Finally got yesterdays pictures uploaded. This is Maggies street. She and Mike live in the house with the lamp post and the great view. The other two are at the top of the street. It is not Beech St.
It was raining again overnight and this morning, but with the promise of a fast moving front clearing by the afternoon. So Spook and I headed for the slopes - him with a fast hired board and me with his sticky old one. It was absolutely fantastic when we arrived. Loads of gorgeous, fresh, thick snow and warm sunshine. We were so excited. By the time we had got to the bottom of the slope, it has been swallowed up by cold mist with a rising wind. We headed up the first lift and over the link road to Captains Basin. I had to walk as I couldn't see where I was going and couldn't sense any gradient. It was worse when we got to Captains as I could only see from looking at my feet that I was moving and even then, I seemed to be going in a different direction from what I had thought. Then I would look ahead and just fall over. Spook wasn't faring much better and when we got to the cafe, it was like a disaster movie. Everyone sheltering from the shocking weather and worse, the pizza's were off!!! (thankfully we weren't counting on them anyway, but the atmosphere was tense). We must have stayed there for about 2hrs when we knew we had to make the trip back over the mountain. There seemed to be hardly anyone left and we walked the link road with Spook holding my hand and leading me through the wild wind, spindrift and mist. Then we hit the unsheltered side and our faces and hats crusted up. We kept falling over when we tried to ride down so walked off the mountain. The car was almost snowed in and Spook looked like he had aged 10 years when he got back in the car after clearing the windscreen. It took a while to get down out of the mist. Now I understand why people can perish 200yrds from safety!!! I have never been out in weather like that!!! Nevis Range would have been winded off for far less. Goodness knows how they know everyone is off the mountain - the Kiwi's are not big on the health and safety thing - the last Western Culture where you can still live dangerously. A young American that we have given a lift to a couple of times celebrates that aspect and says he loves to play in the kids playgrounds as the shoot and swings are so high.
grateful for:
getting off the hill!! And not having to be sick in a snow hole, as I have been know to suffer from travel sickness on the slopes before.
Not living at 6oooft. It was a different world in Wanaka.
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