Spring is in the air

 

Spring is coming into full bloom here in New Zealand and Wanaka is getting quieter everyday. For the last week i’ve had enough time to go riding everyday and just generally play about. Stylewars has just kicked off at Snow Park between Australia and New Zealand which promises to be fun even with the park looking like a dirt park! Here’s a picture of Andy Lloyd, an Australian rider, dodging the mud! More to come over the next few days….

FIS World Cup

Ok, i literally just got back from Cardrona where they were hosting the World Cup halfpipe event. It was an all out Japanese domination. They went huge! Kohhei Kudoh took the mens tiltle with one of the highest scores ever given in a worldcup event. just got the results emailed to me and head judge, Ste’en Webster, said Kudoh’s run was one of the best he had ever seen in his judging career. “Every hit in his winning run was sky high. As judges we hang out for years to see a run like that,”

Kohhei Kudoh’s winning run

It was pretty overcast today but i was assured that yesterday was an awesome day for the contest, “great for taking photos” i was told. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it because i had the chance to go heliboarding for the first time. Thoughts of going to the halfpipe event left my brain in milliseconds as i jumped in the car and went to the launch site. I only had a point and shoot camera with me but got the taste of what its like up there. Hopefully i’ll get a commission in the near future for a heli shoot……..its worth keeping your fingers crossed for!

Ummm, Heliboarding!

Shot of the day

 

I wish i could take credit for this photo but it’s me in front of the lens this time. Dodgy exposure, dodgy motion blur and slightly dodgy composition. Absolutely love it! making the most of yet more down days by just doing what we all do best – dicking around.

Not so sunny days….

 

 

The last week or so has been dictated mainly by the weather. Promised bluebird conditions have lead to whiteouts and not much has got done. One day was spent playing hangman in Cardrona base after carting all my gear up there. Thrilling stuff! 

I’m writing this on another down day with word that its raining up on the hill which is abit of a nightmare. All of my house mates have moved on now and i’ve discovered that the board game RISK isn’t too captivating by yourself. World domination, it seems, is better with your friends.

 

It’s not all doom and gloom though – i’ve managed to get a few things done. I found myself shooting a profile image for Volkl of Kiichiro Kazumi, one of the riders i was with a few weeks ago. I’d arranged to hook up at the top of Captains lift at Cardrona due to the surrounding mountain views being superb. On the chairlift up Kiichiro was saying how sick it was on that side, “i’ve never been to captains before”…….he’s been at Cardrona for 3 seasons and that was his first venture out of the park. Brilliant! Whilst i had him over there we sessioned a fence for 20 minutes or so. It took no time to set-up and was easy to hit a couple of times. Fences are kind of iconic in New Zealand and we spotted a couple more that we’ll hopefully get shots of before the season is out. 

Kiichiro at Cardrona

I made it over to Ohau, a club field 2 hours from Wanaka and had a wicked day. I’ve always said that Asahidake over in Hokkaido is my favourite resort, though with only one lift going every 20minutes and constant unstrapping required, it’s anything but a resort. Ohau is much the same; just a 2 man chairlift and not much else. What fun though, wicked hiiking, one of the best views i’ve ever seen and a road up that makes the roads to Cardrona and Snow Park look like great feats of design and engineering. I’d love to go there with fresh snow. I’m sure it would be up there with some amazing freeriding potential.

Top: Tall Paul shredding at Ohau

Below: View from drive down

For the sake of escaping the weekend crowds we headed over to Milford Sound at the weekends to check out some more New Zealand “must sees”. Yup, all good, all done. Next!

One of the many waterfalls at Milford Sound