I am covered in flour and have spent the last hour or so happily eating the cookie dough that was meant to be cooked into emergency ‘whoops I forgot you were coming’ Christmas Presents.

Ah Christmas Eve. Other than the cookies (which just need to be transferred into jars once they assume cookie form) everything is wrapped and labelled. Home is mostly clean (I say mostly cause the kitchen is still covered in flour) and everything is pretty much ready for what will probably be the most cheerless Christmas I’ve ever been involved in.

Siigh. And for those of you that are posting about the ridiculous amounts of snow you have, and how you’ve taken your boards out of hibernation and are RIDING down your street – I hate you. It’s raining here – all cold and storm like. And it’s meant to be the height of summer, so good to know Auckland is defying convention and sticking to its much beloved rain.

It’s a ridiculous notion, but I wish it snowed in Auckland. Purely so I could do what all those others in the opposite hemisphere are doing. My street would be PERFECT for riding down. Needless to say all of you who are complaining most bitterly about your snow should shut up. I’d trade with you, quite happily I’d trade with you.

Okay, at the risk of becoming more Grinch like in this post, I’ma go eat more of that cookie dough. I wish all of you a safe, happy Christmas, and a wonderfully merry New Year.

As the Southern Hemisphere snow season draws to a close (or rather goes under protest – this past season has been PHENOMENAL – it was open till mid November, and there are Summer Snow rumors!) it also makes me a bit nostalgic for the Northern Hemisphere.

Around this time every year I often wish that I was heading back to the States to teach, and every year I tend to think ‘Next year I’ll go back’. Alas, I haven’t yet. Perhaps next year . . . :P

Anyway, I came across another fabulous etsy store dubbed Avril Loreti, that do fantastic bandanna’s with Mo’s on them. I go through several bandanna’s a season – I prefer them to balaclava’s or fleece covers.

And with these super cute mustaches on them, who could resist?

Appropriate for Movember too, I thought. :)

Consolidated Skateboards is all about Love. Loving your local skate shop, loving the skate industry and promoting the ‘damn the man’ attitude that comes with rocking your own style in your own way. It’s all about giving power to the little man. And it looks like they are jumping the battle into the snow industry just as Nike are dropping in on the scene.

As Hyperbeast said “Core snowboard brand, Rome SDS [Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate], has teamed up with Consolidated Skateboards to create a premium boot with a subversive agenda. Though the approach is playful, the issue is not to be taken lightly. Consolidated Skateboards first launched the Don’t Do It Army in 1997 to keep big sporting goods brands out of the skateboard industry, and now, together with Rome SDS, they are bringing the campaign into the snowboard arena. Taking Rome’s popular Libertine silhouette and incorporating their signature Banana logo, Don’t Do It slogan, and Drunk namesake, Consolidated looks to stir up a conversation about the big sporting goods company who recently made their debut in the snowboard scene.”

In truth, I think the boots are pretty sick, and I love that it’s in keeping with snowboarding’s history, and true rocking style.

As they said on the inside tag:
“We could argue all day long about where snowboarding came from: skateboarding, surfing or even skiing. But there’s one thing we all know: Snowboarding sure as hell didn’t come from baseball, basketball, football, jogging or golf. So if you let a jock ball-sport company just waltz in and take over this industry because they’ve got the big bucks, you’re helping to destroy its soul. If your favorite company gets brought out by some suit-and-tie who has never even stood on a board of any kind, and you’re still thinking about buying their products . . .

DON’T DO IT.”

Don’t destroy snowboarding’s soul, hey. Avoid the Nike bandwagon. The industry has enough of that crap already.

As it would turn out I am stuck in the city, while my usual snow buddy is currently down at Mt Ruapehu. He’s currently staying in a some random place that doesn’t have a fax machine and so has taken to txting me every morning to get the snow report and to do a little bit of ribbing about how he is at the snow and how I am not.

It’s a very frustrating situation, as I do SO VERY MUCH WISH I WAS AT THE SNOW!

Instead, feel my pain:

This was taken at the top of the High Traverse, which drops into my favorite run of the moment Mackenzie’s Mistake.

Don’t you wish you were there too?

While in my last post I grizzled and grumbled about the horrible service and I’m still cringing about that awful pub quiz, I’m finally home and have had a chance to look through all the photos. It turns out that not ALL of Taupo is horrific.

The surrounding countryside and giant lake *is* beautiful. We went up to Huka falls, which was gorgeous and did some of the walks and drove many of the drives. Big rolling green hills, ‘fake’ forests (the area around Taupo is heavily forested. It was interesting to see all the different stages, from planting, growing, being cut, the logs being driven to the mills, the fields cleared and then replanted). And then there was all the geothermal activity! There were many geysers to see, and also the fantastic natural hot springs!

