This is a little overdue but I put together some footage from a road trip around the South Island from a couple weeks back. More details below...Enjoy.
South Island Road Trip from Tyler Grubb on Vimeo.
-Tyler Grubb
South Island Road Trip
This is a little overdue but I put together some footage from a road trip around the South Island from a couple weeks back. More details below...Enjoy.
South Island Road Trip from Tyler Grubb on Vimeo.
-Tyler Grubb
Sea Boulders, Jungle Glaciers & Snowy Peaks, Part II
Ten AM we got woken up and kicked out of our hostel in Arthur’s Pass. With most of our clothes still dripping from the rain the night before, we figured a quick hike in the rain wouldn’t make them any worse. An awesome waterfall was raging at the top of a twenty minute trail off the highway. Back in the car we ventured through the rest of Arthur’s Pass and made it to the west coast. After a series of one way bridges (some hogged by semis) we hit a gorgeous beach. Sand flies biting our legs forced a quick getaway.
Halfway down the west coast are the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. They’re situated down valley from Mt. Cook in the middle of a lush jungle and feed a river that flows straight into the Pacific. Because I blew so much on Bungy Jumping and Skydiving, a $100 guided trip on the ice seemed a bit spendy. I’m still looking into a return trip con crampons.
Saying goodbye to Franz Josef, we continued down the coast and made the beautiful drive from Haast to Wanaka. The mountain town is remarkably similar to Queenstown but without so much tourist action. High above in the southern alps are Snow Park, Cardrona and Treble Cone skifields. Local advice said Treble Cone had the best terrain and snow. The view from the summit is pretty spectacular…
Mt. Cook, Mt. Aspiring and the rest of the Southern Alps spread out across the panorama view. You can hear helicopters buzzing around as they drop skiers and boarders on distant peaks. We had pretty decent snow and access to some fun cliffs from the summit and lapped that all day.
I dreamed off taking runs off the backside of the resort like this chute…but without avy gear it was a no go.
A night of partying in a couple clubs capped off the epic weekend. The next day with tripped it back to Dunedin and returned our beat up rental car. The South Island really is a beautiful place.
-Tyler Grubb
Sea Boulders, Jungle Glaciers, & Snowy Peaks, Part 1
For those of us on the english unit system: 1300 kilometers = 808 miles
A couple weekends ago Amy, Evan, Kristina and I packed our little Mazda Capella and set off for a long weekend around the south island. With skis/boards jammed into the boot and a full bag of lollys we hit the road on Wednesday night for Christchurch. Forty minutes later we made a pit stop at the Moeraki Boulders. High tide made close inspection a little tricky but we managed to beat the waves to hop on a few.
After the quick scenic stop, we continued on to Christchurch. We all bunked up in the flats at U of Canterbury for an early departure the next day. An hour east of Christchurch the mountains jut up out of farmland and there is some epic skiing. Mt. Olympus is smack dab in the middle of it all so we figured it’d be a necessary stop. Some sheep being herded up the access road slowed our progress a bit….
The rest of the access road had us all on the edges of our seats with sheer drop offs around every corner. Even with some icey patches, I managed to Mario Andretti our little Mazda to the top. See any other non-SUV’s up there? I didn’t think so.
The Mt. Olympus Skifield has some sweet terrain and routinely hold big mountain comps. A nutcracker ride (See Awakino) and a short hike gets you up to the luxurious lodge complete with hot tub. People crowded in for a delicious lunch…
Clouds and wind shut down most of the cool hikes you can go on to hit up some sweet chutes on the mountain. But we still had a fun day fooling around on some small drops and cornices. Once we were all exhausted from nutcracker rides we piled back into the car and headed to Arthur’s Pass. Amy’s attempt at driving in the snow ended with us stuck in the ditch so I hopped back in the driver’s seat and took us all the way to Castle Hill. Those rocks look familar? Probably because you remember them from this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFXNcR4ZofA
Torrential rain ensued after this photo and we called it a night in Arthur’s Village towards the top of the pass. See Sea Boulders, Jungle Glaciers & Snowy Peaks, Part II for more on the trip.
-Tyler Grubb