Snow in Japan? - March 2007

“Surely not, don’t you mean the artificial ski slope they built”?

One of the fun things I have found since my trip to Japan is how few people know that it snows in Japan, let alone has ski fields or mountains. It is amazing to think that it has the best powder in the world and almost nobody knows.

Where to go?

Typical Hokkaido snow – this is 20 minutes accumulation. You can see through the powder!

Choosing where to go was a nightmare and I kept Uncle Google up late many nights trying to figure it out. There are there hundreds of ski fields and resorts, many of them are nothing more than a single chair up a small hill, most don’t have a website or if they do, it’s in Japanese. On top of this it is often impossible to figure out what ski fields are geographically close together.

I eventually found the Snow Japan website and its associated forums which are devoted to trying to help with this problem. The forums I found the most useful and with the help of some of the forums denizens I decided to go to a ski area in Hokkaido called Niseko.

Nice in Niseko!

The snow in Hokkaido starts life as a frigid wind that sweeps across Siberia and then down across the Sea of Japan, where it sucks up a heap of moisture from the relatively warm water. Once it makes landfall it does what all self respecting clouds do and dumps big time. Being as the wind is still damn cold it makes for very cold and very dry snow. And Hokkaido gets most of it.

Between January and March this is the prevailing wind… Basically it snows all the time. Perfect!

Ski Beaver rips up a fresh line. Click for more crazy pow shots!

A vid of some mellow powder in the middle of the Niseko Resort

For the die hard Steep n Deep skiers Hokkaido is not the place to be, it definitely has the deep, but not so much of the steep. Now I quite like my steep (a la Fernie) so I was a little worried that I would get bored with Niseko. I needn’t have worried. The combination of lack of people skiing off piste, the quantity of new snow and the quality of the snow you could always find fresh lines of light fluffy powder. The funny thing is, the locals regard Niseko’s powder as being wet and heavy. I found this incredibly hard to believe, this was the lightest powder I’d ever skied. However, as I found out later, it was quite true. The snow further inland would hang in the air after you passed, much like smoke.

Japanese English is soooo much fun. This sign has nothing to do with food or bad pop…

Unfortunately for me, I’d done it again, I’d picked a less than ideal season. Hokkaido only got half it’s projected snow fall, they were looking at a record six metres of snow, well down on their usual 12. This meant that there were actually some dry weeks in the Jan to March period. If anyone even thinks the GW words, they’re going to get a slap. It’s not happening, I don’t want to know. I’ve got my head firmly buried in the snow.

I should put this in perspective though. Because of the ticketing prices I was buying daily passes, so when the snow wasn’t exciting I stayed home. In spite of this I still got 50 days in, 45 of which were powder days. It’s all relative, compared with last year Japan had a bad year, but I did enough powder days to make me into a serious powder snob.

The Sapporo Snow Festival was HUGE. There was 3 kilometres of snow and Ice Sculptures. You can see more pictures here and here.

A side effect of having less snow meant that I did a lot more exploring off piste. In Niseko this is relatively safe, it’s not that steep so the risk of avalanches is usually low. Niseko Snow Patrol, like their Canadian counterparts, limit access to off piste areas when it is dangerous. Unfortunately, their decision processes aren’t as good, potentially exposing their punters to unexpected risk. This is one of the amazing contradictions that is Japan – a first world country and they almost don’t have Health and Safety or Liability Laws. Basically if something in Japan looks dangerous it probably is – it is up to you to stay safe. I liked it.

I figured I’d better get some avalanche training. I’d got quite used to Niseko so when the snow stopped for a bunch of days I decided it was time to explore the “real” mountains of Hakuba, where they had real back country. To do this I had to go back through Sapporo, so I decided to time it with the Sapporo Snow festival.

It is a massive festival, so much so that the only bed I could find was in the scungy HI/YHA in the centre of town – at least the location was good! The Snow Festival wasn’t immune from the unseasonable weather either. On the opening day many of the smaller sculptures had started to melt. The festival requires thousands of man hours to put together so it must have been heart breaking for the artists to see their creations dying before the festival even opened.

