Lovely opening day up at Cardrona. Sun and freshies. No one about. I sometimes think that I am over snowboarding but every season as winter rolls around the old buzz comes back. Such fun out there cruising around the piste, bashing through the powder and scaring myself in the park. And the views are great.
Wanaka buried down in the cloud, not seeing the sun all day.
Me and Zach
Queenstown in the distance. Brett cruising round the back of Cardrona.

Tekapo Trip

Took a trip up to Tekapo. Pulled into the valley at Ohau just to show Linda and Zach where we used to live. Louie marked his territory.
Striking views and light up at Tekapo.
The Church of the Good Shepard. Woke in the morning to a massive dump of snow. 20cm down at lake level.
Dodgy old drive back to Wanaka.

4 death by sharks last year. 4from dogs in the US alone.
100000 sharks killed by humans mainly for soup.

The last leg of our travels took us back from Wellington on the ferry to Kaikoura. We camped at meatworks and woke to a cold and beautiful morning with snow on the seaward kaikoura range.


Bombed it down to Tekapo. Dog checked out the dog statue. Had a sniff. And then back to sunny Wanaka. Sounds like we missed all the crappy weather and its been great since we have been back. No inversion. Just cold and sunny with loads of snow already in place for the start of the season next week. Can't wait...


So New Zealand are pootling along in the World cup with an ever increasing wave of hysteria building behind them. The Italians have been doing their homework however. Here is some secret footage of them in training...

The view from our room. It was good to be back in Samoa after 4 years when we visited for Tots and Rach's wedding. The place hasn't changed on the whole apart from the South coast which was heavily damaged by a tsunami last September. We were looking for a place for a weeks sun to escape the crappy Wanaka inversion layer and and there were some good deals going back to the Sinalei resort.

Party night laid on for the tourists.
Had some epic waves. My first lucky surf trip in 6 years! The fales in the background were trashed by the tsunami and rebuilding is slow. In some places the locals have just left, moved to the mountain, leaving all the mess behind.
Our friends Patrick and Julie with Ben and Maria. Hanging at Lupes on all you can eat day.
The friendly staff were sometimes a little too much but this guy Luma was cool.

Ollie sent me this ages ago. Well worth a watch if surf in Ireland interests you. And for the record Ollie are thoughts are turning to snowboarding down here. Coupla hill's are open and its gonna be a cracking season by the looks. Unheard of early snow...

Rotorua with James

So at last I got the opportunity to ride in the legendary Redwoods of the Rotorua forest with my buddy James. I was pretty excited and a little hungover. Erica and I had a great session in there a few days before but as usual with these places we got exceedingly lost. James is a bit of a local there now and knows all the good places so off we set.

The trails are amazing. So thought out so that they flow and roll really well even on the climbs. Like Wanaka but on steroids. Warmed up on a few of the lower trails and then headed up, catching the shuttle bus to near the summit. A great couple of runs down from there and then back up to the top we headed out to the back country trails. We did one sat on each others wheels without pedaling for about 15 minutes on the just perfect flowy downhill trails. Very cool. Then the rain came down and it all turned into a mud bath.
After about 4 hours we had had enough. Knackered and cold but stoked. A great day of riding.
Soaked through. Got my best shoes on. They have just dried out.

The mighty mount

After driving up through the North Island we arrived in very rainy Mt Manganui. To be honest Erica and I didn't think we would really like the place. Too busy, too many gangsters. But getting up on the Friday morning, crossing the road from James house and walking straight on to this beach was amazing. There was only us and and about 3 other dog walkers on the whole thing. Really beautful. Lou was loving it too.
And to cap it all the messy windy surf switched offshore, James bunked of work and we had some great waves with just us two out. Not what I expected at all. Saturday dawned bright and sunny with waves! and then James dragged us up the Mount to check the view. Tauranga city is set back out of site to the right and this is the Mt Manganui suburb which is lovely. Just like a little aussie beach town.
James house is neat. Right on the beach so just open the curtains and check the surf. Waiting for his master.

Biking along the parade. Not bad for the end of May. The whole south island was getting the most rain since 1986 with 30cm in some places.And we were riding around in shorts.

Travels around

Louie jumped in a bog! Stinky. Had to throw him in the sea to clean him up.
The view from Te Mata peak in the Hawkes Bay with Craggy Range winery at the bottom. Very beautiful part of NZ. Cool downhill track for the bike back down to the bottom too. Speaking of which, these pics are from Eskdale Mtb Park and from the magnificent Redwoods forest in Rotorua. Amazing trails.