New Zealand

Cardrona - Naturally Better

Cardrona is where we have spent nearly all our time boarding so far. Their slogan is 'Naturally Better' because they rely totally on snow that falls on the mountain - there are no snow making facilities here at all!

The base of the resort is at an altitude of 1669m and the highest lifted point is just 1894m. There are two quads, a double chair and NO drag lifts!! Cardrona excels with it's 3 or 4 half pipes which are always pretty full, and a good variety of terrain.

Ahhhh my first pie in NZ! Pies seem to be big in New Zealand, apparently even more so in Australia. In Whistler there was an Australian run pie shop that was always pretty busy.
The pie you can see here (!) was a breakfast one, seeing as I had missed brekkie at the flat. Egg and Bacon it was and not bad either. Many more to try though - the satay chicken one sounds good but has proved elusive for the moment. Edinburgh does some pretty good pies too, by the way.

Cardrona base, at the bottom of the MacDougall's chair. This is our usual chair to get up the mountain for a few warm up runs or to head over to the Captains Basin.
You can see that there is a fair crowd around the lift. It's not usually this busy during the week but as its festival week a lot more people have turned up.

At last some fresh snow has turned up as we head up the MacDougall for a warm up run.
Because of the weather Cardrona was initially 'on hold' until they decided it was safe to open. This meant that we got picked up later than usual and did not reach the slopes till just before 11am!
The upside to this was that most people had taken the decision to go to another mountain (perhaps Treble Cone) so we a had a pretty quiet day with very few crowds - perfect!

And at last, after perhaps ten minutes or so, its time to get off at the top.
Here I manage to catch Dave at the top just after the crucial 'getting off' point. In fact if someone set up a camera here you would be bound to get some very funny moments. There is no end of people falling over, Dave and I included - though luckily not so much these days (except on Sundays!!).

Dog Mustering!
One of the events during the festival was mustering. Here contestants (farmers I think) and their dogs start at the top of the mountain, then run down to the base - the dogs of course must follow them. It was funny to see people running down the course, sliding down in some parts.
A shock to some skiers and borders not aware of the event, suddenly having to avoid dogs and owners on the slopes!

To the dark side...
Slightly freaky picture at the base of the Captains chair, in the Captains Basin.
This was on the same day that we had a fair bit of fresh snow and as always on these occasions the weather hangs about to annoy us without snowing any more! The clouds kept blowing in and out as you can see, but we were still lucky to have enough light for most of the day.

	Ahhhh my first pie in NZ! Pies seem to be big in New Zealand, apparently even more so in Australia. In Whistler there was an Australian run pie shop that was always pretty busy. The pie you can see here (!) was a breakfast one, seeing as I had missed brekkie at the flat. Egg and Bacon it was and not bad either. Many more to try though - the satay chicken one sounds good but has proved elusive for the moment. Edinburgh does some pretty good pies too, by the way.
Cardrona base, at the bottom of the MacDougall's chair. This is our usual chair to get up the mountain for a few warm up runs or to head over to the Captains Basin. You can see that there is a fair crowd around the lift. It's not usually this busy during the week but as its festival week a lot more people have turned up.
At last some fresh snow has turned up as we head up the MacDougall for a warm up run. Because of the weather Cardrona was initially 'on hold' until they decided it was safe to open. This meant that we got picked up later than usual and did not reach the slopes till just before 11am! The upside to this was that most people had taken the decision to go to another mountain (perhaps Treble Cone) so we a had a pretty quiet day with very few crowds - perfect!
And at last, after perhaps ten minutes or so, its time to get off at the top. Here I manage to catch Dave at the top just after the crucial 'getting off' point. In fact if someone set up a camera here you would be bound to get some very funny moments. There is no end of people falling over, Dave and I included - though luckily not so much these days (except on Sundays!!).
	Dog Mustering! One of the events during the festival was mustering. Here contestants (farmers I think) and their dogs start at the top of the mountain, then run down to the base - the dogs of course must follow them. It was funny to see people running down the course, sliding down in some parts. A shock to some skiers and borders not aware of the event, suddenly having to avoid dogs and owners on the slopes!
To the dark side... Slightly freaky picture at the base of the Captains chair, in the Captains Basin. This was on the same day that we had a fair bit of fresh snow and as always on these occasions the weather hangs about to annoy us without snowing any more! The clouds kept blowing in and out as you can see, but we were still lucky to have enough light for most of the day.