Day 3: The Remarkables & Saturday Night in Queenstown (view photo set here)

Despite conditions being overcast and windy the crew decided to head to the snow. A decision to visit the Remarkables ski field first was made due to the better snow forecast and a reputation of being a good beginner field with a leaner slope and magic carpet located near base camp.

The drive up mountain was hair raisin! A narrow windy unsealed road with no barriers being the only route to base camp and stories of a car sliding off the edge road and rolling down the mountain the previous day that we heard at Altitude Bar were clearly in my mind as we negotiated the tricky road. We had stop a third the way up to put on snow chains on the car, were Haynesy got to add “supervisor” to his ever expanding CV!

We got to base camp at 10:30am in one piece, kitted up in our snow gear! A special mention to Stevie D who pulled his fathers retro “fitted” snow gear out of storage to cut a fashionable figure across the slopes! “And people thought the 70’s were dead!” A notable quote made later in the day by our board instructor Ben.

11:30am the group undertook our first snow boarding lesson lead ably by our instructor Ben “Happy Days!!!” In the first lesson Ben guided us though:
- Board Terminology
- Riding the magic carpet (shot 2)
- Leafing

I quickly learnt that the skill in snow boarding is control and stopping rather then standing and speed as in other sports like surfing and skateboarding. More on this in later…

1:00pm the group stopped for lunch, we dined at the eating facilities in the Remarkables base camp. We eat, attempted to dry some water logged gear and posed for a couple of group shots (shot 2). Before venturing back out to kit up and meet for lesson 2 at 2:00pm. Conditions turned pretty nasty as icicles grow on Stevie D exposed noise.

The boys looked on as Ben demonstrated with the help of another student Falling Leaf facing the slope. Lesson 2 continued to cover:
- Leafing continued
- Heel side and toe side turns
- Linking
Luke demonstrated the frustration that we all felt over the course of the day of watching what to do, Getting up and thinking you are doing it right and then crashing 10 meters later…

At the end of the lesson Ben rated us about a level 3 to 3.2 (not bad for 2 lessons work! Over achievers!!!) and we should have no problem taking on the mountain (green runs) in coming days!!! Happy Days!!!!
The lifts and magic carpets stop operating 4pm we spent all our first day on the slow zone slope a chair lift positioned just to the right of the slow zone conveniently in the line of sight always gave motivation!

The field closed shortly after 4pm the boys headed back to base camp to return our boards (shots 2 and 3) before making way back to car stopping along the way to for a few more group shots (shots 2 and 3).

Upon return to Queenstown the boys decided on Fergburger for dinner. Fergburger was the name of the hamburger shop in Queenstown that Haynesy and I discovered whilst exploring the town the previous day. Its reason for note was it was as popular as many of Queenstown bars with a 10-20 minute wait for each order. Ohing into our burgers (shot 2) in the YHA common room we discover what all the fan fare was about. We got to enjoy our meal with duty free alcohol with ample coke to mix it with thanks to a trip to the supermarket from Tom and Segar. For a pick me up after dinner and before hitting the town the boys went a few rounds of Jager bombs. This posed a few problems:

A. The Jagermeister was still in the car parked 1 km away due to a shortage of long term parking near the YHA
B. We need 7 shot glasses and Red Bull

To solve the problem Tom, Conrad and Haynes agree to the trip to the car via the supermarket to stock up on required ingredients and pick up the Jager. The boys returned 30 min later, Tom with a stern look on his face asking for the car keys. When reminded Tom he was the last to have car keys the look turned to embarrassment as he realised the keys are in his pocket along side his phone he could of use to call when at that car…

Successfully the boys returned with supplies, unable to find shot glass the boys purchased medicine plastic cups that had limited success… As the cups held more then 30ml they floated in the Red Bull…

Evicted from the common room at 10pm we headed across to the World Bar where the drink special was half price “tea pots”!?! Tea pots are cocktail mix’s served in a, you guessed it tea pot and shot glasses pour into. Any innuendo that may have arisen through six boys walking around withtea pots was made painfully obvious courtesy of Vi, Suemarie, Eileen and Maz (fellow tourists from Western Australia and Sydney) who pointed and yelled from across the bar, “that is sooo gay!!!” adding further embarrassment by taking photos to show their friends… We sat down swopped a story or two and enjoy a shot of tea (from Long Island)!!! The cocktails tasting very sweet and everyone keen to try at least one of each cocktail on the menu, table real estate become precious! As the night wore on I thought I impress the girls and others around with my engineering skill by constructing a shot glass pyramid! I am SOooo smooth I know!!! Note Conradical high interest level!!!

Vi and the girls were great company sharing many a story about their snow experiences, dancing competitions (won by pushing over their competition whilst the judges were not looking) and cashing in their resulting prize, a bungy jump from the Nevis platform highest in the world and something I never got the time/courage to do! Thanks for fun night and for sharing your photos!