Me and Cardrona got of to a bad start and so for a while, before we visited, i felt nothing but disappointment whenever i thought about this mountain... which was a lot after it let us all down. Let me explain...
Me and Wesley up the Remarks on my birthday!
So after experiencing both Coronet Peak and the Remarkables ski fields it was time for something bigger, something better but not any more expensive, so Cardrona it was. Me and a whole bunch of others decided we would plan in advance to get Wednesday the 5th september off from work to spend the day Skiing/boarding at Cardrona and we did exactly that. So there we all were on tuesday night getting all excited about spending a group day skiing and having copious amounts of fun however, it was not to be. Sadly when we woke the next day we discovered the mountain was on 'hold', meaning that hadn't yet decided whether or not they were going to open that day, so with what little hope we had left we walked down to the bus stop to wait for our ride and when it came they still hadn't decided on the mountain status, so we boarded the bus and met up with our friends whilst the driver rambled on about what would happen should we get going and they decided to close it. We set off and got pretty far on the road half way up the windy crown range when the driver got a call.... they decided to close the mountain, i think at this point we were all pretty gutted, and so we headed back to town and spent the rest of the day aimlessly wondering what to do with our time. So all in all a pretty crap day, although everyone did go out on the piss that night and i ended up having one of the best nights out i have had here in QT, lots of booze, lots of laughter and the Macarena was even thrown into the equation.
Sad because we couldn't go to Cardrona
From our pretty hilarious night out :)!
Anyway thats the negative about Cardrona out of the way, now on to the good stuff! After moping around about cardrona for several days/weeks, Me, Scotty, Jo and Wesley decided to give it another go, but trying not to jinx it, we talked about it as little as possible and even went as far as trying reverse physcology in that we kept saying things like 'We wont be going to Cardrona on Monday because the weather WILL be absolutely shit, no doubt about it' and low and behold it actually worked because when we woke up on that fateful monday morning, the mountain was good and open and so off we went on a house road trip to Wanaka (area) woop woop!
On the way to Cardrona!
The road there is pretty tedious in that, you have to go up the windy crown range road then back down the other side only to then take another mammoth windy road up to the Cardrona ski resort. Completely worth it but i wouldn't want to have to do it everyday of the season like I'm sure a lot of people probably did. Aaaaaanyways when we got there it was a pretty nice day except of the one cloud in the sky that day which was positioned exactly over the ski field, but hey ho we were here and it was go time! Apart from a few moments of cloud it was a pretty nice day it got so warm sometimes that i was tempted to ski in just my t-shirt.
Excited about the day ahead!
When we started the skiing we left Scotty to try a few runs on the baby slopes and me Jo and Wes hit some blue runs (intermediate) to get warmed up and after a while we started heading toward the back of the mountain,it seemed to go on forever it was awesome! We smashed out so many runs in the morning yet we still had plenty of energy so after we breaked for lunch and Scott had joined us for some blue runs, we smashed out a bunch more and Scotty was amazing and by the end he was able to do the blue runs with ease and without falling over. After a few more blue runs we decided to try some Blacks (Advanced) and although, both times it ended in disaster and one of the times i completely wiped out and I'm very surprised i didn't break my leg in the process, i am very pleased with myself that i improved my skiing to feel confident enough to be able attempt them, so i am very happy with my progress, its only upwards from here! Also during the day we attempted some off piste and i kind of wiped out again and went skidding for like a mile on my back and got some serious ice burnage but its all cool! it was all fun.
Lets hit the Slopes!
Don't Worry Guys it was just a pose!
After an excellent day of skiing i finally reached a point where it began to hurt so we decided to call it quits like 15 mins before the mountain closed, and we headed on a very quiet journey home, much unlike the chitter chatter and singing on the way to the mountain. It is safe to say we all slept very well that night however, i struggled to get out of bed the next day as every single muscle in my body was useless. it was soooo worth it!. Also i had an awesome sunglasses tan the next day!
Everyone look happy!
The View from the top of Captains Express!
My very nice sunglasses Tan!
'Say goodbye to the halls and the classes
Say hello to a the job and the taxes
The weekends with old friends spilling into 9 to 5 routine
Tell me how you feel over and done with
Like your life is a map with no compass to guide
At the bar drinking way too much
We sing along to forever young'
'I’m just a moment, so don’t let me pass you by
We could be a story in the morning, but we’ll be a legend tonight
I’m just a moment, so don’t let me pass you by'
Im really enjoying All Time Low's new album Don't Panic, its excellent and you should go listen!
#Don't Panic
Side ProjectMy side project this week will tell you about my feelings on 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' the excellent book that i just finished reading by Jennifer Egan.
Ok so basically the book is a collection of stories about a numerous amount of people's lives and each chapter begins with a new person, alas all the people's lives intertwine and in the end it comes to a full circle with the last story featuring the guy who was introduced in the very first story. This book is excellent and it thoroughly deserved the pulitzer prize that it won in 2011. It is extremely relevant to todays society and i can guarantee there will be at least one character that you will be able to connect with on a certain level. Also some of the characters feature heavily around the Punk music scene and for me this is amazing as that is my music genre of choice.
I would thoroughly recommend you reading this book as i enjoyed every second of it and was extremely sad when i had finished it, thanks to
Wesley Stratton for recommending it to me.
Peace out people! xx
