Ski NZ

To celebrate Josh's 31st birthday and our 6th anniversary we decided to endulge and booked ourselves a wild and crazy activity - a weekend ski trip to Mt Hutt in New Zealand! We found a swinging deal on flights, boutique accomodation, and lift tickets. And although we didn't think twice about the ski conditions, luckily both the weather and the snow status came through for us with two amazing bluebird days. (We missed the four solid days of storms and wind that had closed the mountain up until the day we arrived!)
Some things about skiing Mt Hutt that are sweet as:
- You can clearly see the ocean from the top of the ski run
- There are no trees to run into, anywhere in the ski area
- Short lift lines!
- Looking at the base of the mountain there are green pastures everywhere (many covered in sheep)
- No altitude sickness with a mountain that is 6,000ft tall
- You are in New Zealand!

Some challenges to skiing Mt Hutt:
- You have to drive 20km (which takes 45min from your accommodation) via a mostly one-lane dirt/ice road that requires either 4WD or mandatory chains that can be hired on your way up
- There are no trees to break the wind or give you bearing on your way down the slopes
- There are very few signs to confuse you - or direct you
- Being so far south, there is a limited time during the day when the sun hits the runs nicely

We had a great time, thanked our lucky stars for the gift of gorgeous weather, and just really enjoyed the experience of skiing in the Southern Hemisphere. We did conclude however, that we'll be taking lessons once we return home as we have quite a few little ski muscles that we've forgotten about while in Oz!