Posts tagged mountains
Too many slopes to choose from…
There are quite a few places where you can go skiing around New Zealand, especially in the middle of winter. The main places that people decide upon are in Queenstown and Wanaka. Queenstown, of course, being the adrenaline capital of the world, is where most people roll on down to get a good ski or snowboard, meaning that it can get a bit crowded. This is why I decided to get up on the slopes in Wanaka.
Treble Cone is about a half hour bus ride away from the centre of town, and all together, including the transfer, the ski pass and the gear, it will cost you around NZ$135 for a full day of skiing here. I, needless to say, passed out on the bus ride (we had had a few drinks the night before and I was surviving, once again, on about 3 hours sleep), and was woken up 30 minutes later as the bus jolted to stop. The scenery in front of me was mental.
We had climbed over the clouds and was now looking down on them. The sheet of cloud looked like an extension of the pure white snow that was lying on the mountain side. It was unreal.
After taking a few snaps, we got our ski passes (which you buy at the bottom of the first lift. There are no gondolas here, it’s straight onto the snow off the bus) and clicked our skis on.
Like I said, Queenstown can get a bit crowded, but here, we were able to run up and down the slopes non stop, with not even a hint of a queue at any point. The amount of runs at Treble Cone is more than enough to keep you happy few a few days. People have told me that if you’re staying around for a week or so, then maybe head down to Queenstown, simply because the mountains are bigger and you have more choice, but for the day, Treble Cone is “Sweet As, Bru”.
By the end of the day, if you’ve been skiing a few times, I would recommend going as high a you can in the ski lifts and then taking the hike up to the highest mount on these mountains. The views are out of this world, and the off piste skiing back down to the main slopes is a lot of fun. What you should know about the slopes in NZ is that the grading system is slightly different. The are no Reds, it’s Green, Blue then Black, and the Blue runs can go from nice and easy to steep moguls pretty quickly! What’s really nice about these runs though, is that a lot of them are just guides, and you can make up a lot of it as you go along. Pretty much all of the Blacks are just off piste, and especially at Treble Cone where there aren’t many people are fairly uncarved and deserted. Again, a lot of fun!
Only wiped out a coupled of times (once pretty spectacularly underneath the ski lift) and still only have the one hole in my teeth. A freaking good day!
“It’s all about ADVENTURE!!”
Tasmania is about the size of Ireland, yet has a population of 500,000, which gives you an idea of the amount of space around you on this island.
The island is considered so out-of-the-way, that you can only get there via an internal flight from somewhere in Australia, which are quite thin on the ground anyway. This is what constitutes the tiny domestic airport you enter after getting off the plane. The distance between the plane and the car waiting for you outside (be it taxi, bus or otherwise) is about 50 metres, and there is only one tiny baggage reclaim belt, which gives you an idea as to how small and ‘out-of-the-way’ this place is.
Hobart, the capital sits in the shadow of Mount Wellington. A mountain that on most days you can jump on a tour called ‘All downhill from here’ which will drive you up to the top the mountain with bikes on the back, so that once at the top you can bike it all the way down. If you get the chance, do it. While at the top of the mountain, at this time of year, you will find icicles on your nose and you hands may go numb, it is still an incredible view from the top, looking North, East, South and West all over Tasmania. I can imagine that in the summer this tour is even better (especially as it started getting dark as we got to the bottom, which is where you go off road. Adventure tour indeed).
On Saturdays, by the marina, there is a massive market that is set up from 4:30 in the morning and carries on until 6:00 in the afternoon, all with the backdrop of Mt. Wellington. All the way along the street there are restaurants and cafes, one of which is Retro, a great place to go and chill for breakfast, watching the bustle of the market only get more intense.
Here in Hobart we met up with the STA US interns, Casey and Natalie, and have spent the past few days travelling Tasmania with them both and our tour guide, Greg, who is doing for the Tasmanian Tiger what Steve Irwin did for ‘crocs’.
Greg’s middle name is apparently ‘Adventure’. At any opportunity he will convince anyone that the road less taken is the right one to take, that it would be an ‘Adventure’ and just a bit of fun. More often than not, it is the road less taken for a reason. Yesterday we ended up in the middle of nowhere having to dig the bus out of a mixture of manure and mud. What an adventure.
Along the East Coast, there is small town called Bicheno. Now when I say ‘small town’, what I really mean is a couple of houses, a pub and a supermarket. The entire time we were there I think I saw 3 locals, but even they were some of the nicest people I have ever met (something that HAS to be said about Tasmania is that everyone here is amazingly friendly. all they want to do is make sure that everyone around them is happy and in tern, ooze happiness themselves. It makes the entire island and big bundle of happy helpful people. If you ever get lost, get lost in Tasmania!).In the morning, at some point during you stay, set your alarm a little (or a lot depending on who you are) earlier and head down the the beach to watch the sunrise. Tasmania is one of the ‘Greenest’ places in one of the ‘Greenest’ countries on the Earth, which means that there is no pollution in the air, making the sunrises spectacular, rivalling those on the beaches of Tulum in Mexico. At this time of year though, it is around -2ºC at the time of the sunrise, and make sure you get the right time (not an hour earlier like I thought. It is not fun the wait around in the freezing cold for the sun to finally come up), but it’s worth it at any time of year.
Off up another mountain today, this place is full of them.
Matt M
STA UK WTI 2010