Cars
Last night we were shaken by a loud roar, and after realising it wasn't part of the movie we were watching, we climbed up our rear garden wall, to find this. No one was hurt, just stupid.
As a follow-up to my previous blog post, I’m going to start with the story of our bittersweet relationship with cars in this country, so far.
Eddie, first and foremost, was an awesome car. He served us well, and helped us look really cool, all day, every day. After our little quagmire on the mountain a couple weeks ago we had left him in the car park at the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately when we went back up to go boarding the other day we discovered, to our great dismay, that Eddie was no longer where we had left him. His doors never locked, and you could start him with a popsicle stick, if of course he was running. But he was totally dead, so now we’re wondering if he got towed, or just stolen. And to be honest I’d rather he was stolen because the last thing we need is to get charged for a tow. So I’m guessing that was the last we’ll ever see of Eddie.
Eddie R.I.P.
Meanwhile, a few days before we discovered he was missing, Mike and I bought another car, this time for $250! (125 euros). It’s a ’96 Subaru Legacy, 2.5 litre engine, turbo system, automatic, brand new wheels and radiator, central locking, electric windows, and a radio! But the head gasket is blown, which means it overheats after about 30 minutes of mild driving, while the radiator goes through at least 4 litres of water every day. Also, there’s no power steering, and unlike Eddie, this car is really tough to drive because its so heavy and difficult to turn. Oh well, still got a good deal in my eyes.
My third funny car story is included in the next segment, about getting to Christchurch.
The last weekend in August, we had our two most important league games, against our closest rivals, the Canterbury Red Devils, based in Christchurch. We had a loss and a win against them when we played them away, but this time we had to win both back-to-back games to ensure we came top of the league table, as this would decide who would host the final. Unfortunately we lost against them the first night, and since they had a win where we had a tie earlier in the season, the final was already decided. With our egos to play for, we came out guns blazing the second night and won 6-2! It was such a satisfying feeling, even if we knew we were going to Christchurch for the final. Unfortunately towards the end of the third period I got into a fight with one of their players, instigated by him, which gave me an instant game misconduct, and match ban, meaning I wouldn’t be allowed to play in the final. Gutted…
Leading up to Sunday the 6th, final day, I had a lot of planning to do to be able to get the day off, get to Christchurch, watch the game, and get back before work on Monday morning at 9. The tricky thing was I was actually scheduled to work on that Sunday, and the only person available to potentially cover me was the senior-most supervisor, who is on a salary, and not an hourly wage. After a bit of pleading, and pulling the sickest puppy dog eyes, I managed to convince him to cover me, in return for a nice bottle of Wild Turkey Bourbon. This news only came on Friday night, which meant that I had all day Saturday, at work, to organise getting to the game, and making it back on Monday. I started calling around rental car companies, asking if they needed any cars relocated, but no joy. Airfare was too expensive, and the busses only travel once a day, late at night. Finally I got a message from one of the guys on the team, Geoff, saying he needed to get his car to Christchurch to sell it. So now I had a car, but no way of getting back. It’s about a 6-hour drive, and luckily Mike was coming with me, but the car needed to stay there, and so we had to look at other ways of getting back. Finally we found flight on a cheap airline for $60 coming back Monday morning at 9:30. So in theory, we were fine.
Sunday morning Mike and I start out road-tripping north through the Alps, by Mount Cook, and around the great southern lakes. The trip was beautiful; the scenery in this country is just amazing, and driving around makes it easier to stop and take it all in.
About 100km outside Christchurch disaster strikes. The car suddenly becomes unresponsive, and smoke starts coming out of the hood, along with a nasty stench. So we pull over on the side of highway 1, in the middle of nowhere, to check it out.
The engine is smoking hot, and stinks. While it cools down we walk down the road to a farm, with some water bottles to fill, hoping it’s just overheated. When we get back and try to fill the radiator, it explodes with a vicious plume of vapour. Also, we left the hazard lights on, which seemingly drained the battery, as the engine won’t even turn over now. So we trek back over to the farm, and get chatting to the farmer, who willingly helps us by driving over with jumper cables, only to tell us that it’s a blown head gasket, not just a simple overheated radiator. Shit! So all this effort has gone to shit, we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere; an hour before the game starts, and the car is fucked. And because its Sunday, no road service will come out to help us. The only option is to tow the car onto the farm, and leave it there until Monday, and try and get something done with it. Onwards and outwards, priority number one now is to try and make the game. We got a lift to the next gas station, about 20km down the road, where we told them about the car, and asked all the customers if we could ride to Christchurch, but no one seemed to be going that way (or no one wanted to take two smelly, sweaty guys). In a sinking moment of desperation, I almost ask the attendant for a piece of paper and a marker to write a hitching sign on, when out of nowhere an older, foreign woman laughingly points at me, and asks me if I’m playing in the game. Confident I have never met or seen this woman before in my life, I suddenly become very confused. She explains that her son plays for Christchurch, and she watched the last game in Queenstown, including my fight, which is why she recognised me, and that she and her husband were on their way to the final…
Hehe. Wow!
No need to say Mike and I almost hugged her as we piled into their car and bolted straight to the rink, with 5 minutes to spare before puck drop. But not all of my funny stories have a happy ending. Unfortunately we lost to the Devils, 5-4, after what turned out to be an epic game, with both sides battling hard for every second with the puck. After an intense season, and a lot of hard work, needless to say it was hard to swallow, but we shook their hands and of course congratulated them on their victory, as is the etiquette of ice hockey: what happens on the ice stays on the ice.
That night we had a few drinks in the hotel, played guitar, told some jokes and funny stories, and had a really good laugh. The team has been amazing to play for, and I’ll be really sad to leave because of it. Maybe I’ll come back in a couple years and play for the Stampede again.
Mountain.
Snowboarding has suddenly become a lot more fun!!! Due entirely to the fact that I can now ride guilt-free as I know that if I get injured I wouldn’t be missing any games, or letting my team down. And as a consequence, I’ve been throwing myself off of, and onto things I wouldn’t have even considered a few weeks ago. And damn! How much fun!
Unfortunately this newfound liberty has come at the same time as the warmer weather, bringing sticky and slushy snow, but its still fun. I’ve been riding on every day off, trying bigger and bigger spins, and going hard onto longer and bigger rails and boxes. I also went off the massive kickers in the pro line of the park, approximately 25m long from lip to knuckle, and easily 2-3 seconds airtime! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
If you look closely at this picture you can see the board park, complete with half pipe, rails and kickers in center frame.
I’ve been stomping most of my front side 360s on the smaller kickers, and backside 180s, but can’t quite land my backside 3’s with confidence yet. Mike and I have also been filming almost everything, so our season movie is gonna be epic.
This Picture is from the Rail Jam they had in the lodge just up the hill from our house. It was really cool because they just sessioned this rail that was there all the time, but built a massive 2-storey run-in to it, and some of the riders were going huge!
I’ve been playing the ukulele quite a bit now too, and can happily say I’m getting pretty damn good! It’s such a happy instrument, you can play “hurt” or “wish you were here” on it and it still puts a smile on your face, hehe. Mike bought a guitar a while back now too, which is fun to jam with. I’ve also been working on some electro tunes on my laptop, taking a lot of samples from around town, so hopefully if I get some tunes finished we’ll include them in the season movie.
Work is going really well! It just amazes me every time, to think that I actually get paid to play with awesome, expensive gadgets, and throw myself of bridges! I had my first few shifts at the Nevis high wire bungy, which was epic! It’s a 134m-drop, with 8 seconds of freefall, suspended over the river Nevis valley, by high wire cables. The AV setup is even more intricate and advanced than the bridge, fully digital, and more fun. Apart from the jump, there’s also the Nevis Arc, the highest swing in the world, which is basically just a gigantic swing, but really fun!
I’m becoming a lot more confident with the camera controls, and the mixing consoles, and I’m making jumper videos look awesome!
Mike and I have also now officially decided to stay here until just after New Year. We’re postponing the rest of our trip, because we’re making money here which would make it easier to save up for the next legs, and also because this place is just awesome! The snow season is coming to an end now, which is a little depressing, and despite the lure of some warmer weather, I can’t wait to do another snow season somewhere soon! Maybe France? Canada? The States? For now I’m just gonna concentrate on getting a tan again.
Did I mention I was in a Coke commercial? Haha, I was scouted at the ice rink a few weeks back, and was asked to be part of the Swedish National Ice Hockey Team in Coke’s new international ad campaign for the 2010 winter Olympics in Whistler, Canada. All I had to do was dress up in a Swedish jacket, and chuck snow-balls at other athletes, in the “Olympic village”, with my hockey stick! That’ll be a nice little financial boost once I actually get paid from it! So keep your eyes out for the Coke commercial, it’ll air some time in Late January or February.
Bonno... Uncle Themi loves you!
This was our day out at the airport. Being institutionalized can have its perks...
The text is a quote from a Propaghandi song:
Saturday the 15th Mike, Leyton and I decided to get some riding time in at Coronet peak, which doesn’t have a snow park, but has lots of fun natural terrain. After a lapse in judgement on my behalf, and excessive speed, unfortunately I sparked a series of events that lead to Leyton fracturing on of his vertebra in his lower back. Ouch! I still feel bad about it, but shit happens… After being sledded to the ski patrol building, they lay him down, and gave him lots of fun laughing gas while we waited together for the ambulance. Needless to say all three of us were feeling pretty painless after that! 
The same night, Mike and I went to party with a rail set up in the back yard, and some snow from the mountains! The music was cranking, and we were shredding it on the rail all night! Mike even pulled a sick one-footed grind that left everyone speechless. Nice one Mikey!
As the nurse started to stitch me up, I couldn’t help but notice she was asking the doctor a hell of a lot of questions, only later to find out it was like her first or second time doing stitches. Great. Anyway, she put three in, and then threw in another for good measure, after I told her I play hockey and it might put some strain on it. Luckily the anaesthetic was strong enough to keep me going the rest of the day without hurting! So we went back up to the park and kept nailing the jumps, although I did stay off the rails and boxes… hehe. Mike tried a couple of back flips off the medium sized kicker (which he then nailed the following weekend), and was still busting out some pretty big, but non-troubling airs and grabs. 
This is a picture I took of it yesterday, after a fun little "take Cles' stitches out" session. 
The rest of that week was pretty cruisy, working a couple days up the Ledge, and even got Mike a couple jumps up there on Saturday, our day off. We went up to Remarks on the Friday, but the snow was too slushy, and the park was closed, I still had stitches, and was being really weary of injuring myself, so we called it an early day, and decided to have the weekend off, as it was one of my only weekends without hockey games, or work! 
