New Zealand – Swing Bridges, Ice Bars, and a Meter of Snow!
It happens every year around my birthday, I start to dream about skiing again. Typically I head to South America, but this year I joined Spyder for a trip to New Zealand. I celebrated my birthday and 30 hours later landed in Queenstown, NZ.
View of Queenstown from the top of the Remarkables
Queenstown is known as the Adventure Capital of New Zealand. There are multiple ski resorts an hour away, bungy jumping, ski diving, jet boating, and the list goes on. My first two days were spent skiing the Remarkables.
A little gem on the backside of the Remarkables.
The snow was a little thin. It hadn’t snowed in NZ for over a month. I was still able to find some soft snow and the lines on the backside of the Remarkables were worth the flight. It felt so good to be out exploring on my skis again.
Daron Rahlves Doing a Little Scouting
And then it started to snow. It dumped for three days straight. The storm of the century hit New Zealand. I think this is kind of funny. The town received maybe 15 inches of snow, but it was enough to shut everything down. Apparently it doesn’t snow often in town. The roads were a mess and the city shut down. There was no hope for the bald tires on our rental van, so we set out on foot to see what there was to do in Queenstown.
We Found and Ice Hotel
A Warm Fire to Enjoy
And a Mechanical Bull
The streets were cleared and we were finally able to get our van out of the driveway. We headed straight for the Remarkables excited to ski the backside in a meter of fresh snow. The skiing was awesome.
The weather started to get warm and the snow started to melt, so we hopped in the van and went on road trip. The goal was to see as much of NZ as possible in two days before we had to fly out.
Sunset on the West Coast of New Zealand
Sunset on the East Coast
And a Little Bungy Jumping Along the Way!
New Zealand is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen and the skiing’s not too bad either!
