whoa

jeeze louise a whole month has gona by  isnce I have wrote in my blog. Been super busy I guess. Been skiing a handful of times, i just finished editing some gopro clips together and hopefully will get those online within a couple of days. we got hammered with snow about a week ago got to ski up at broken river  last friday for an epic day  out on the mountain. Met up with a lady who normally skis in chamonix france, pretty cool to see what she had to say about kinda the frontline of the skiing industry coming from chamonix.
I Went to hawaii with kelly for a week, amazing. it was great to catch up with her and a bunch of her friends from college. Stayed in a beach front house with about 6-18 people through out the week, it varied quite alot. But it was a great trip.
I've been pretty much living at the work shop with all the snow we've been having all the kiwis who normally dont ski are even getting out and getting after it. So the workshop has been very busy. I put 71 hours in during a single week, so that been good for me. But unfortunately I burned my hand very badly last sunday off of a ptex gun, I was cleaning the tip of the gun and my scraper I was using slipped and the tip of the gun ended up in the palm of my hand, so needless to say i've been off of work for a couple of days regaining feeling in my left hand!
But other than that life is good, going to enjoy these last couple of weeks that I have here and look forward to heading back to the states!
Cheers all!

po pro 2

gopro

FINALLY!

Finally was able to put my skis on and go make some turns. I headed out to mt olympus with my mate brett. it was the true New Zealand ski experience. its a club field and that exactly what it is, a club. it has members who work some volunteer hours during the summer and pau annual dues but ski there all winter long. If you didnt know where you were going you would never find it. no road signs no advertisements on how to get there. Brett runs a guide service around here which involves taking customers to these club fields and driving them up this extremly gnarly road. it takes 4wd and chains to get up there. No lifts there, only rope tows that involce a device called a nutcracker. you wear a harness and attached is this nut cracked and you have to get on the rope and clamp the nutcracker onto the rope before the first pulley , or you must bail! Great snow, awsome terrain very stoked to have finally boot up and hit the hill. 

Cheers all

here is some gopro footie!

winds and snow

Methven is a sweet as little farming ski town. I was very surprised to see the pubs packed on a friday and saturday night. feels more like big sky! Been running the tune shop at big als for the weekdends for now, until matt the previous shop manager leaves on the 23rd for the U.S He has been asking me everything there is to know about the u.s. He's very curious and very excited to go, hes really into climbing so hes gonna travel around for 4 months and do some climbing. I tried to get him to come to Big Sky for next winter, but I think he's over winter. Don;t know how?
We've been getting hammered with snow and gale force winds. Some resorts have reported up to 3m( 9 ft for those who have forgotten the 3rd grade) of snow which is out of this world. But the unfortunate part is that the roads have been closed to go up to the ski fields. So still no skiing, yet. but hopefully by the end of the week we will be making some pow turns.
The house i'm living in is a pretty sweet spot. It's owned by an ex-pro snowboarder who was a in boarderX, and apperantly won quite a few events back in his day. He's a real chill guy, and just really wants to snowboard all the time. There are a handful of asians that live in the house as well, not exactly sure how many. But they're nice, theyre here to snowboard as well. But they've been coming here for 10 years or so, and still speak very very broken english. ( more like none at all)
Brett and Renee are moving down to Methven today so that will be cool to have some people to hang out with other than just Danny! not that, thats a bad thing.
Well hopefully Gale and her winds move out of town and let some roads open and get some more fields open. Hope all is well back in the states.
Cheers!
Hopefully I'll be putting some gopro footage of some gnar gnar pow pow up shortly!