Those photos were actually taken at Huka Falls, not the Hot Springs, or near geysers.

In terms of food, it was mostly awful. However on our last night we went to Portofino which was *divine*. The service was impeccable and the food fantastic. Funnily enough Portofino’s is owned by a gentleman named Gino who opened his first restaurant in Parnell back in the day. He would order all their produce through the Family Barrow, which was at the time owned by my parents. Glad he still keeps the same standards as he did all those years ago.

We managed to go out to the Lava Glass Gallery where we watched the owner and resident artist Lynden Over blow glass (he actually DID blow the glass!) and create some fantastic glass pieces, which was pretty exciting. We also did the Volcanic Activity Centre which was pretty amusing. And even though they followed us around at the Scenic Wine Cellar, I DID get to hold a bottle of Champagne with a $1k price tag! The best part of the trip (besides the fantastic snow, which was UNBELIEVABLY fantastic)was the meandering drives we took that presented views like this one:

So while the trip wasn’t a complete success (again, that AWFUL AWFUL pub quiz at The Shed comes to mind) it wasn’t an utter failure, either.

Still, I’m happy to be home!

I’ve been in Taupo for the better part of a week now, and I’m downright unimpressed. Now let’s get this straight, I’m NOT hard person to impress, I’m really not. Give me warmth, edible food and a little nod in the interest of friendly-ness and I’m ready to move in and camp out for the rest of the year. Places like National Park and Turangi I’m ready to give up the convenience of 24 hour supermarkets and quaint Asian Dairies that sell the coveted hard-to-find Magno Tea for.

Taupo? After being here 5 days I’m ready to go home. Taupo is place for tourists who don’t know any better, and are still amazed at seeing giant bodies of water. Taupo is for people who don’t care about service, and just don’t want to help people out. Taupo is not friendly, and is not for me.

What I’m mostly sad about is the crap customer service I’ve experienced at EVERY place I’ve been to. Lakeside Villas is where we are staying thanks to the generosity of a friend back in Auckland who had an apartment for a week, but wasn’t using it. But if your not getting it free, don’t stay there. On the first day we were here I went to reception mid morning to find out if they had a snow report. I got ignored, to the point where they locked the door and shut the curtains. Okay, so not the friendliest bunch. On the second day the guy argued with me about whether I would want to be using the wireless connection from my room.

. . .

Yes, I want to. Do not tell me that I don’t, buddy. Me and the internet are *tight*, okay? By the third day we were having issues with the available washing machines, and the drama around getting washing powder was a nightmare.

But let’s not stop at Lakeside villas. The customer service at Poitoins Ski Shop was a disaster and we spent a good hour just trying to hire a set of skis, poles and boots for my Dad. We were turned away at the Prawn Park because they decided that the day was too slow so they sent home their staff, only to find that they weren’t able to deal with the afternoon traffic. We also went to Scenic Cellars where we were followed around, because apparently the video surveillance wasn’t good enough and oh wow, we might crack into the wine right then and there.

But it gets worse. We’ve eaten at a fair portion of the pubs here, and not one has served decent pub food. Even worse is the bad Pub Quizzes held at The Shed (avoid on a Wednesday night, if you can – you want to survive with your brain intact).

It appears that everything is run at half the pace in Off-Season Taupo. It is very slow, and very plodding. Not at all the upbeat fun of National Park, or any other small stop-over we’ve been in.

I sent a txt to a good friend of mine complaining. He laughed at me and said that I deserve this. I did, afterall, go to Taupo.

I did. And I’m more than ready to go home.

I am currently in Taupo where it is raining. The rain doesn’t bother me; I’ve just had three *perfect* days at the snow with blue skies, awesome snow, and fantastic company so I’m due for a little down time. My body aches, so yeah, down time is okay.

What’s not okay is rocking up to an internet cafe hoping to check my email. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m one of those internet users you would call ‘addicted’. I’m a web designer, and work for an ISP. And with a fair chunk of my best friends being overseas right now me and the internet are *tight*. After four days of being internet-less I was fairly sure my inbox had most likely exploded.

I wasn’t wrong, either. I was greeted with this:

“We’re sorry, but your Google Mail account is currently experiencing errors. You won’t be able to use your account while these errors last, but don’t worry, your account data and messages are safe. Our engineers are working to resolve this issue.”

. . .

Since when did Google have server errors? My inbox has exploded, and the internet sky is falling. The internet is BROKED!

I guess I’m taking extended leave of the internet. I’m back home on Friday. Hopefully my inbox will have fixed itself by then. Fingers crossed, right?

This photo was taken by Tim Laman as part of his work with National Geographic, who have decided to share part of their collection with the world.

More fantastic images can be found here.