2-4 July 2007

3 days of snowboarding was expensive but it was thoroughly enjoyable. I do not know when I will have a chance to do it again so it was with my enthusiasm and relish that I woke up at about 6am every morning during my last days in New Zealand, and eagerly checked the metservice and mount hutt websites for updates. The decision to go depended on whether the mountain was open at 6+ in the morning. Fortunately, my last 3 days were a "Go" even though the snow base was not good.

There's not much else you can do on the 1hr 45 minute ride from christchurch to mount hutt. And when the bus is full, you either sleep or talk to the people seated to your left and right. This I did on my trips and I met I from Ireland who at 17 years of age had already tried ecstasy and weed, etc. He was looking forward to going to amsterdam for his 18th birthday. I was to find out later that he did skating and surfing so he picked up snowboarding really quickly, easily and without falling too many times.

People I met on the snowboarding trips included Clinton (17 years of snowboarding), Kate (who did Summit 6 quite a few times), Peter (who goes on alternate days or when there's powder), Lisa and Daniel (korean students who kept urging me to try highway 72 and broadway with them, which I declined since I was still falling on the magic carpet).

I loved every minute of my experience on Mt Hutt, except for the falling over and chaffing of the legs part, but still that was an experience in itself.