Another Lay Day

We had another day off snow as the NZ Open was on up at Cardrona and Snowpark got hit pretty bad with rain yesterday so hardly any features were open. I wasn't super happy to be off snow again as I have'nt been snowboarding in way too long due to illness and bad weather. I embraced the day anyway, with a pretty cruisy morning involving several cups of tea and the purchase of a crossword book [The last month at home I got addicted to the daily crossword, but the papers here just dont live up to the caliber of the Herald Sun].

This afternoon, however, we decided to confront cabin fever buy heading the 10km's out of town to 'Have a Shot' to play some putt putt mini golf and so Samboss could let off some rounds in the shooting range.

Samboss after shooting.


Some putt putt happy snaps: Jase gets an honorable mention for the only hole in one [Even though he came last], but I came out Victorious with Sam and Charlie tied for second.




We also hit up the Transport and Toy Museum which was across the road before heading home. Although we didn't make it past the foyer, there was some pretty cool stuff to be seen.




Well thats it for now.
JKW

One Day in Queenstown

We had the day off today so we cruised down to Queenstown with the intention of seeing a movie and so some of the boys could do some shopping. It was snowing like crazy on the drive over so we ended up missing the movie showing.. twice. We just ended up eating lunch and heading home after the boys did thier shopping. We took the long way back to Wanaka to avoid trecherous snowy roads in our sweet MiniBus and in a split second decision (as in the turn in 400 metres sort of decision) we decided to go to the cellar door of a winery to do a tasting. Here are some photos from the day.

The Barrels aging the 2010 Pinot Noir at the Peregrine Winery


The Boys and I wine tasting.


This is one of the buildings at the winery.


This Gondola is in Queenstown, I have no idea where it goes but it is ridiculously steep, so I took a photo.


We saw this sheep farmer at the bottom of Snow Park yesterday. This place really lives up to the cliche, there are sheep everywhere!



JW

New Zealand.

On Monday I flew out of Melbourne Airport bright and early to Queenstown via Auckland. I am spending the next 6 weeks in Wanaka with Nate Johnstone, Jase Maxfield, Sam Murphy, Charlie Steinbacher and our coach Benny A. So far we have done 2 days at Cadrona and one day at Snowpark. Both reorts have pretty awesome parks and pipes, not to mention some pretty amazing veiws from up top.
Here are some photos:

Cadrona Village


Cadrona's Pipe


As always keep posted because this should be a fun trip. You should also check out Nate and Samboss's blog by clicking thier names up there ^^
In the not too distant future I will post some photo's of the Dew Hut Jam from last weekend.

Until then
JKW

Get Better Soon PDM!

So yesterday my boy Patto broke his ankle pretty bad. I'm sure he will put a post up on his blog soon, so I wont go into detail but I just wanted to wish him a speedy recovery. Pat is always fun to ride with and has been an awesome training partner so I'll miss him heaps while he's on the mend.



Heal up quick Big Man
JKW

Gnarcade.

This is a video my freind Thommo sent to me. It was mde by the crew from High Cascade at Mt. Hood. It is a ridiculously awesome video. I had to pick my jaw up from the floor after watching it. So I just thought I would share it with everyone. Enjoy.



JW

Surf Safari

Yesterday was my day off snow. So rather than sitting around in my cabin at the Sport and Rec Centre (Where I live up here in Jindy) all day I went surfing with my coach, Benny A and one of the moguls coaches, Jerry.

We left Sport and Rec at about 6:15 another morning on the road before the sun was up...


It took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to Merimbula where we got Maccas before going to check the surf. There were'nt really any good waves breaking around Merimbula so we drove a little further north to Tathra.


I had an awesome time, it was so good to get in the water, even though it felt like I had never surfed before. Jerry and Benny both got some pretty sweet waves. I definately have the urge to go back really soon. These are some photo's I took during the day...

This is Tura Beach.. obviously there was no surf, so we moved on.


The Lagoon at Nelson Bay (where we ended up surfing at Tathra)


This one is just a pic I snapped from the dunes.


This is Jerry when he got out of the water. As you can see by the look on his face he was stoked on life.


I hope to go on another surfing adventure soon! Hopefully next time I do better, but either way I'm sure it will be just as fun.

JW

In The A.M.

Yesterday we went up to Perisher at 7am. This meant I had to set an alarm for 5:45. I actually took great pleasure in this as my room mate is an alpine skier who has been waking me up at this time for the past week. Yesterday was his day off, so I meticulously went through my iTunes searching for the most brutal song I could find. I settled for Woldgangs 5th Symphony. It was quite succesful at getting an uprising from Mitch.

Benny and I hit the road at around 6:15 at which point the road looked like this.


It was pretty dark when we pulled into the carpark. It felt like we were going night shredding with Front Valley all lit up.


The sun was just poking its head out as the T-Bar started running. The sky was pretty amazing at this time of day.


We spent a while cutting turns next to the T-Bar until the park opened (the park is really fun considering the lack of snow). Then we just rode the park until the lift lines got ridiculously busy. School Holdiays are horrendous, every lift line I could see was over flowing. No fun at all.

I think we are going to try do some more early mornings. If the weather gets any better... we copped a fair bit of rain again last night. Cannot wait to get to NZ.

Until next time.
JKW