Shredding Treble Cone

July 23, 24, and 25

Last Thursday I got a ride with this guy named Simon and a couple of college students to Wanaka, which is the closest town to TC. I stayed in a hostel Thursday night and luckily I got a room all to myself. Simon picked me up at 8 on Friday and we headed up the mountain to the ski field. This was a new experience for me, completely different from going to a resort in the U.S. We drove out on the highway and then turned on to a dirt rode that wound, steeply up the mountain. Then after about ten minutes we risen into a cloud and the carpark for the field presented itself.

Finally, I saw some snow for the entire climb up the mountain I hadn't seen any. Simon commented that it was a good sign to see snow in the carpark, I thought to myself, "Back home we have a name for when there's no snow in the parking lot, it's called summer." Needless to say there wasn't a lot of snow on the mountain but there were some good runs to go on none the less.

Friday night I shared a room with 2 guys from Austrailia and a third from England. We went to a bar and had some drinks and chatted. They couldn't believe it when I told them that my home back in the states is at 7200 ft. above sea level which is 400 ft. higher then Treble Cone peak. The rest of the weekend went smoothly, I skied two more days and was exhausted and sore by the end. I caught a ride back with some fellow Otago students on Sunday afternoon because the guy I rode up with was going to stay and ski on Monday.

All in all it was an excellent weekend, it was good to ski again, its got me excited about skiing back home this winter thats for sure.

Classes and Skating

Week 1

Unfortunately, classes started on Monday. I'm not taking anything thats too exciting or difficult for that matter. I am, however, taking a U.S. history course that might be interesting from a New Zealand perspective. So far the format of the classes and lecture techniques are very similar to UW.

On Wednesday I went skating with some guys I meet on campus. We skated in a carpark (i.e. parking garage), it was really fun riding the lift up to the top and skting down. I also rode on my board sitting down for the first time, it was exhilerating. They also do some snowboarding so hopefully I can get a ride to the fields with them.

My Flat

The Last Two Days of "Adventure Week"

Sunday July 4

This was community and we spent it at the Ngongotaha Rail trust. Apparently they want to become some sort of tourist attraction but thats in the distant future. We helped by cleaning some trains, painting, chopping wood, moving stuff, odd jobs basically. My fellow international students where good ambassadors for our country with all their whining and complaining and saying that we were doing "slave labor". Which was pretty sad considering most people just stood around and did nothing and those who did work weren't doing anything very difficult. But what can you do?

Monday July 5

Today we went caving in Waitomo and it was amazing. It started off with a 25 meter repel into a hole in the ground then after a 30 meter repel we hiked through some narrow passages until we got to a large cavern known as St. Benedict's Cavern. Here they had a 30 meter long zip line set up. Zooming through the pitch black 50+ meters below the earth is one of the funneist things I've ever done, it's so exilerating. After that it was another short hike through the caves looking at all the formations and stalactites then through an air lock of sorts (a large concrete tube with doors at both ends) and into the rain outside. (the "air lock" is to prevent the formations from drying out)

Skating in Rotorua

Saturday July 3

Today was a free day which gave me an opportunity to do some exploring of my own. I accomplished this by riding my long board through downtown then along shore of lake Rotorua which was beautiful.

Also located near the lake is the Rotorua Museum which is in a building that use to be a bathhouse that was a major tourist attraction in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It was pretty interesting especially the section of the had you use your other senses in addition to your sight to experience the artwork.

I came across a farmers market while walking on a trail that weaves through some trees and around some of the many hot pools located in the area. The market at first seemed to be in a hidden and rather strange location but it soon became aparent that in fact it was just that I had come from a weird direction. I purchased a couple of lamb kebabs and meandered through the market while I enjoyed them. It was a good day.

Auckland to Rotorua

Friday July 2

We left Auckland for Rotorua today. The scenery on the way was spectacular, everything is so green despite it being the middle of winter. The weather reminds me of fall back home. It makes me want to hunt.

After we got to Rotorua we learned the haka which is a Maori ("natives") war chant. The All Blacks (NZ national rugby team) do it before each of their games. It was not what I expected I'll have to show you the dvd when I get back. The photo is of the face paint the put on for the haka.

I also went for my first NZ skate which was a little scary because I kept looking the wrong way when crossing the streets but I'll figure that out soon.

Arrival in Auckland

Thursday July 1

The 13 hour flight went much smoother than I anticipated. Three hours into the flight I managed to fall asleep and when I woke up there was only an hour and a half left so no problems there.


The plane landed at 5:30 in the morning so this made for one long first day. After a short bus tour of the city which included stops at one of 43 dormit volcanos located in Auckland and at the pier I attended the first of three orientation sessions which was rather basic and boring, we (that is the other US students and I) had some free time to explore Auckland.


We took a ferry across the bay to Devanport to check out another volcano and investigate some tunnels and caves made by the NZ military during WWII in anticipation of being invaded. They were very dark and creepy and unlike US historic sites it was not guided nor were any areas off limits to the public in fact the only thing they had was a gate at the enterance that opened at 8 am and closed at 8 pm.


That night we ate at a cafe on the waterfront and hand a couple drinks at a bar before returning to the hotel exhausted.

I dont have the time to make this look good and the site makes it extremely difficult to move pictures around and post more than one.