knights, steads and dragons

My apologies for the slight delay in posting this, but let me tell you a tale, a tale of men. It all began on a slightly rainy and foggy saturday afternoon as Trevor, Chris and I awaited the return of J-bo and Greg from their geology field trip. They found themselves kickin it with some volcanoes. No big deal. Whence they returned from their own little journey, the five of us embarked for our slightly larger quest. Destination: Queenstown. A land where knights ride from far and wide to taste the fruitful, well, fruits, of the mountains and the skiing they provide. It was sure to be an epic and dangerous adventure. Not an issue for 4 purple knights of SMC and one lone ranger hailing from Japan/Germany/England/Canada. Seriously, he's lived in all of those places. Oh, complete side note, but a very important one: our trusty stead for this trip was car number two. Yes, that is correct, we managed to acquire ourselves another car thanks to Big Phil Crawford, aka. Trevor's dad. This new trusty stead should be much more trust worthy than poor old Penelope. Its a blue '95 Subaru Legacy wagon with an automatic transmission and she's ready to rumble. We were smart enough to get it checked out by a mechanic before buying it this time. Yay common sense. But back to the tale of men in search of supple fruit. Trevor started off behind the reins as the rest of us settled in to our respective seats. Played some tunes, did some chatting and drove through some serious fog on this whindey road through a valley. When I say it was foggy, believe me, it was incredibly foggy. Visibility was low, but Trevor handled it smashingly. Upon emergence from the mist, we pulled over to try some star gazing and looking back at what we had just driven through. Eerie scene to see the fog sweeping through the mountains and then the flat, dark plane where we pulled over. After a pee break and admiration of the milky way, we got back into our trusty stead and I took over the navigation role. The car got a little bit rowdy when Trevor put on one of Blink 182's live cds. I gridded my teeth as I listened to the garbage cause everyone else enjoyed it. Just can't handle the middle school music sometimes. Anyway, got the new ride up to a buck thirty at one point cause she drives nicely. Translation: 130 kmph, but don't worry, its not too fast in mphs. A few more star gazing/pee/look out stops, we crossed the mighty threshold of Queenstown and found a place to get situated for the night. Situation location: parking lot by a rugby field where we intended to set up a tent. Left the tent setting up for later and walked into the center of town to get some much desired supper. We tried to check out this place called Fergburger because the burgers there are supposed to be real good, but that was too busy, so we went to the next best burger establishment. If you guessed Velvet Burger, you would be incorrect. McDonald's it was. For some reason I had a craving for it anyway so I didn't really mind going there. We got some food and discovered that they have this massive family meal thinger at McDonald's over here. The meal includes 2 Big Macs, 2 cheeseburgers, and 4 small fries. Thats a whole bunch of food. Greg and J-bo shared one.

After McDoogs, we trolled the streets of Queenstown for a few hours in search of fellow knights and adventurers. Eventually, 2:30 in the morning rolled around and it was time to go set up our tent back on the rugby pitch. This should be fun. Trevor, Chris and I were left to set up the tent alone due to the fact that Greg and Jbo were asleep in the car. Neither one of us has a whole lot of experience in the tent setting up department. It took a little longer than necessary I'm sure, but we successfully set up our sleeping quarters for the night after multiple jokes about steaks, which for some reason we thought were absolutely hilarious at that point. Well, immediately after erecting our tent, a couple of dudes walked by and asked us what the hell we were doing setting up a tent on the rugby field. We explained that we just needed a place to sleep so we could ski the next day. "f-that" they said, "come sleep on our floor." Alright! No need to ask us twice. So we woke up the two fools in the car and followed our new found friends back to their house thing and crashed on the living room floor. Much, much better than sleeping outside. It was a little chilly that evening.

In the morning, the five of us woke up at the crack of dawn and rolled out. Time to head for the juicy fruits of Cardrona, the place we would be skiing that fateful day. We headed down the road, got some gas, and proceeded up and through the curvaceous mountain pass. Once we got to the access road to Cardrona, we started to hit some fog. This fog would prove to be unbelievably cool. Driving up the access road, we cut through the fog like a knife and emerged on the other side. At the top of the mountain, where all the skiing is, we were entirely above all the clouds, enjoying a bright and sunny day. It was so cool to be above the clouds and seeing them move through the valleys below and all the peaks greeting the bright sunshine. We mozied up to the lodge to get our armor and battle gear. This included our passes for the day and I needed to get some skis. Yipee rentals. But wait! You can get upgraded equipment for 10 bucks. Yes please. I went over to the special counter and got myself some nice twin tips made by Surface. This should be fun. It was then time to slay the mountain, and slay it we did. Right off the bat I decided Cardrona was 10.356 times better than SnowPark was. It had a lot more trails and there was a lot of different terrain to choose from. At one point, J-Bo and I decided to hike up to the very peak in an attempt to get some tracks in the new snow up there. We hiked up, and were greeted with absolutely breathtaking views in every direction. I'm talking 360 degrees of awesome mountains and a couple of lakes. The two of us soaked in the beauty of nature, snapped some pics, and headed down the mountain. The run we did was pretty short, but totally sweet. The snow was soft with a couple inches of new snow and we ripped around. Easily the best run of the day because of the view and the making of new tracks. We eventually brought the rest of the group up to the peak to show them what was up. They were definitely impressed. We did a few more laps through the park, smiting the dragons along the way. Well, I smited some jumps and a few rails but that was about it. Right, after these laps the day started to wined down. Time to call it quits and do a little miny shred through the beginner park. When I say miny, I mean miny. There were like 3 tiny features, but we had a good time none the less. I then returned my sticks and we headed back to the trusty stead that awaited us in the car park. Time to head home. After a few hours of driving, almost driving off the road at one point, searching for an iphone on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, we made it back to Dunedin to complete yet another successful weekend. Sweet as mates, sweet as. This completes the tale of men, and I hope you enjoyed the story. Apologies for the lack of pictures, but I did not have my camera on the hill with us so I am waiting on J-bo to put his on facebook. Then I'll add some to this for your viewing pleasure.

Ta ta for now. This weekend: ICE