I called Quantas lost luggage in the morning, and they had finally located my skis, but they were still in Sydney and they wouldn’t be able to get them to me until later in the afternoon, they told me to go and rent ski equipment for the day and they would give me a refund up to NZ$100. The owner of the YHA hostel in Springfield was very helpful, and he also happen to have a ski rental in his backyard…
We were off course not that convinced at first (it is not always easy to travel with two ski nerds that work, sleep and live ski and ski equipment), but it turned out the guy had some decent stuff in his little barn, I got a pair of big trouble (I think), little longer and thinner than I’m used to but still a good ski, and a pair of boots that were a little too big, but super comfortable.
Everything got sorted out and we headed to the mountain.
New Zealand is incredible beautiful, so there will be a lot of these kind of photos while I’m here…
The roads up to the mountains in New Zealand is not really like the roads up to the mountains in Europe or North America. Most of the ski fields in NZ are local club fields, the land is owned by local farmers and the fields are runned with none, or next to no profit. To get up to Mt Olympus, we had to pass some farmers fields and sketchy bridges.
Halfway up, we had to stop and fit the chains, fitting chains can be tricky if you have never done it before. The macho men was crawling in the mud for a good 15 minutes. I got a little bored and cold and walked over to check on them and it took me about 20 seconds to figure it out…
This is a hotel/lodge you could stay at if you wanted to, we were a little more comfortable and thought the hostel down in the small town was better, and worth the drive.
The road up to the mountain.
Ready for the first day of skiing! T-bars and chairlifts are rare at club fields, they usually just have tow/rope lift. Since it gets pretty steep at places, you get a harness and a so called “nut cracker” to make it easier to hold on to the lift.
Here is “Jr” with the tow lift in the background.
The lunch restaurant was also the kitchen for the backpackers accommodation, the chefs were the ski bums that stayed on the mountain, and the food was awesome!
Lots of snow!
The kids forgot to fill up the car before heading to the mountain. We were a little concerned that we would be running out before getting back to Springfield and were lucky to come across this guy who happen to have 20 liters of petrol in his car!
I was thrilled to see my skibag when we got back to the hotel!
The first night we had two rooms, but we thought it would be more fun to share just one room, so the staff had made a mattress on the floor by the time we got back, it was about as long as it was wide, but apparently comfortable.
This is kind of a classic photo, with the beer and the “snus” hanging down his lip, but he was actually not that drunk, just super jet lagged from a 12 hour time difference.
A plane made out of beer cans, kind of neat!