Happy in Hakuba?

Sapporo isn’t just about snow…

Everyone knows that Japan is ridiculously expensive, it’s just one of those things. The thing is, everyone is wrong. Most prices are quite reasonable. Except for travel. To get to Hakuba I had to get 1000 kilometres to the south and across water. It was hellishly complex, unless one wanted to spend top dollar and even then you couldn’t call it simple. I’m sure the transport companies hire consultants to ensure that none of their services match up with that of any other company. Anti collusion you might say. I eventually stumbled upon another of Japans better kept secrets, a couple of cheap airlines, which helped.

I eventually settled on one plane, two trains and a bus. Easy. Except I got hopelessly lost in Tokyo with 30 minutes to find my bus. More accurately I got lost in Shinjuku Station. Shinjuku Station is big, like really big. London’s “big” stations are pipsqueaks in comparison. Some kind soul had given me a map but it didn’t help a bit. Fortunately the Japanese are a kind race and an elderly gentleman of very limited English spotted my distress and offered to help. He eventually figured out the map and delivered me personally to the bus station and even stayed around to make sure the bus people got it right. In the end it all worked, albeit a little stressfully.

My luggage on the other hand couldn’t have had it easier. In one of the contradictions I love about Japan, I delivered my luggage to the equivalent of an Off Licence/Diary/Corner Shop and for a measly $16 my luggage was whisked off to Hakuba via Japans brilliant Takkyubin service. It couldn’t have been easier. So when I dragged my bedraggled self through the door of the Hakuba Powder Lodge, there was my luggage looking fresh as a daisy to greet me.

Hakuba certainly had real mountains. The main range tops out at around 3000m so it is plenty high. In the Hakuba area there are two main arms of ranges that radiate out from a central peak giving huge scope for great slopes and scary big lines. Because of this Hakuba boasts a number of easily accessed resorts. Here I discovered another of Japans idiosyncrasies – with all these fantastic slopes to choose from the Japanese had chosen – none. All the pistes were on ridge tops or on gentle slopes with most of the interesting stuff roped off. When the resorts were “designed” the overriding design criteria wasn’t what would be fun, but the management of avalanche risk – that is by avoiding the risk altogether. It made for some fairly dull pistes. This situation had a great upside though, hardly anyone skied the really awesome stuff. The back country was steep, deep and oh yeah, it slid regularly. Not for the faint hearted or the unprepared. Unprepared I certainly was, but fortunately not unaware.

The picture doesn’t do this avalanche justice. It was big. Standing at the bottom was scary.

The season here was even worse – they hadn’t had snow in ages and all the snow was hard and fast. Much like a good New Zealand season. I wasn’t happy. I’d turned into a fully fledged powder snob. My skis were of the attitude that they would ski hardpack if they had to, but they sure didn’t have to enjoy it.

So my plan was to get myself trained up and to hit the back country. Once again things didn’t quite go to plan. The next course was a month away and the changeable weather ensured that there often was significant avalanche danger. I got myself some BC gear and managed a few trips, but the lack of snow ensured that the snow conditions were difficult to ski.

One trip was through an avalanche prone area, although anything that could slide had slid and the weather over the previous few days had promoted stability – or so the experts told me. It was damn scary. The entry into the valley was nice, but the further we got down the more avalanche debris we saw – the biggest avalanche must have been 1000m long and had snow boulders the size of cars. The Finns I was with were unfazed by all the carnage and apparent danger. I guess it was all old hat to them – I just hoped they knew what they were doing. What I didn’t know is they had done their home work and Nick the lodge expert had recommended the route and briefed them on what it would be like.

I eventually found an avalanche course that was starting soon. Even better it was back up in Hokkaido, where there was still plenty of snow.

Kurodaki is the home of the best snow I’ve ever seen. It is one of Asahikawa’s backcountry paradises.

