had drinks at the Pig & Whistle while watching the rugby union game between australia and South Africa. There, Richard joined us, and we watched a good game of rugby, but unfortunately, Australia won. After the game we headed to Barmuda where we had a couple cocktails, and then we had a final stop at Chico’s, though Charles Manson (a lookalike) was nowhere to be found.

We got home about 02:00 and I had some cheese and prosciutto for a midnight snack. I also had a lot of water, and I’m hoping not to have a headache when I wake up.

Fogged In

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:27:36 +1200

Although todays photo isn’t of fog, I swear the cloud just moved in and out of the valley today, and we set off late hoping to beat the bad weather. And of course, when we were leaving it cleared up. What have we done wrong lately?

So today’s photo is of Lake Hayes, on the way up to the Remarkables this morning. It’s a rare photo as usually the lake is calm and has a perfect reflection of the mountains behind in it, but today it was rough and rippled.

This morning I was first up as usual. I checked my iPhone for weather reports and snow reports and found the webcam at the Remarks showed snow showers still happening and decided to roll over. I woke every 15 minutes per my internal body clock to check the webcam, but it didn’t clear up much till just before we left for the field at 11:00.

All day the cloud came in and out, and at one time I found myself skiing down a blue run and misjudged the aspect, and found it a shock when I leant the wrong way. I didn’t fall over though, so I was quite happy with my performance in the flat and cloudy light.

We all met at the car at 15:00 and had a beer before driving down. The road was particularly slick with mud this afternoon unfortunately, not making the drive any easier.

This evening we started happy hour at Pog Mahones, NZD$4 a pint of Guinness, followed by drinks at the usual, Brazz. Then for dinner we went to Pier 19 where I discovered Haggis was quite tasty, though I had something else for dinner.

After dinner we attempted to watch the footy at a pub, we the only pub we found playing the game we wanted had a bad atmosphere, so we had a drink at Red Rock and come home not long after. It then turned out the game we wanted was on the TV at home.

It’s a late night tonight and my eyes are definitely telling me it’s time for bed.