Wow. The last couple days on the mountain have been seriously epic. Powder days but clear, sunny skies. I take back everything I said about the mountains in NZ. I love this mountain. I get it now. Yes there are only three lifts, but the mountains are freaking HUGE and you can hike all over them to literally get first tracks in knee-deep powder all day long rather than having lifts go all over the mountain so that it’s all tracked out by 10 am. And the views from the peak are unbelievable. There aren’t very many people on the mountain so you can look around and see tiny figures hiking up a mammoth, perfectly white ridge against the blue sky, with nobody else around at all. We’re above the tree line so it’s even more dramatic, the lone hikers with their boards under their arms are the only contrast against the clean smooth snow. It really looks like a snowboarding video where they get dropped in by helicopter onto virgin mountaintop. I kept thinking of the riding scenes in this video (which is filmed in part in NZ):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PCUzzMFTrE
At one point yesterday I hiked up to the top of one peak and just stood there for 15-20 minutes totally mesmerized by the scenery. No one else even close by, all the other skiers and boarders were just tiny little figures on the other mountaintops. And the Remarkables were just so gigantic and I could see all the way down to Queenstown 30 minutes away. I know it sounds cheesy but it was so beautiful I literally almost cried. I remember thinking, I wish the people back home could see this too. God I should have brought a camera. I tried to take pictures of the lonely single line I left coming down the endless expanse of powder on my phone but it just didn’t do it justice.
Today we did some more hiking, one hike was about 30 minutes long, but so worth it, spits you out onto the back side and we were the only people there. I actually kind of like that you have to work for your runs at the Remarkables, just makes the run down more special. And there is something satisfying about carrying your board under your arm, following in the deep footsteps of the people who came before you, with nothing but the sound of crunching snow and your own heavy breathing in the background. By the end of the day I was totally worn out but in the best way possible.
Other milestones: hitchhiked for the first time yesterday, learned how to do a 180 today, and got my first job interview. It’s been a good couple of days :)