Awesome in Asahikawa

The avalanche course was based out of the inland city of Asahikawa. It is a fantastic place, it is city that hasn’t worked out how to attract tourists, yet boasts a number of nearby resorts and great, easily accessible, safe(ish) back country skiing. It also has the best powder in the world.

The course itself was both exciting and sobering. Exciting because it would help me get access to a whole new skiing experience. Sobering because there are very real dangers, not just from avalanches.

As part of the course I got to use touring bindings and skins – these amazing pieces of equipment completely change access to the backcountry. Without them (or snowshoes) you are often struggling through thigh deep snow and moving very slowly. With skis and skins you stay on top of the snow and can easily walk up quite steep slopes. It was a complete eye opener. I think my next season in the snow is going to involve a lot more backcountry touring.

Hiking back up the back side of Kamui

The course took in the back side of the Kamui Links Resort and also the lift less Furanodaki mountain. The snow was really great

It is a funny thing, the snow industry is coming a full circle with increasing numbers of people subscribing to the “Earn Your Turns” theory ie you need to hike somewhere to find the really nice skiing. While you don’t get that many turns in, those you get are great and you don’t have to put up with hardpack powder or queues… Our grandparents would be stunned!

The course was only two days, but seemed much longer – we all learnt so much, but now knew how little we really knew.

After the course was finished it was time to put it all into practice. The course had catered mainly to the snow mad Asahikawa expat locals so it was no trouble to go to a different place every day and carve ourselves some truly fresh lines. I was only there for another week but I did as much quality skiing as I did in my first part of the season.

Asahikawa could be the ideal place to live the snowy dream!

And that was it. What a great way to finish the season.

Where on Earth is Mark - 27 December 2006

Hey all!

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and are looking forward to an exciting new year.

As usual it has been a while in coming but please read on for my latest exciting update of what I’ve been up to and where it happened…

Sloppies in the Rockies!

Where there is water there are boys playing in it. This is how NOT to land a 360… :-)

Goodbye Fernie

In my first season in Canada the end of the season came far too fast and left everyone wanting more. I was dreading the end of this season, well I needn’t have worried - Fernie let me down gently…

Long before the season finished the snow stopped falling and the slopes went hard as rock. Even that was short lived. Yup, spring happened and it was sloppy city. I did make one nice discovery though; big fat powder skis make short work of the worst pug. They’re also brilliant for water skiing! The highlight was the 10m pond that formed by one of the main lifts.

After months of awesome powder it all come as a bit of a shock.

After a few more hostel parties it was time to move on. The car had sprouted an alarming amount of rust so it was time that moved on as well. I thought I’d lose an awful amount on the car with the amount of rust it had – so instead of trying to sell in the end of season buyers market it in Fernie, I visited some friends in Calgary to try my luck there.

The first few people who looked at the car weren’t interested, they said it had way too much rust and was too expensive, it wasn’t looking good. So I was amazed when a dealer turned up and paid the asking price after barely looking at it – it seems that Accord Wagons are something of a rarity, even if rusty bits are falling off them! The following day I got told off by another dealer who said I had way under priced it and he was annoyed that I hadn’t given him a chance by under pricing it! All very bizarre.

Flatmate and I enjoying the more serious side of Brighton!

The Summer

After all the visa hassles I had last summer with Her Majesties Imperial Immigration (dis)Service I decided I’d better get it sorted and get legal. The authorities did their best to dissuade me and encourage me to work under the table again. I had to jump through so many hoops that I considered turning pro. A bunch of the hoops were located in New Zealand so my “cheap” flight across the Atlantic turned into two one way flights via New Zealand… Still it was good to visit everyone again, even though I’d only been there a few months prior!

