Ode to the Snow

THERE is now a time when meadow, mountain, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me seems
Apparell'd in snowy light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream. 5
Projected on the flanks of the hills great;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The flashes which I have dreamt, to see'th no more I wait.

Ricky Wordsworth: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Late Childhood, 1770 - 2009

Given that I couldn't possibly write a legible original ode ill now stick to my usual format.

Well skiing is incredible, I absolutely love it! it is so exhilarating and exciting and fast and the best thing is you don't necessarily die when you fall down a cliff. What better sport for learning how to do cool things?...

So given that I bought a season pass for one of the ski fields I have been skiing whenever I can, 2-3 out of every 4 days, interspersed with: recovering (from skiing and evenings out); some casual labour; lots of cooking and learning to bake; kayak polo (water polo but in kayaks - awesome fun, a very full on and exciting game, and it quickly gets your confidence up with going under water!); a bit of wood carving; badminton; labouring around on my single speed bike; occasional adventures in to the hills; helping at music concerts and volunteering at ski competitions.... so I have been keeping busy!

The renting has turned out OK, my flatmates are amazing, but the house is cold and dark, so not very inviting, not a place I could ever call 'home', albeit it is a roof over my head.

A couple of the most memorable times I have had have been the tramps I have done. One up to Mt Roy for the sunrise (allready said about) and the other up the Copland Track, which starts on the West Coast and cuts striaght inland towards Mt Cook. The track follows the valley, climbing only maybe 100m in its 17km, so an easy walk through bush, towering valleys and along the stunning river. But that is not the good bit....
When you get to the hut at the end of the track there are 3 natural hot pools lined with the most gloriously soft mud and the perfect temperature. And you wallow and sooth your muscles in the turquose water under the full moon and look at the snowy mountains surrounding you before dragging yourself out 4 hours later in to the chill air, and run back to your bed. Not bad.

Another rather wonderful highlight has been my parents coming over, sadly Alex had to stay at home due to a rather vicious bit of Glandular Fever, but it was a really wonderful time when I could totally relax and be pampered! We had a great time, starting off in Christchurch for a couple of days looking around the city, before coming down to Wanaka where we stayed for 5 days, where M+D skied for their first time ever too, and did rather amazingly! Also in Wanaka we did a couple of day tramps up hills, and inevitably back down again in beautiful scenery and in beautiful weather.
Following that we popped down to Doubtful Sound, the most extensive inlet in New Zealand’s Fjordland where we spent the night before departing on a two part cruise, first by boat over lake Manopouri, then by coach on totally isolated road across a neck of land to the sound, where we jumped on another rather luxurious cruise boat and spent the next 3 hours pottering around the damp and mist fjords that rose imposingly on all sides and disappeared into the cloud before we could even catch a gimps of the tops. Trees and bushed clung to every crevice and where one fell a swath of plants below it were wiped off their precarious perches. Tree avalanches aren't that common on Dartmoor... Nor is the sound of a real avalanche, something else introduced to me by the mountains of New Zealand - if your wondering it sounds exactly like a very short burst of thunder, a deep, powerful, rolling grumble.

Back on track we headed up north past Wanaka again for two nights before the long haul up the west coast, notorious for its rain, with figures of up to 10m a year! But fortunately that comes hand in hand with funnily enough, glaciers, blow holes and stunning temperate rainforest. We were able to explore some forest on a couple of occasions going for one walk to the foot or one glacier, and another day to where a river came out of a cliff. One big difference between native bush and English forest is that NZ has only a couple of native deciduous species so in winter the trees are as green as ever. As well as that there are a few species of palm trees which are all rather beautiful.

Continuing up the west coast we crossed over, inland, to Motueka, to meet up with family friends, from there we walked part way up Mt Arthur, way above the snowline at times trudging through over a foot of snow. That was so pretty. We diverted for one night over Takaka Hill in to the Golden bay area and made our way to the northern most point of the south island, Farewell Spit. The 26km long sand spit is decidedly long and sandy, and that’s pretty much it, apart from sad occasions when a school of wales become stranded there. This is particularly poignant in NZ as whales hold special spiritual significance to the Maoris.

I’m going to stop there for the moment and start again when I don’t have fudge, a necklace and dinner to make before going out to a talk by an English mountaineer [the first British guy to climb Everest without Oxygen…].

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