Last day in New Zealand

Well here we are, on my last (full) day in New Zealand. Tomorrow morning I’m jumping on a few flights and by 5:30 pm, I’ll be in the beautiful country/continent of Australia, riding kangaroos with my buddy Stephen Wyka… that is if he remembers to pick me up.

The past few weeks have been quite busy. The normality of the week-by-week school year was thrown out the window and we were hit with exams. It was indeed strange to see how quickly the student body of 20,000 future-alcoholics changed gears and locked themselves in the library for what would most likely be the only two weeks of studying all semester. In the end, exams were okay. And most importantly, they’re over.

The day after exams ended, I said some tough goodbyes and made my way to Queenstown with everything that I brought to NZ and more. With impeccable timing, the annual Winter Festival started the next day and I found myself busy with concerts, fireworks, comedy shows, hockey games, snowboard workshops, and the sort. The only thing that was missing was the snow.

By this time I had ditched the hostel and moved into my cosy campervan. I’ve never been much of a mini-van guy (contrary to popular belief), but I could tell I was turning heads with my bright green and purple van.

man in a van!

Early that week I decided to give another shot at hiking Ben Lomond Peak, a 6,000-ft mountain right outside of Queenstown. The first time I hiked this (back in March) I gravely underestimated it as a local "hill", got little sleep, and brought along way too much stuff in my pack, including my laptop (which I didn't want to get stolen from the car). I made it to the base of the final 1-hour push to the summit before my friend Alex and I decided to call it quits.

Though completely focused, even this time there were some troubles. I woke up with a bad kink in my neck and then accidentally bought 1.5 litres of sparkling water, but noticed soon into the hike and was able to refill with normal water along the trail. The rest of the trail, however, was fairly easy and I made it to the summit in about 2 hours (the map says 3-4 hours). There I had my victory tuna sandwhich and looked miles and miles into snowcapped mountains and down on helicopters returning after God-like heliskiing trips.

Ben Lomond Peak

They call me Sowbeard

Victory

On Monday I had finally had enough waiting for the mountains to open, so I had the idea to rent a snowboard and hike up the local mountain (Coronet Peak). Unfortunately, not one of the rental shops would rent me a board until one of the mountains opened. Fortunately, the very next day Mt. Hutt opened, which is 5 hours north. But they only had 2 trails open, so I told a little white lie to the rental shops and told them I was going to Mt. Hutt anyway. So I got myself a board, got up early the next morning and had an amazing but exhausting day hiking and boarding Coronet, dodging snow cats and snow mobiles the whole time.

Finally!

Well above the clouds at Coronet Peak

Finally, Queenstown’s prayers had been answered and Coronet announced they were opening the following day. With still 2 days left on my rental, I could not have been happier. Naturally, I was one of the first in line for the lift and one of the last to leave each day. Even though they had limited trails open, my snowboard craving had finally been satisfied. Riding way too fast and going off trail took me back to the good ol’ days at Cannon with my shred buddies, who, as I kept reminding myself, were probably dying of heat stroke at that very moment.

So tomorrow this adventure ends and another adventure begins. Wyka and I will be driving from Brisbane down through Sydney, snowboarding (if time and money allow), and on to Melbourne. Whenever I get the chance, I write an update or two here.

Thanks for reading!

--Steve