Queenstown - New Zealand
8/17/05
We woke up early to get to the slops which are only 25 minutes from Queenstown; the resort's name is Coronet Peak. The day was surprisingly nice, blue sky and sunny.
Before taking the first lift we had already planed which trail to come down, but to our surprise, when we got up there we found our chosen trail closed, actually we came to know only later that it was closed. There was a banner saying sky boundary - area not patrolled but it was possible to go through, so we did. It was a trail on the map anyway.
The first 5 minutes were perfect pure powder snow, but as we got to lower altitude it turned into icy and finally pure ice.
At one point it was impossible to snowboard and we had gone too far down to be able to walk up the trail.
Angie decided to walk a critical, more steep, part and resume snowboarding from lower, but what happened was that she almost walked to her death.
Again, it wasn't icy it was pure ice, really bad. Angie removed the snowboard and started walking down very slowly but within two or three steps she slipped, and on ice it is impossible to stop, unless you have an ice-climbing axe, which was not the case.
As she gained speed she started screaming, because she was going strait to a cliff on the left. She first started sliding on her but, then on her back with the head up hill and finally her belly with the head down hill, always holding the snowboard with one hand. All these changes were due to her try to drive away from the cliff, which (thanks god) she did manage to and eventually came to a complete stop.
Flavien and I watched everything frozen and unable to do anything, but after she stopped everything was funny and we all laughed.
Then it was my turn, Flavien knowing what was about to happen prepared his camera and waited for my fall. Note how the slope looks like glass.
After seeing Angie I was quite worried about my own walk down. I was more cautious and using my snowboard almost as an ice axe, but half way down I fell too, luckly it wasn't that steep anymore and my fall wasn't so bad. Once there was snow again we snowboarded normally to the bottom; what a nice first run we had!
The rest of the day went normally as we did stick to the ski boundary area. The resort is not that big but the runs are good and the view is fantastic, simply awesome; to seat for a minute for a break and watch the Wakatipu Lake and the white of the range of snowcapped mountains contrasting with the blue sky is a view that I dare it can be matched anywhere else.
Although we kept skiing in the boundary it doesn't mean we stopped doing shit, here is Flavien, the crazy Frenchman, in one of his many jumps.
It was nice to snowboard again after so long. At night we went to a packed pub with nice live music and cold beer.
This is around Queenstown and we were planing to do, but we didn't. Click and check it out. I'm still not sure if we didn't do because of the price or ...
www.canyonswing.co.nz
8/18/05
The second day we explored around Queenstown. We drove to Glenorchy along the Wakatipu Lake. This area is now heavily explored because it was a set for the Lord of the Rings..
Click here for a panoramic of Wakatipu Lake
Glenorchy is at the other end of the lake and it has some unique trees on the shore. The water is calm and works as a perfect mirror. The reflection on the water is breathtaking.
We went all the way to Paradise in Mount Aspiring National Park, yes, the place next to Glenorchy is called Paradise and it justifies its name.
When we entered the park area the paved road became a little dirt path, but heading to Paradise :)
We crossed many farms with sheeps and cows roaming in long green fields with awesome range of mountains on the background.
On the way back to Queenstown when we got hungry we pulled the car out of the road in a picnic area. The place was so beautiful that we didn't feel like leaving.
This is with no doubt the highest concentration of natural beauty per square meter.
After all that astonishing views we went to, the not so exciting, Arrowtown and then to Cromwell with a stop in a winery where we had the best Pinot Noir ever, but we didn't buy anything this time.
We woke up early to get to the slops which are only 25 minutes from Queenstown; the resort's name is Coronet Peak. The day was surprisingly nice, blue sky and sunny.
Before taking the first lift we had already planed which trail to come down, but to our surprise, when we got up there we found our chosen trail closed, actually we came to know only later that it was closed. There was a banner saying sky boundary - area not patrolled but it was possible to go through, so we did. It was a trail on the map anyway.
The first 5 minutes were perfect pure powder snow, but as we got to lower altitude it turned into icy and finally pure ice.
At one point it was impossible to snowboard and we had gone too far down to be able to walk up the trail.
Angie decided to walk a critical, more steep, part and resume snowboarding from lower, but what happened was that she almost walked to her death.
Again, it wasn't icy it was pure ice, really bad. Angie removed the snowboard and started walking down very slowly but within two or three steps she slipped, and on ice it is impossible to stop, unless you have an ice-climbing axe, which was not the case.
As she gained speed she started screaming, because she was going strait to a cliff on the left. She first started sliding on her but, then on her back with the head up hill and finally her belly with the head down hill, always holding the snowboard with one hand. All these changes were due to her try to drive away from the cliff, which (thanks god) she did manage to and eventually came to a complete stop.
Flavien and I watched everything frozen and unable to do anything, but after she stopped everything was funny and we all laughed.
Then it was my turn, Flavien knowing what was about to happen prepared his camera and waited for my fall. Note how the slope looks like glass.
After seeing Angie I was quite worried about my own walk down. I was more cautious and using my snowboard almost as an ice axe, but half way down I fell too, luckly it wasn't that steep anymore and my fall wasn't so bad. Once there was snow again we snowboarded normally to the bottom; what a nice first run we had!
The rest of the day went normally as we did stick to the ski boundary area. The resort is not that big but the runs are good and the view is fantastic, simply awesome; to seat for a minute for a break and watch the Wakatipu Lake and the white of the range of snowcapped mountains contrasting with the blue sky is a view that I dare it can be matched anywhere else.
Although we kept skiing in the boundary it doesn't mean we stopped doing shit, here is Flavien, the crazy Frenchman, in one of his many jumps.
It was nice to snowboard again after so long. At night we went to a packed pub with nice live music and cold beer.
This is around Queenstown and we were planing to do, but we didn't. Click and check it out. I'm still not sure if we didn't do because of the price or ...
www.canyonswing.co.nz
8/18/05
The second day we explored around Queenstown. We drove to Glenorchy along the Wakatipu Lake. This area is now heavily explored because it was a set for the Lord of the Rings..
Click here for a panoramic of Wakatipu Lake
Glenorchy is at the other end of the lake and it has some unique trees on the shore. The water is calm and works as a perfect mirror. The reflection on the water is breathtaking.
We went all the way to Paradise in Mount Aspiring National Park, yes, the place next to Glenorchy is called Paradise and it justifies its name.
When we entered the park area the paved road became a little dirt path, but heading to Paradise :)
We crossed many farms with sheeps and cows roaming in long green fields with awesome range of mountains on the background.
On the way back to Queenstown when we got hungry we pulled the car out of the road in a picnic area. The place was so beautiful that we didn't feel like leaving.
This is with no doubt the highest concentration of natural beauty per square meter.
After all that astonishing views we went to, the not so exciting, Arrowtown and then to Cromwell with a stop in a winery where we had the best Pinot Noir ever, but we didn't buy anything this time.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 4:35 PM
1 Comments:
This is about the most beautiful mountain sceneries you can find in the whole World. If you liked the sets in "The Lord of the Rings" the movies, it's even 10 times more astonishing in real. I took 240 pictures in 2 days! And when I look at them, I say to myself: How amazing; and I saw all of this? ...
Queenstown is the capital of the crazy sports and a real leisure town. I can only say one thing: GO THERE! (and try the RedBull plane if you think you have seen everything in "being scarred").
Flavien.
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