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Saturday 1 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Got up pretty late and caught the next round of the Bledisloe Cup, from Christchurch at lunchtime. Was a pretty good day so did a bit of skating practice after lunch. Looked like the next day would turn out well too, so decided to take it easy, stay home and get up early Sunday. Had great fish and chips from the fish place down the road in Kirribilli - hmmm, I must admit, although it's a bit of a pain having to wait for it to be cooked fresh, certainly tastes better. | |||||||||||
Sunday 2 August 1998 | |||||||||||
Wow, as planned got up early and went to Manly for a spot of skating. Was there for 10ish, and travelled up and down by the beach for a couple of hours. Glad we stuck to the plan as this turned out to be the best part of the day, very warm and sunny.
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Monday 3 - Tuesday 4 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Same old, same old... | |||||||||||
Wednesday 5 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Began the spring (yeah... it's coming!) squash season with a match at Willoughby. Resounding success with 3-0 victory for me, 3-1 for the team. | |||||||||||
Thursday 6 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| To celebrate 6 months or Australia for most of the poms (well, those that are left) that joined at came over from the UK at around the same as I did had dinner at Sketchy's pasta bar. Although the weather was terrible everyone made it and had a great time. It only takes a moment before you realise where Sketchy's (in the basement of the Hotel Inter-Continental) got it's name - the walls are covered with framed caricatures of the famous and not so. The food was excellent too - line up, pick your size bowl size (peckish, hungry or famished), make your choice of pasta and sauce ingredients and they're cooked up right then and there. Off course I was famished, and I can tell you, there's no need to add a visit to the salad bar to your order! Evening over, Kim and took a ferry home in the rain. | |||||||||||
Friday 7 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| We were give some extremely crap weather to end the week. Couldn't be bothered to do much, but of course managed to wonder by the Berry Street Tavern on the way home. | |||||||||||
Saturday 8 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| The crappy weather continues so resting at home was the order of the day. Kim was in a charitable mood thought and went out to pick Scott and Rachel up from the airport. Was too early in the morning (and I was feeling too ill - possibly to Sydney water bug?) to accompany her. | |||||||||||
Sunday 9 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Went to Balmain to have lunch with Scott and Rachel and hear all the news from the UK. The Oak and London being packed had lunch in a cafe down the road from The London. Went of for a few drinks in The Monkey Bar where we sat around and listened to some live Jazz. A bit of a poncy atmosphere in here today, loads of groupies, etc. | |||||||||||
Monday 10 - Wednesday 12 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Quiet start to the week as usual. Another squash match (at home) on Tuesday which say a 3-0 victory for me. Shame that was it for the team and we lost 1-3 overall. | |||||||||||
Thursday 13 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Took up an invite from one of the guys at work to go and see the UTS band comp (some student affair in their union). His trio, The Deluxe Brothers came in second - nice try John! Was amusing to see Scott hassled for ID at the door (he had none) and have to get Rachel to show her driving licence and explain how they were married, so he must be of age- desperate! After the show a few of us headed back to North Sydney at around midnight and ended up in the Greenwood. Can't quiet explain what I was still doing there a few hours later... a bit of pool, a few drinks, etc. etc. Got home at 4am... oops! | |||||||||||
Friday 14 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Quiet drinks after work, pretty knackered from the previous night (knew I should have stayed in bed) had to turn down an outing to The Forbes (in the City) and go home for rest instead. | |||||||||||
Saturday 15 - Sunday 16 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Kim was really ill all weekend so I played the loyal bloke and stayed in to look after her and rest some more. | |||||||||||
Monday 17 - Tuesday 18 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Your typical start to the week? Almost... a bit of excitement (if you can call it that) at work Monday as I got stuck in the lift between floors! Well, the girl who I was shouting at the other side of the doors said it was like a scene from Speed when I prised them open and dived out. Hardly, but that's office work for you... warps the mind! | |||||||||||
