Although this winter in Christchurch has been quite mild, we have managed to go skiing a few times. We have season passes at Mount Hutt which is only about an hour and a half away from the house. Just like our mountain biking trips this winter, we don’t have too many photos, as it isn’t always easy to get the camera out when concentrating on skiing and whilst wearing chunky ski gloves.
We have been lucky enough to have great weather whenever we have been up on the mountain. From the top of the main ridge there are beautiful views out across the Southern Alps.
The ski resort is in a large basin and as you ski around the rim you start to get views across the Rakaia River.
It is always strange to see how quickly the landscape here changes, we can be standing on the top of the mountain looking down at lush green fields of cows and of course sheep!
Much like the resorts we skied around Wanaka, Mount Hutt doesn’t have any trees which is great for views, but is certainly very different from skiing in Colorado. Also different from Colorado is the fact that you can see the ocean from the ski slopes!
It looks like the ski season is winding down here, the warm winter has meant that many of the resorts haven’t received as much snow as they normally do. Although there is still a chance that we might get another southerly storm come up from Antarctica in which case we will try to squeeze in one more ski trip in this season.