I finally arrived in London a month later than planned to take up reins of the project I’d been working on the previous year. It was a mess, they guy who had been entrusted with looking after it hadn’t and had even managed to get himself sacked. So all the traction that had been gained the previous year had been lost and my plans of further developing a system that had been working for many months were dashed. It was going to be an interesting summer…

My home life was far more interesting, I found myself a room in a massive three story flat in North London in one of the more arty areas. My flatmates were an eclectic mix and it was in a constant state of flux. While I was there I lived with a fringe theatre producer, a performance artist,

It’s hard to get a good shot of a BBQ, but you get the idea!

two video editors, a landscape architect, a web developer, an electrical engineer and a cricket journalist. The nationalities were even more diverse: Serbians, Italians, Spanish from the Bask Country, French, Greek and briefly an Englishman and an Australian! During the heat of summer it meant that there was a continuous series of BBQ’s and parties.

Unfortunately for the 9 to 5ers (mainly me) most of the other flatmates worked irregular hours and irregular days, it was not unusual for a Wednesday BBQ to finish in the wee hours – or daylight. For the first time in my life I was one of those people who were first in bed.

One of the Serbian flatmates was invaded by a contingent of relatives and friends from the Motherland and I was fortunate to spend a lot of time in their company. It was fascinating to learn about the recent history of Serbia from an entirely different perspective. Suffice to say I’m going to visit in the near future! Exit Festival here I come!

It was a wonderful summer and all too soon it came to an end. As I type this it is Boxing Day, it is cold, damp and slate grey outside. Cue my next adventure!

The Orient

Wile in Canada I had seen a number of ski and boarding DVD’s that raved about a country that was supposed to have snow that even the gods were envious of. I was aware that this country had snow but no idea that they had a snow industry. It had all the hallmarks of a well kept secret. Unfortunately it is a secret no longer. The word is out and Japan is now a ski destination, the 06-07 season is the first time that ski package holidays to Japan have been available from the UK. I figure that if the snow is so good then I’d better get there before the place gets completely overrun. So in two days I’m off to find out how good the snow really is and how to say Happy New Year in Japanese!

I hope you all had an awesome Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year!

Take care,

Mark

Ripping in the Rockies - 12 March 2006

Hi everyone!

Yup I am still alive. The season has been a ripper so far, waaay better than last year. Yay! I’m currently in Fernie with about six weeks of the season left to go. I can’t believe how fast the past ten weeks has disappeared. I must have done a lot of skiing as I have managed to clock up 55 days of skiing. What have I been doing all this time? Well:

Nice in New Zealand

It was really nice to get back to New Zealand and catch up with family and friends. Unfortunately I had a bunch of chores to do which seriously ate into my time for catching up with people!

Two major chores were getting divorced and applying for a Canadian work visa. Both involved finding paperwork in my stored goods. This was no small task. It took four people, one forklift, three crates and three hours solid searching. Eventually all the required bits of paper were found and the crates could be nailed back together and put back into the stack.

Getting divorced was bizarre. I wandered into the family court office armed with the wedding certificate and the ex, filled out a form, signed on the dotted line a couple of times and that was it! 12 years gone in 60 seconds.

With the chores out of the way it was off to Nelson for a family Xmas. Unusually for December the weather was fantastic and I picked up a tan

White in Whistler

New Years Eve in Whistler This was the base for our snowman. It was so heavy that four people couldn’t move it.

With Xmas over it was time to head back to Canada. The first job was to go to Vancouver to pick up the car.

I don’t know what it is about vehicles, it seems that if I put them into containers or storage they get the sulks. So it was with a little trepidation I picked up the car. Sure enough the front right was flat! Even worse when I went to fix it the tyre wasn’t repairable. Damn. The other tyres weren’t in great shape so I decided to bite the bullet and buy a set of winter tyres. It turns out this was a very good decision. The difference on snow and ice is huge and with the amount of snow driving I have done they were worth the price.

However the surprises weren’t all bad. A friend had borrowed the car while I was away and not only was the tank full but there was a bottle of Jack hidden behind the front seat… Thanks Bec!

