We met some Swedish girls at the pub last night, some more clever than the others… One of them worked in the ski school at Porters ski field, she was nice. The other two studied tourism at Christchurch University, and they were kind of a disgrace for Sweden… the light was on but nobody was home, as you say. Or to quote one of the girls “you dont have to be a rocket scientist to study tourism”, I still cannot believe she actually said that about herself!
Anyways, we decided to check out Porters today, but first another breakfast sandwich at the awesome Chill Cafe before heading to the mountain.
Porters was one of the most commercial club fields and they only had t-bar lifts. I was rather excited about that, as I was kind of sick with struggling on the nut cracker lift. There is one down side with a filed only having t-bar lifts; lots of beginners and lazy families. The beginners and the lazy people tend to stay away from fields with tricky lifts. On the good side, the field get more tourism and are able to expand and build decent cafe’s and restaurants on the mountain.
We had no luck with the weather today, icy and flat light, no fun at all 🙁 The snow condition was poor as well, and there were lots of rocks on the slopes.
I gave up after just one run, which was a little disappointing, the guys did a total of 3 runs so they would qualify for the after ski beer.
We decided that Porters ski field was good, but not for us, the tourists and families can have it! We took the car out and explored instead, drove an hour or so to Arthur’s Pass, had lunch and then went for a hike.
I’ve been Nea throughout the trip, Jr has been Jr since his is the kid, and today’s conversation between me and Jr;
N: We should start calling him Ole, after Ole Bramserud.
J: Why?
N: He has got all these gadgets that no one else has, or need for that matter, and he is driving a Porsche.
J: But he is kind of a dork though, like Stig-Helmer.
N: Thats true, lets call him Stig-Ole!
I love him though! I have know him for 6 years and we have traveled or hunged out on 5 continents so far, not bad for 6 years! We are gonna have to go to Africa soon!
Hiking though the jungle.
We drove a little further and came across this:
It is kind of hard to see, but here is a snapshot of what the old road used to look like just a few years back. I wonder how many cars that got swept away from avalanches! In 2000, they built the bridge that is in red on the map.
When we got back to our car it was invaded by playful Kia’s. Jr tried to scare them off, but they just stared at him as if he was some kind of mad man.
Some more interesting obstacles along the road.
