Mo Bro!!

No Beards just Mo's - Last night saw the end of the beard contest and the introduction of the Mo. Just for kicks and because they look really cool me and Roomie sported beauties of tashes. As you can see we look amazin or like sleazy Mexicans, you can decide!

Boarding, Beards, Footy and a Yellow Submarine

Boarding - The last couple of days here have been fantastic. The last three days have been bluebird days, which means really sunny and not a cloud in sight. Day 1 was great, got a 3 hour break from work and loved every minute of it!!! Then Tuesday was a great day which was only marred by 2 falls which made day 3 a day of rest.

Beards - Me and Roomie have challenged each other to a beard duel. The first on to shave has to buy the other one a beer. Trimming is allowed to save on hairy cheeks but otherwise nature is taking over. Should be a laugh!!

Footy - On Tuesday night we had a footy comp in the local school. Our team the Skelts came 3rd out of 5. Not bad for a team that was thrown together at the last minute. And if you can work out the days then yes i did play after my falls on the slopes. That's why the day after was a right off!!! You can never allow an English man the chance to get on the pitch and bang in a few goals. Hopefully it will become a regular thing and the skelts can improve on a decent first run out.

More leavers - Adam and Megan left yesterday, yet 2 more added to the mass leaving party which is goin to get into full swing soon. Great getting to know you guys and Yellow Submarine will never be the same again after Dan and now Adam have left!! But I'm sue we'll give it go..... WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE.......................

Avalanches, Gangsta's and Angry People!!!

Avalanche Course - On Wednesday Roomie and I went on a days avalanche training. What a great day, the sun was out and we were out on the slopes doin new things. Morning was checking snow packs - cutting into the snow and looking for different snow sections to deem if it was safe or not. Then followed a trip out with Mike, one of the instructors. He took us out on the mountain boarding, looking at different avalanche proceedures. This however included some black runs, and yes i did shit myself!!!! The phrase "just drop in here" was not welcomed with open arms. I prefer to see the slope before attempting to get on it. Next was beacon training, how to find a buried person. Followed by practicing digging techniques, yes digging techniques. It took 11 minutes for 8 of us to get to a section 1.5m below the snow level. Roomie bled everywhere after getting over excited with his shovel!! Tremendous day, ended with a cool beer.






Gangsta Party - Arranged by Dan before he left, twas a good nights drinking. A bit of dress up followed by many beers and a slight hangover the following day.

Saturady from hell - When one side of the mountain is not operating all the punters migrate across to the other side. Well that happened today in a major way today. We had strong winds so the lifts that ran were at a slow rate and we didn't have all of them working for safety reasons. This lead to queues up to an hour long and some very unhappy customers. Some needed to talk about there anguish, thats where my job comes into play. FUN FUN FUN!!

Snow Snow Snow

Fresh Powder - It turns out that the rain that battered National Park brought new snow to the slopes of Mt Ruapehu. I've just spent a fantastic morning riding fresh snow on the Waterfall Express. It was great to board on really fresh snow which lets you go faster and harder. Wipe outs hurt less!!! That was until Brandie took us down a untouched run, best of the day. At the base of the run I fell straight into the snow which was covering a rock....OUCH!! Day over ice pack out and time to go home for dinner.




Avalanche Course - Tonight is theroy night in preperation for an avalanche awareness course. Part of the reason for finishing early is because I have a full day out on the slopes tomorrow. This course is just somethin of interest for whilst I'm here, and as most would guess, Roomie is doin it too. I'll updates on this are to follow.

Rain and more rain

Goodbye Dan - Well it's another day in the life of living in The Park. Last night was American Dan's last night with us and so we gave him a good send off. There are many tapes of Roomie, Adam, Dan, Candy and me singing in Roxanne. The venue - Vanessa. The theme - get pissed. Tactics employed - shots, beer and drink every time Roxanne is mention during the Police classic!!! Result -very messy. Cheers Dan, nice meetin you mate, and yes Vanessa does smell like a brewery this morning. 5 am wake up, by 20 past 5 I was at the bottle bank clearing the mess before driving to work.


Rain - Well sadly it's been raining here for a couple of days now, which is really rubbish for the snow. You could actually go water skiing rather than skiing on parts of the mountain. Hopefully we'll get some fresh snow up top though where it's a bit cooler. I'll report back tomorrow cos it's up early and on the 8.30 work bus to go and get some boarding time in.