The Hostel I stayed in was in a beautiful setting on the shores of Alta Lake, well away from the bustle of the main Whistler area – with 160 acres of hotels it was always going to busy, and the Xmas - New Year period was peak season

The next decision was where to go for New Years. The reports said Whistler had good snow and it was a short drive so I headed on up. In contrast with last year where Whistler was barely operating, they had some of the best snow for a number of years. I hadn’t ever skied in such great powder and it was an awesome experience. It was so good that I even got a full day in on New Year’s Day!

The Road to Fernie

I was very tempted to stay in Whistler and enjoy the snow – the forecast said there was heaps of snow on the way, but I had a season’s pass waiting for me in Fernie so it didn’t make sense to pay to ski when I could ski for free.

Whistler is in a difficult spot to get out of, unless you want to go to Vancouver. So I only managed to get as far as Kamloops, which was the perfect excuse to visit Sun Peaks. I’d heard a lot about Sun Peaks last year, it seemed to be one destination that everyone visited. While it is a great resort it was disappointing after Whistler as it didn’t have piles of fresh snow. A serious addiction to powder was beginning…

While I was at Sun Peaks I did a little computer work for the hostel setting up their WiFi so they could charge for its use and cleaning their computers of viruses and spyware. The owner was so appreciative that I stayed for free and have been invited to go back any time! Another theme is born!

I was going to be going past Big White so I decided to drop in and say hi to my mates. Since I was there it would have been rude not to ski for at least a day. And what a day it was – super deep powder and a complete and utter white out. I’m sooo glad I knew my way around from last year! It was fantastic to finally see the snow that Big White is famous for. I was very tempted to stay a while – but the thought of skiing for free kept my on the road.

Fernie

View of the ski field from my bedroom…

23cm of snow fell during the day one Friday. Freshies all day!

What a welcome Fernie put on for me! It was simply dumping down with powder. We got 1.4 metres of snow in the first week I was there! That is a stunning amount of snow…

There was a downside though.

Cannon for launching snow bombs. I want to play…

Because this field is so steep and has a massive head wall above the bowls, avalanches are a real problem. When it’s snowing there are continuous avalanches, both natural and triggered. And some of them are massive. If you wake up to the boom of the snow bombs going off you know it snowed over night…The upshot of all this avalanche activity is that large portions of the field are frequently closed when it’s snowing. To make it worse the only way to clear the snow off the head wall is by bombs dropped by helicopter.

If they can’t get one up there due to cloud, three of the five bowls don’t open…

Steep and Deep is the resort slogan and is it ever steep! With fresh snow you can launch yourself down the most vertical slope you dare and the skiing is so easy, the powder so easily controls the speed while you plummet down the slope. The feeling is something else. Looking back up some insane slope at your fresh tracks and saying, “I did those”, is a buzz! My powder addiction was growing.

Unfortunately the snow doesn’t always come when you want it. After a number of weeks of almost continuous powder days the snow stopped. Faces got long, people cried and cats hid under couches. I had to drag my skinny skis out from under the bed and evict some spiders. Hard pack snow is so wrong. It should not be allowed. It took two Swedish chicks and a Kiwi bloke to arrive in Fernie, go skiing for a day and come back raving about the great snow. We thought they were nuts, in fact we knew they were nuts. They pointed out that most fields in NZ and Europe would kill for the base and the great snow. I could dimly remember what “snow” in NZ was like and grudgingly had to admit they were right. I didn’t have to like it though. I wanted my powder back.

Ghostriders

A feature of small town Canada is the hockey rink – to be a real town you need a hockey rink and a team to go with it. Fernie is no exception and the Ghostriders are their team. What is different is the Ghostriders are at the top of the league and the fans are rabid. It makes for very exciting games. It’s safe to say I’ve become a Ghostrider fan… As I write the Ghostriders have made it through to the second round of the play offs. It’s going to be an exciting end to the season.