methven

good day to all
been in methven for a couple of days now, its good to be closer to the mountains and amongst people who are there for the same reason. I've been working at big als and running the tune shop there. The owners son is moving to LA on the 23rd of july and I am taking his spot so its alot of just learning his methods of how he wants things done and so it will be a smooth transition once he hits the dusty trail. Took a ride up to mt hutt yesterday, it was blue bird out and just beautiful. The road going up to the field is the craziest road i have ever been on. Very narrow and windy and steep and not to mention its a dirt rd. The kiwi van only made it 18/21 km  before we ran into sheets of ice on the road and I do not have chains for the van yet, so need less to say I turned around after I spun the van out! got a couple of chuckles from the people behind me. Took some amazing pics while i wan up there, you can find themon facebook right now and i will try and publish them to my blog as well. I'm qworking back down in christchurch for the next couple of days working back at rugby park. The crusaders, the team whos stadium ive been working at, win their semi final game on sat night in south africa so now they are headed over to queensland Aussie for the championship. so everyone around christchurch is absolutly stoked.
cheers!

headed out

So I finally got the job I've been looking for while I'm down here. I got the managers position of the tune shop inside of a ski shop.  It's in a town about 100 km outside of christchurch , right at the base of about 12 ski fields. I get to ski all day and be at work at 4!  It's called Big Als Ski Shop and it seems like a pretty sweet place. I was up there yesterday, met the rest of the staff and messed around with a bunch of the machines and equipment I'll be using this winter. Some of the machines are pretty old, such as a 1979 montana tune machine, pretty sweet tat it's still running. I even taught the old manager a couple things about tuning. So I think theyre pretty stoked to have some new ideas in the shop. So I will be starting that tomorow and prob me moving to Methven the day after. it's much closer to the mountains, they get alot of snow and its not in a huge city like christchurch. and hopefully they dont get as many earthquakes as they do here!
Cheers!

Snow

Snow is in the forecast for the next 2 days here in christchurch. so keep your fingers crossed that maybe someday these resorts will actually open. I was talking to a lad that said he hasen't seen isuch a late winter since '91. The rugby world cup is in NZ this summer. so everyone is getting amped up for that. Rugby is so big down here, everyone starts playing rugby, kind of how americans play little leaugue. you start playing at 4or 5 years of age and play till you can't play anymore. All of the guys that I am living with play on a team called the Mutts so I'll prob be expected to [play with them next match.  I've been wokring for this scafffolding company here in christchurch, not a bad gig. The first 2 weeks we spent building these grandstands for upcoming rugby games. The Canterbury Crusaders are the prop team around here and since their stadium got destoryed by the big quake in feb, they have been foprced to move to more of a park type atmosphere and that is where I have been working. So I get the chance to watch them train, and what not. The mdeia is their almost everyday, and you can even catch a glimpse of myself when you watch the news ;later that night from just being in the backround.

The ash cloud that has been stranding people in the aussie and nz airports was sopose to finally move away today and allow those travelers to continue on. people had been stuck in the airport for almost a week in some cases. My friend brett who is a native to christchurch has a girlfriend ( renee) who has been trying to come over to chirstchurch for over a week now and she just cant get a flight.. But hopefully that wikl change soon.

Cheers!

christchurch

Back in christchurch after a couple of days in wanaka, sweet as town but just no snow or jobs around right now. so we cruised back up north and met up with our buddy brett who was stuck in a volcano cloud inbetween aussie and nz. so were kickin it at his olds house for now just waiting for the snow and trying to get some jobs secured. gonna go watch a big rugby game tonight between 2 aussie teams, brett says its just like the superbowl.  will post some pictures of my travels hopefully tomorrow. have had numerous earthquakes since ive been here. kind of getting use to the them. its looking like ill be living in a farming/ski town called methven or somewhere close to that. there are 5 private club fields around the town and theyre all really sick. checked out brokenriver today. small, but gnarly! well off to the pub, Cheers!

welcome to the nz

Cheers everyone from the opther side othe world. Dannhy and I survived the 16 hr plane ride from LA to melbourne Australia. We are in christ church right now. its absolutly destroyed ive never seen anything like this buildings destroyed everythwere. saw a tabernacle that was missing the roof and the whole front was crooked, pretty much every structure is affected. We bought a 1992 toyota elixar van. its pretty funny its got a custom pain job with kiwis all over it. were taking off for wanaka today which is a six hr drive south into the mts. hopefully well figure out driving on the worng side of the rd! everyone here is extremely nice and wanting to help out and very interested and our trip. well ill post some pics asap.

good day all 

cheers!