heliski, waterski, brewski....

Comment Share Posted on Tuesday September 8th at 9:41 a.m. Tweet

2009 has been an epic season in NZ. For a bit we experienced an Indian Spring with warm winds and hot sunny days and people busted out shorts and tee's, they dusted off their bikes and got ready for summer activities.

How foolish they could have been. It was the warm before the storm and from 20th of August onwards Wanaka experienced cold winter conditions and some of the driest powder fell this season, and I mean shite loads of the stuff. T.C had an all time day with 75cm in the saddle and a day which got better as the light improved.

Of course it was Wednesday and that meant that I was opening Racers Edge and Shaker (one of the other owners) had the day off.....typical. However he knew he couldn't hold me back on a day like this and Neil Kerr (owner of NZ Skier Mag and Racers Edge legendary boot fitter) called me up and said he was picking me up at 9.30am. We were late for a bit of Powder Bowl pow but we scored knee deep freshies all morning down Sundance Ridge. As we were riding the chair they opened the saddle and we watched hundreds of powder junkies frantically trying to be the first to the saddle chair, I can tell you that this is more depressing than the effects after 2 Big Mac's and flat coke. We did manage to get about the 50th chair and with local knowledge we scored our stash from top to bottom of 75cm trackless pow twice before it got discovered. After an early lunch the Summit was opened and we literally sprinted up there and I'm sure I could taste blood in every breath my lungs were burning so hard. Two runs off the summit and an afternoon charging with Neil and Fraser McDougall who was pulling 360 Mute Grabs and Front Flips all day like it was his job (well it is really he's a Volkl grom) topped it as the day of the season, right up until yesterday.........
when I went Heli. OOH YEAH!

The Heli Trip of a lifetime. 10 good mates who charge, a B2 Squirrel with Nigel the pilot from HMH who could park it like it was a taxi, a private charter of 11 runs each, two ripping guides from HMH (Grommet and Rodger) and steep terrain with more chutes than a paddock of sugar cane.

The day was bluebird and we were air-born by 9.30am the first run was a nice warm up and then we got into business with some epic landings on rocky outcrops and more billy goating than a mob of Thar. It was worth it though we scored lines with as high a degree of difficulty as you wanted to push it and some blower pow. The light did flatten out and the wind got up but with a change of goggles to an orange lens it was like someone had turned the lights back on and of course between Rodger, Grom and Nigel the HMH crew kept feeding us great runs with loads of features. Due to wind we couldn't nail a couple of killer lines called 'Great Expectations' which looked amazing but I secretly think they knew it wasn't possible but just wanted to tease us a bit to keep us in the loop for what else HMH has to offer :-) Trust me there's plenty for everyone. We called it after 11 runs and the chopper getting low on fuel but for $690 bucks it was a killer heli-trip.

But wait there's more! It was only about 1pm by the time we finished so we ate lunch back at Cattle Flat and nailed a few local brewed 'Brewski Beers'.
The beauty of living in Wanaka and taking advantage of it's mecca for outdoor sports came into it's own and we found ourselves drinking beers listening to live fat tunes at Kai Whaka Pai until Olly Chapman arrived at the front beach with his jet boat and we went waterskiing with the backdrop of some of our terrain we had just skied in the background.

We finished the day off celebrating Hamish Acland's 30th over a BBQ, and reminiscing over the days' activities. One thing is for sure and that's Heli is worth every penny and Wanaka rocks!