Golden

Living in Fernie is like living in a small town anywhere – you have to go somewhere else on a regular basis! Golden – believe it or not, this is the name of another small town. It seems like an odd name and the residents must agree as they want to change it. However their planned replacement is worse. They want to rename their town to “Hockey”. Bizarre. Especially as they aren’t hockey mad. I went to a Ghostriders away game in Golden and I, the lone Ghostriders fan, made more noise than all the Golden Extreme supporters put together. I did have plenty to cheer about – we beat them 8 – 2. Hehehe

Top of the Gondola at Kicking Horse. There is only one easy route down from here.

However Golden does have a large claim to fame. If their local hockey team doesn’t really set hearts afire, their local mountain does. Kicking Horse Resort kicks butt! It has more steep terrain than Fernie and also attracts lots of really great powder. In my two visits there I’ve had great snow. I NEVER want to come here when the snow is bad… It would be ugly!

It’s not all super difficult terrain, they do have green (easy) runs here – they are used to connect the Black runs… Not a place to learn to ski for the faint hearted!

The downside: The bottom of the mountain is as horrible as the top is awesome. There are endless runs that are carpeted with moguls, most of them monsters. And there is no way to avoid them…

Lake Louise Revisited

One thing hadn’t changed. It was still damn cold in Banff!

A couple of guys at the hostel are competing in a Big Mountain Challenge Ski series so it was another opportunity to go on another road trip. The Big Mountain competition is where they take a bunch of insane skiers to the top of ridiculous terrain full of rocks, cliffs and incredibly steep slopes. The person who takes the most idiotic line down the slope wins! Cliff drops, 360’s and back flips are all part of it. One of the rounds was at Lake Louise so it was an ideal chance to go back and see if I still loved the place and also to see a Big Mountain event up close and personal.

Lake Louise had a heap more snow this year compared to last year and a lot of it was fresh. Unfortunately Lake Louise is very well known and close to Calgary, so it gets hammered. The front side of the resort was as hard as last year but the fresher snow in the back bowls was great. Lake Louise is still one of my favourite places – however it has a lot of serious competition!

The Big Mountain Challenge was the best skiing I’ve seen outside of a DVD. You can see a video of the competition here.

Learn to Ski!

Last year I was disappointed at my lack of skiing improvement, so this year I decided I would do something about it and signed up for two courses. One was a ten week course with a three hour lesson every Thursday. It was brilliant value at $250. It was slightly different to the usual CSIA fare as the instructor taught the Harb method of skiing. Quite a different theory but works really well.

The other course I took was the CSIA Stage I Ski Instructors course. A number of people had told me that it was a great way of improving your skiing. It works too! I have never done so many snow plows in my life! Skiing slowly and “perfectly” is extremely difficult. I hadn’t realised how much easier skiing is with a little speed.

Finally…

It’s hard to believe, but spring skiing is rearing it’s ugly head and the end of the season is not far off. My plans for working in London are starting to take shape and I’m starting my research of where to ski in South America. Las Leñas looks like a possibility.

If anyone has any recommendations let me know!

Cheers

Mark

Enjoyment in Europe - 25 December 2005

It has been a while since I sent out one of these ePostcards so this one is long. I have so many cool photos that I want to include. It’s been quite an effort to cull them out!

Oh Italy

San Michael Angelo Piazza, Florence

How could I top the experience of the wedding? It’s simple really, you can’t. However there was plenty more of Italy to experience. Daniela, one of the guests at the wedding invited me to come and visit her city, Turin, the host of the next Winter Olympics.

I was tempted to head straight to Turin but couldn’t leave Tuscany without seeing Florence. Making the effort was so worth it! It is typical of other Tuscan towns in that it is gorgeous, but because it is a city it simply goes on. You could easily spend days indulging your favourite Italian passion, architecture, museums, people watching, eating, the list goes on… My highlight was the walk up to San Michael Angelo Piazza to watch the sun set.

Turin is better known as an industrial town and not a tourist destination, however its proximity to Courmayeur and Monte Bianco make it a great place for the Olympics. Daniela was great and I got to meet a lot of her friends. This was awesome as they were real Italians. Up to now the only Italians I had dealt with were in the tourist industry and had a somewhat jaded view of the average tourist. So I enjoyed hanging out with some genuine, friendly Italians.

