Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries:
It must have been a few years since I've been to Cardrona. They now have a Chondola (gondola cabins sprinkled between the chairs) and a whole new area called The Willows.
I managed to get up there with my two daughters Taya and Rewa for some exploration and to make the most of this incredible snow base the southern ski fields have right now. Seriously, the base is so good you can snowboard every bit of the mountain – and halfway down the road. My good mate Kenny is a ripper skier and he trains his kids all winter based out of Wanaka. Kenny spent Thursday skiing The Willows with his youngest, Flo, and sounds like it was nothing but powder run after powder run – all accessed by chairlift.
The terrain is really exciting over that side of the mountain with a similar aspect to Treble Cone and almost as steep. There are three main ridges with some beautiful faces. By the time the visibility cleared for me on Sunday I thought my chances of finding some powder would be zero. That is four days after the last proper snowfall, but oh what do we have out there on the boundary? Yep, I managed to get a powder run in. Even on top of the ridge the snow was light and cold enough to have stayed dry. The main face I dropped into was at least 30cm deep and light enough to make me smile.
The 10-minute walk out took me 20, but mainly because another father came blasting past with a grin as wide as Siberia. He wanted to just keep on powder turning our way down the mountain toward Queenstown until we ran out of snow. For a moment I imagined saying yes. The turns would have been amazing and completely untracked. Even if the walk out took two-hours I'd have that smile on my face for weeks. I had to remind myself I wasn't 20 anymore. And somewhere on the other side of the mountain my girls were lapping around waiting for me to turn up from my "30-minutes max" adventure.
The Willows have rekindled my hunger for snow adventures – and especially powder boarding. Having been spoilt with Japan and European powder I really didn't think I'd ever say that about a New Zealand ski field run. I'm already watching for the next big snowfall event and planning to pounce.
See you up the hill ... Derek
PS There has been plenty of talk about the humpback whale that has washed up and is slowly heading north from Warrington. A decomposing whale on our coastline does trigger a caution for surfers. Be extra careful when surfing Warrington right through to Karitane as dead whale meat and blubber is super high in energy and usually represents very easy pickings for sharks and possibly leopard seals as well. It's a bit of a natural process, but you definitely want to avoid being too close to the action when it's feeding time. Stay safe out there.
Box of Light is made possible thanks to these visionaries: