Amuri Ski Field (what is now known as Hanmer Ski Field) is a small club field about 30 minutes drive from Hanmer.

I think it’s run by a Swiss guy during the season – and the buildings are all beautifully made and kept. It was still pretty windy – but didn’t seem to make too much difference once you were a little way down from the summit.

For some reason Phil Meier (The #1 Swiss Freeskier – #7 in the world) was there. I suppose because of the Swiss connection. Either that or he’d heard I was going to be there and wanted to learn some tricks.

Finally a quick spin down to Acheron Accommodation House. Built in 1862-63 it provided shelter to travelers. It’s a ‘Cob House’ – which is made from mixing clay, cow dung tussock and water. I suppose when all the oil runs out these places will become popular again ;)

Long week – was so happy to make it to the weekend. Wednesday and Thursday in work I was filling in for the group of people who provide IT support for the general public who ring up and have problems with our site… Not something I am used to!

Anyways – the weekend… On Friday night headed up to Hanmer Springs with Matt (bloke wot I met up at Broken River a couple of weeks ago) and his friend Dale. Stopped off three times along the way. Once, at The Brew Moon.. a microbrewery I have passed countless times and have always wanted to check out. Well worth doing so.. can recommend ‘The Dark Side of the Moon‘, I think it was anyway.

Then, stopped off in The Hurunui Pub – an old (18somethinoroother) pub.. for another pint .. and finally in Cheviot – where, according to Dale there was a picture of the owners with The Fonz from Happy Days. Unfortunately the cafe had changed hands so no pictures to show. sigh. Out for a couple more pints (followed by some tequila chasers) and bed.

Woke up to the sound of muchos wind. And then the snowreport saying that Hanmer Skifield (Amuri) was closed. So off for a drive – to Maruia. The others hadn’t been there before. Seemed a little funny to drive an hour and a half further up the road to go to hotpools.. but still, it is a far nicer setting.

So, in the pools by 10am, polishing off the bottle of tequila.. We were even called ‘Yobs’ by a lady in the pool, but, she was joking (honestly) and even came to say sorry to me before she left!! hehe, I didn’t think I’d objected that strongly..

Mind you, when I got out of the pools I felt pretty damn toasted.. I think my alcohol tolerance (at least that imbibed in hot pools) isn’t as high as it used to be!.

Lazy evening, cooked an amazing dinner, and this time early bed for what promised to be a better day (weather wise) tomorrow.

Firstly a picture from last weekend – Emmas birthday. Excellent night – drinkin’ and carousin’ (and being taught how to tie a Windsor knot by Dave – as you do) until the wee hours.

It has been a funny old week, but a truly excellent time snowboarding (at last! – a weekend working is one too many in my book ;). This time back to Porter Heights with Glynn & Jayne, Graham & Myra…and… me ;) Great great day. Graham has been a real inspiration to board with – and pushes Glynn & I to improve – and try out new things.

This site has a lot of information on snowboarding stances. I tried out duck footed stance today, and really liked it. Basically it’s a symmetric stance – better for tricks & for trying to ride with either foot first (most ppl have one dominant foot).

I really was excited to try this new stance… also I really feel (for the first time) that I am ‘getting it’ (even just a little bit). I think it may actually help quite a lot with kayaking this summer. See when you’re playing on a river – a lot of it is about keeping your rail (your edge) at the correct angle so that the river doesn’t flip you over. Same thing snowboarding.. except with less water. Or something.

Ok, forget it – here’s a pretty picture taken from the top looking out across the ranges. Somewhere out there is Mt. Olympus. I am hoping to take a day off this week and get there with Michelle and maybe Myra … supposed to be an awesome field. I totally want to dress up in a toga with a strap on beard…

Alert.. this post has nothing to do with having a carefree fun time in New Zealand! be warned – next post will return to normal I promise

So.. for the last wee while I have been from time to time reading up on & thinking about this idea of peak oil.

In this picture you can see (very roughly) the idea of peak oil. The blue curve is production (due to peak in or around about now (or lots of ppl think so anyway). The yellow curve is consumption. Not due to stop anytime soon.

This, my dear friends, if true, is going to make for some *very* interesting times, and some huge changes in our way of life. Think about suburbia – say a 20 (or more in the US) km round trip to work.. It’s all going to change. Perhaps biofuels will help.. but I reckon we’ve got a long way to go.

So yes, saw a very good film called Oil Crash. Just shows in a pretty methodical (scary) fashion just how addicted to oil we are.. I mean the first car was made in the late 1800s, really took off in about 1930, and now we’re reaching the peak..

Course I *could* just be a crazy conspiracy theorist.. and this *could* all be wrong (I’m actually reasonably open to differing opinions!), but it does make you wonder about Iraq, and all the current posturing over Iran…

On a lighter note, Glynn sent through another pretty funky video (though I’ve never managed to watch it all on my increasingly hokey connection).

Work has been – well, worky, hence no pics this week.. Actually worked on Saturday (crazy eh).. but the launch of the new website happened today. Hosted using Plone. It’s an open source Content Management System I suggested about 2 years ago (off the back of my brothers recommendation). They took their time, but got there in the end.

snowpool came to the rescue this weekend. While the weather was looking distinctly dodgy (in fact most of my friends elected for a weekend city bound) I headed up to Broken River for the weekend. I figured I’d rather read a book & write my diary up there than down in ChCh anyway!

Euan was also coming along as there was a telemark weekend (a weird form of skiing.. purist?) and he has been learning that (and fast) this year. Picked up by Trevor – a Broken River club member and user of snowpool! at 7:30 – and off up we went.

It started raining when we got close, and snowing as we got higher. After checking into our accommodation headed up to the slopes. Complete white out. I had a few runs – but found it completely disorienting. You pretty much had to guess which way the slope was going, commit to the turn, and hope you were right. If not a hard bump and a shallow laugh later I was ready for the next turn.

So, after 4 runs I wussed out and went to read my book (Gold Wars – quite interesting actually)… Miraculously, when I poked my head out around about 11:30 ish, it was clearing – and we actually had blue skies for the rest of the weekend. Perfect.

So boarded about with Euan for Saturday (here is a pic of Euan in Allans Basin)

That night there was a slideshow of telemarking in Norway – they were doing 30 odd km a day on skiis! Still, looked like a great holiday.

I walked up above the lodges to have a quick look at the sky for the persiads. It’s a meteor shower the Earth passes through every August (up to the 22nd August I think it is).

It was a little cold so I didn’t stay up too long. I suppose they’re visible from the Southern Hemisphere? One would imagine they are!

On Sunday – Matt – one of the guys who I met up at BR before said a group of ppl were heading up Hamilton Peak (a mountain inbetween Broken River and Cragieburn ski fields). It was going to be fresh tracks all the way.

So Matt, Tom (Czech Republic), Lassa (Danish – who I played backgammon with!) and I headed up. It was a 30 min hike, but well worth it. Hamilton is the peak in the above picture..

The picture above is looking down into Cragieburn Skifield. BR and Cragieburn have an arrangement that you can use either day pass interchangeably. Quite handy really.

Awesome fun boarding. Unfortunately I forgot to tell Lassa that video’s had to be taken horizontally.. (as you can’t rotate them!) so no vids this time..

After a quick break for lunch we did another hike, this time heading left along the ridge and dropping down into Avalanche Bowl?. I took a couple of videos as we did the run twice. The first is Lassa Skiing down, the second Matt Boarding.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJbjHAREHDE]

You can download a divx video better quality here

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obm_EVeeJ7Q]

You can download a divx video better quality here

All in all, an unexpectedly excellent weekend, as the weather really was supposed to be awful!