On August 13 I flew to the other side of the world, New Zealand. Or as my little niece says, I went to the last country. Traveling any further and I would fall of the planet…
Checking in my skibag at the Malaysian Airlines desk was my first hurdle. “Goodmorning, I’d like to check in this skibag”, lead to the following reply: “One moment please, …… that will be € 1200!”. Allrighty then, good start of the trip. Luckily I studied the baggage regulations better that the guy at the desk and finally I ‘only’ had to pay € 270. After a 12 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, a full day in Malaysia’s capital city, another 10 hour flight to Auckland, a night in Auckland because I missed my connecting flight to Queenstown and a two hour flight to Queenstown I finally arrived at my destination: the so-called adrenaline capital of the world.
I wasn’t there to bungy jump but a jetboat adventure seemed pretty cool to me. Still fully jetlagged I jumped in one of the boats and my first adventure started right away. We made are way through the narrow gorges with high speeds which was quite sensational. Look at me, I’m in the far back enjoying the ride!
After doing some hikes to Queenstown hill and surrounding lakes, time had come to go skiing the Remarkables. Recovered from my enormous jetlag and 20 cm of fresh snow overnight made the coming day looking very good. After an interesting drive to the hill (affordable ski in / ski out is almost non-existent in New Zealand) I stepped into my skis and started exploring. I focused on one part of The Remarkables, lookers’ right from the base. That’s where some couloirs and the popular Homeward run were located. After a couple of warmup runs time had come to ski Homeward. Snow was still soft and the runs were long. At the bottom a shuttle was waiting to bring me back to the resort. Great! In the shuttle I heard a bunch of guys talking about the elevator chute. It sounded too good, so I started the 20 minute hike to the entrance when I jumped off the next chairlift. The elevator is, as the name suggests, quite steep. In fact, I have hardly ever seen a steep inbound run like this one. With an audience of climbers and some fellow skiers I jumped in and skied down in perfect snow!
Before leaving the ski area I had one run on my list but I had no idea where it was. I had seen a beautiful picture of it and it looked quite similar to Homeward run. When skiing to the Homeward run again I suddenly noticed a hike and thought I had to give it a go. When I arrived at the top, I was completely mesmerized by the view. It was exactly the spot the picture was taken and it was spectacular! Untouched snow with beautiful lakes in the distance made a nice combination.
I left Queenstown after a week and made my way to Wanaka. Hiking, skiing at Treble Cone and heliskiing were on the menu! In the hostel I met a very nice Irish couple, Sinead and Peter. They were on a round-the-world trip for about a year and gave me a ride to Treble Cone the next day. Conditions were terrible unfortunately so I could noy ski the potential of one of the freeride mecca’s New Zealand has to offer. The next day I went hiking. The hike to diamond lake and rocky mountain is free and rewards are great, so why not…
After a couple of great Indian meals in Wanaka it was time for some decent heliskiing. I signed up for some ‘expert’ runs with Backcountry Helicopters. The next day we, 3 guys and a guide, drove to the middle of nowhere and stopped at a farm. Amongst a bunch of sheep a helicopter landed and that turned out to be our lift for the day. To the contrary of heliskiing in Canada, which I did 5 years ago, the guide mentioned where to go and you were free as a bird. That was fantastic. It felt really like wilderness skiing and the scenery was very good. The expert runs turned out to be nice runs but nothing extreme as was to be expected.
Time had come to leave Wanaka and visit the Canterbury region. After skiing Porters for a couple of days I made my way up to Craigieburn, something I was looking forward to for a long time after hearing so many good stuff about it. Two business guys from Price Waterhouse Coopers gave me a ride to the dirt road with all my skigear while they were on their way to a meeting. This is only possible in Kiwi-country! They even arranged a ride from the start of the dirt road to the base of Craigieburn. I really have to finetune (changing is simply impossible) my opinion about PWC employees…
In Craigieburn I met Geoff, a passionate skier from Australia. He had skied multiple seasons in Chamonix, or Cham as he referred to the legendary place. It was inspirational to ski with him as he obviously had a lot of experience. During apres the first day we were talking how great it would be to ski the line we could see through the window from the daylodge. It turned out the next day that we skied exactly that line, a beautiful line from North Peak in 20 cm of fresh.
The skiing was over and I went back to Springfield to stay for the night. During the night I suddenly woke up jumping in the upper bed of the bunk. “Am I dreaming? Nope, I’m really jumping in my bed!” This turned out to be a 7.4 earthquake with the epicenter about 10 km from my bed. Whoops! That’s a new experience for me. Luckily the building I was in consisted of one floor, so nothing really bad could happen. I went back to bed wearing my ski helmet. Hey, you have to take some precautions!
Before the trip I was looking forward to the trainride from Christchurch to Kaikoura. The earthquake however completely ruined the track so I took the bus instead. Kaikoura is a little town (with a great Thai restaurant!) on the coast which runs fully on tourism. Whale- and dolphinwatching are the main attractions. Because winds were high I went on a hike instead. I found my own private beach after a long walk where I met a nice family of seals.
My trip from South to North then brought me to Picton, for me the starting point of the Queen Charlotte Track. Anyone talking about a trip to New Zealand is talking about a decent multi-day hike and so was I. Because it was still winter, not all tracks are in good condition. The QCT however is great year-round. Low season had a big advantage; I hardly saw other people on the track!
From Picton I took the ferry to Wellington. Wellington is nothing more than a regular city although I have to admit I have eaten the best Indian food there. Yes, it was even better than the Indian food in India (well, it’s all a matter of taste of course). Great India was the establishment and both food and service were absolutely outstanding. You can’t go wrong with this one!
The next day I took the bus to Rotorua, where everything smells sulfur. Instead of visiting the popular pools around town I went to White Island. This is an active vulcano located in the ocean. A bumpy boatride took me to this spectacular landscape which can best be described as weird!
The last couple of days were spent in Auckland. I found a dodgy company that was willing to send my skibag back to Holland (fingers crossed on that one!) and I competed in a couple of pool tournaments which was great. The first evening I lost in the second round but the second night I showed my potential by reaching the final. Impressed by the Brits, who supported my opponent and were surrounding the table, I missed the double to win and he cleared the table. I treated myself to a nice Thai meal to finish off the trip before flying back out on the 17th of September. All in all a remarkable trip; beautiful scenery, some great skiing and brilliant food!
Click here to see the photo gallery of my trip to New Zealand!
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