Mt Dobson Ski Journal
With our University holidays coming to an end, and the late coming of snow meant we were eager to sneak in a few more days of skiing wherever we could. We loaded up the truck and left Queenstown at 8am, with the intention of spending the afternoon at Mt Dobson.
We had clear skies in sight and empty roads to enjoy our three-hour drive up the middle of the South Island. The drive through the Lindis Pass and up through Lake Tekapo was as good as it gets.
We were limited on time, so after a pie stop and the temptation of pulling over for photographs, we charged on towards our activity for the afternoon.
Mt Dobson is a small ski field located north-east of Tekapo in the Mackenzie region. It was opened officially in 1979 by owner-operator Peter Foote who prides himself on people enjoying the boutique ski-field that he has created. We were all amazed by length of the access road up, which required 10,000 hours of bulldozer work to reach the highest carpark in New Zealand at 1725m.
The rumours were preaching fresh powder, but once we arrived we were greeted by some pretty strong winds which unfortunately blew a lot of it away. Nevertheless the wind died down and the sun was shining, so we were all go!
After an enjoyable afternoon consisting of fun terrain and blue skies, we packed up with the sun setting on the hills, and got back on the road towards Methven, where we would stay for the night.
Once we arrived in Methven, it was a quick trip to the pub for a beer and some food to refuel ourselves and we called it a day.
We woke early the next day, keen to get a full day of skiing in at Mt Hutt. The weather gods were good to us once again!
Being the start of the school holidays the crowds roared in, but we were stoked to have another full day of skiing under the belt. We went lap after lap enjoying what Mt Hutt had to offer. We were all very happy chaps.
Weary that we had to make our 1pm ferry to Wellington the next day, we headed back to the truck to get moving up the East Coast.
The sun was setting along the Canterbury plains so we pulled over to enjoy the scenes.
The sun went down, and we had no real plans on where we would stay for that night. The boys in the back had the task of finding a last minute camp, and we settled for a little caravan about 1 hr north of Christchurch.
After two big days of driving and skiing, and a frosty morning on the coast meant it was hard to get ourselves out of bed. We had a 4 hour drive to Picton that day, so we needed to hit the road with some time for a few stops along the way.
We picked up some breakfast and coffee, and headed towards Kaikoura, where we stretched the legs along the beach, and enjoyed the views of the ocean to the snow-capped peaks.
With time not on our hands, we had to continue our way up the east coast to make it to our ferry back to Wellington.
As we sat outside and enjoyed the tranquility of the Marlborough sounds, we reflected on what was a bloody good couple of days. The perfect end to our break.