Wednesday 19 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| No squash with the team this week (which was due on Friday when I will be packing for the hols next week) so had a practice game with Don (no. 3) at Willoughby. | |||||||||||
Thursday 20 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Nothing much. Stayed home to watch the Seinfeld Sein Off (Channel 10's awful pun) - the last ever Seinfeld episode. Shame as I have grown attached to the show here in Aus - probably because it's on every weekday! I have to say though, there are others that have made me laugh more, they probably just tried too hard! There's no pleasing some people is there?!? | |||||||||||
Friday 21 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Quick drinks in the Berry after work, before going home to pack for the trip to NZ. | |||||||||||
Saturday 22 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| As usual before taking an early flight I subconsciously didn't trust the alarm and was woken by my body clock too early. Couldn't sleep any more so got up at 4:30 to make it to the airport for 6 (flight to Christchurch at 8:05). Got there in plenty of time, checked in, had MD's for breakie, hung around, etc. The flight to Christcurch was uneventful, as was the airport there, and the short (45 minute) hop to the final destination - Queenstown (although the NZ scenery on the way was quiet interesting). When we turned up at the Avis reception in the tiny Queenstown airport to collect our car, someone (OK - me... duh!!!) had forgotten their driving license - guess this means Kim has to play chauffeur all week. The whole place was very quiet, probably as everyone was off skiing (this was 4pm) as we drove into the town centre to pick up skis from Sports World before checking into the Novotel. Very nice place with a really big apartment and an ample kitchen area which was later christened with a pasta creation of mine (after picking up the supplies of course). After that we'd just about had it for the day... so crashed out early. | |||||||||||
Sunday 23 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Feeling keen we tried to get up early and were on the slopes (at Coronet Peak) for 9:30. Had a great morning - sunny with good snow and few queues. Before we broke for lunch at around 1pm both wind and queues picked (partly why we had a break at this time). After lunch it was too windy to continue skiing (the lifts were closed because of this, and there didn't seem much hope of re-opening) so headed home and relaxed in the (huge) spa and sauna just down the hall. Arranged to meet Leigh and James in the Pig & Whistle (Queenstown's 'traditional' English pub) for drinks, and stayed for an unplanned dinner (nice pies... shame about the size of the steak). | |||||||||||
Monday 24 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Got up a bit too late to be at the slopes as early as Sunday. After listening to the Resort Radio weather report we decided to head for The Remarkables which had a fresh fall of 30cm from the previous night. The Remarks (as they're known by the locals) are a bit further away from Queenstown than Coronet Peak (officially 50 rather than 25 minutes drive) but it wasn't the distance which held us up. Right from the point we turned off the main highway (6) up to the resort the road was basically just a single lane mud and gravel track, add to this the fresh snow (with more falling), lack of roadside barriers for your reassurance and lack of grip... yes - the trip up there was an experience in itself! We did stop half way up to put on our snow chains which made things a lot better, even so it was almost 11 before we were taking on the first slope of the day. Thankfully, once up on the piste the fresh snow was great and the day turned out to be pretty good, there were even some sunny spells in places, made the struggle up seem well worth it. And although there were only a couple of lifts running The Remarks were able to keep us entertained for a good few hours. The fresh snow made up for lack of marked runs, as it seemed you could take and route you cared from top to bottom. There was time for just a quick run after our brief lunch break before the weather turned for the worse and we thought it best to leave for home, as the snow began to fall again and the wind picking up. As it happened it was quiet a pleasant day down in the valley but as there was only half an hour or so left before the lifts were due to close I wasn't too bothered about leaving.
Back home we'd felt like that was it for the day and simply crashed out, had a few drinks and watched an in house movie. | |||||||||||
Tuesday 25 August 1998 | |||||||||||
Up early and off to Remarks again where we met James and Leigh. On the slopes by 9:15 and solid succession of runs down until we broke for a 45 min lunch at 12:45. Skied with James while Leigh had lessons for a while afterwards, but he got fed up of having to take his board on and off as there were a few sections that required some of the skating motion to carry you to the next decline (which of course, you can't do on a snowboard).