Turin may be regarded as an industrial town, however there is still plenty to admire	A walk in the mountains behind Coumayer. Monte Bianco range is in the background. I can’t believe I’m not skiing here!

I had spent nearly a month in Italy and it was time to move in. I love this place and want to spend some serious time here sometime, so it was with some regret I boarded a train to Switzerland.

In 1997 I did a two year overland trip from the UK to NZ and in the process made a lot of new friends. For some reason many of them were Swiss! So I was looking forward to spending time catching up with many old friends.

Bern was the first destination and it was great to stop travelling for a while.

HEAVY METAL!!!!

The stage started up at about 10am and went through til about 1am. Lower piccy is the permanently attached wrist entry pass. The diehards were sporting many years worth.

However the guys in Bern had other ideas and before long we were off to Balingen in Germany for the “Bang Your Head” Heavy Metal Festival.

Yup, you read right, Heavy Metal. Me. Actually it was a great time. While I’m not vaguely a Heavy Metal fan, seeing it live is something else.

A large part of the entertainment is visual. It’s serious stuff. The stage has a vast array of techno lighting complete with giant metal hands and plenty of smoke and flames. The clothing is an art form and both performers and punters take it very seriously. Start with basic black and decorate! Tattoos, scarves, bright t-shirts, anything – as long as it has the look. Add copious amounts of alcohol and you have the recipe for an entertaining time. Surprisingly (to me) the crowd was very mellow and over the four days I didn’t see any aggression. Well not from the humans anyway. The weather, on the other hand, was a different story.

For most of the time we were in 38 degree heat which was really nice, however it did brew up an awesome summer storm one night. One of the five campsites was completely flattened. Ours fared a little better with only some tents destroyed. However we did end up with four ambulances in our campsite. I never found out why but I suspect the number of shredded trees may provide a clue.

From Bern I was off to Seegräben to check out a bit of Swiss family life then it was on to Zurich to help a mate shift house.

The Swiss are renown for their intense attitude towards cleanliness and I guess there is always an exception to every rule. Well I guess I found their cleanliness exception. The house we were to shift into was absolutely filthy! It took me a whole day just to clean the bathroom. Ick. We celebrated moving in by going out for a wee drink in Zurich. After missing the two night busses I caught the 6:30am train home. Gotta love bars being open all night!

While having fun in Switzerland I was actually looking for work and had possibilities in London, Zurich and Valencia. Finally one firmed up and I was off to London.

Yuk, work…

View from the London Eye. Surprisingly underwhelming!

While I was partying up in Switzerland the 7^th July bombings had occurred in London and unsurprisingly they had beefed up their boarder security somewhat. Unfortunately my number must have come up and I got put through the mill. I didn’t end up walking with a mince, however everything else got thoroughly searched! Spending four hours at Stansted Airport isn’t my idea of fun.

I spent a number of years in London in the 90’s and was really looking forward to being back. I guess I’d forgotten how polluted, difficult and expensive living in the UK is. I never managed to open a bank account but did succeed in getting an eye infection from cycling in the polluted air.

However it wasn’t all bad, the great things about the place were still there, the theatre, the pubs, superb restaurants, good pay rates and the ability to visit other places.

Such as Paris and Turkey…

The Eiffel Tower still rocks!	Ephesus in Turkey

Back Home!

There isn’t much else to say about London except work, work, work! Definitely a major shock to the system! Eventually that too came to an end and it was time to head back to NZ to apply for visas, sort out a divorce, do Xmas and prepare for the coming year.

What a year it is going to be too! First I am back off to Canada to do another ski season but based in Fernie this time. After the snow I am off to London for some more work and then I plan to go to South America for another season in the snow! Wohoo, I am soooo looking forward to it all.

All there is left to say is:

Merry Christmas!!!!