Hello winter...fun times in New Zealand!!!
Leaving Europe and the beach in summer times was really tough, as I have enjoyed my time off the mountains a lot. But now being in New Zealand since two weeks, Ane and me have very much enjoyed some winter time together. It has been great fun at the event as well as on the off days. We both won the World Heli Challenge and spent a beautiful day surfing at west coast the day after. It could not get any better!
I must admit that we have taken full advantage of the adventure days like fishing, a car ralley, tree planting, surfing at the west coast, deer hunting and we also managed to squeeze in a day of skydiving.
World Heli Challenge : Freestyle Day cancelled
Unfortunately due to bad conditions, the freestyle day of the World Heli Challenge on Monday the 2nd had to be cancelled. The plan was to have our 2 judged freestyle runs on the backside of Mt. Albert. We did get to ride the backside of Mt. Albert but as we flew over the venue an avalanche had just occurred. Conditions weren’t the best but we still managed to have a super fun day in the mountains including building a corner jump, slashing windlips or just enjoying a day in the nature...
World Heli Challenge : Extreme Day
The World Heli Challenge Extreme day kicked off on Thursday the 5th with a one run final. Bound and determined to make the day a success, event founder Tony Harrington and technical director, Nick Mills, headed out in a helicopter through breaking cloud to assess the situation.
We were riding down an awesome venue accessed only by helicopter called ‘Extreme Arena’. But also it wasn't long, before the angle of the sun changed and much of the terrain was shaded leading to variable conditions and a more challenging course for us competitors.
Harro commented, "Conditions in the history of this event have never been so difficult or extreme." Because of the late start and the snow conditions, we were only able to do one run instead of the planned two runs.
on top of the venue
Highlights of the day was Ted Davenports near disaster when he set off a class two avalanche that he managed to ski out of and also Travis Rice’s impressive line that he rode.
I am also more than happy to have won this event, cause it fulfills my long term dream. Through taking the first place, I won a spot for the next years King of the Hill riding some big mountains in Valdez/Alaska. Pretty happy about that ;) After a huge event party going off in the city of Wanaka, we all met up at the beach in Haast at the west coast for a beautiful surf day.
Some more adventure days are coming up right now, as we will leave to the club fields near Christchurch tomorrow. Hopefully we will get some good big mountain riding done including a lot of powder turns for the end of our trip…. fingers cross!
Argentina, here I come…
ane and me checking the mountains
maria kuzma and me enjoying the day
lake hawea - beautiful
gone fishing with callan
callan, ane and me at the river
me in my skydiving suit -oh yeah
andy finch waiting for shredding the sick...haha
beach time...
the beach....so beautiful
our head judge dani "kiwi" meier getting excited for some surf
refilling energy
the crew
NZ at it´s best