Kim and I were happy to Ski until the last lift (at 4pm) before heading home for drinks, relaxation and another pasta delight. | |||||||||||
Wednesday 26 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Went up to Coronet Peak early to find low visibility and snow falling. Thought this would stay for most of the day and declared Wednesday to be a rest day. Drove home via Arrowtown - a small mining (gold rush) town and sampled pies and a desert from the local baker. Put our skis in for waxing and went home for some rest. Having had enough of that (the resting), took a ride on the Shotover Jet - you know, where some loony in a black beanie drives you in a jet boat inches from either side of a canyon, does 360' turns, almost runs it aground (actually, we were a bit late in taking our ride, because one of the boats earlier today had run aground - very reassuring!), etc, etc. Excellent fun!
A bit cold and damp from the ride went home for a Sauna to warm up and more relaxation (yep... when on holiday it turns out you really can't have enough of this).. | |||||||||||
Thursday 27 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Got up early, checked out of the Novotel and headed off to Cardrona. Part of Highway 89, although marked as a main road on our map turned out to be another mud and gravel track (known as the Crown Range Road), but we did get a small sealed section before turning off up to Cardrona, this section proving to be on par with that to the Remarkables. Once there (at Cardrona) the skiing was the best so far, with loads of fresh snow and a bigger area to explore. Spent all day (5 hours of it anyhow) skiing the Captain's Basin which had many official routes from top to bottom, although by the end of the day all tracks were merged and top to bottom skiing by any route you fancied was the order - great!
Afterwards, the pleasant drive onwards to Wanaka was a great improvement on the morning trip. Drove straight up to the lake to sample to the amazing view upon our arrival. A picture postcard view of the mirror smooth lake Wanaka, with snow capped mountains behind was our welcome.
Tried to check into our accommodation, and the fun started (hmmm...). No record of a booking, so the owner rings round some other places in the area to no avail. In the end he tried to get us housed in a sub standard hotel round the corner. We had a look at this but were not impressed, went back to the original place and rang the Aussie travel agent we booked through. In the end they arranged accommodation at the Edgewater Resort which was much better (and a handy upgrade - I should think so too, as all this messing around kept us from checking in before 7pm). Went to the Edgewater's bar for few drinks and a snack before turning in for the night. | |||||||||||
Friday 28 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Were very lazy and had trouble getting out of bed. Eventually made it and drove up to Treble Cone along the now familiar dodgy ski resort road. We had been told this was even worse than the Cardrona road, but luckily it turned out to be no worse. Treble Cone itself was a pretty decent area, and had few queues at the lifts all day. Amazing views down to Lake Wanaka when the clouds lifted and soaked us in sun all day. Here lay the problem... too much sun at too low an altitude which made for an enjoyable morning, but an ice and slush mix on the slopes by 3ish. Not that much fun to ski on so headed home to relax in the sun on our balcony and have a quiet walk round by the lake.
Stopped off at the bar on the way back home (how handy) and sat in the sun until it went down behind the mountains. Went shopping for some more drinks and snacks and had fish and chips on the way home. | |||||||||||
Saturday 29 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| Woke up feeling terrible, looked out of the window and saw the lake was very choppy. After checking the snow and weather reports we decided it was going to be too windy for skiing and that the best plan was to rest today and make the most of the last day. This turned out to be a good one, as Cardrona was closed at around 11:30 because of high winds. Spent the day wondering round Wanaka (a tiny place, so this didn't take long) resting and watching TV (thank god for hotel movie channels). Had dinner in the bar again while watching the build up to the last Bledisloe cup game... the rowdy Kiwi crowd were to be disappointed though (ha, ha!). Didn't stay for the game though as we wanted to be up and away early. | |||||||||||
Sunday 30 August 1998 | |||||||||||
| The planned early start saw us at a very cold Cardrona for 9am. A very good day's skiing, with a fresh fall of snow the previous day and sunny spells. It was a bit windy though, and when out of the sun it was incredibly cold. Had a brief morning stop for a warming hot chocolate and met up for lunch with James and Leigh in the Mezz bar. These were our only breaks before finishing up at 3:45 as the weather turned colder and the Captain's Basin lift closed - a very satisfying last day. Had dinner at the Wankai Cafe on the lake front which served strange (I had honey chilli chicken kebab, and Kim had a sort of nutty veggie dish) food, which was filling and tasty. | |||||||||||
Monday 31 August 1998 | |||||||||||
Not much to say really... travelled back to Sydney via Christchurch and took a bus and ferry home.
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