But you know what? Its hard to not have a great time on the South Island….especially with great local food, beer, wine, coffee, gorgeous scenery, and some of the nicest people on the planet. Big thanks to NZphotoslave for hooking us up with almost everything while we were down there.

Here are some scenic pics along with some pics of my last day mission up to the chutes at the Remarks.

Music: Luke Slater – Freek Funk

Summer holding Winter hostage:

Cableman:

Gibbston Valley:

Lake Wakatipu:

Tasman Valley:

The Town of Sumner:

Shadow Basin lift, Remarks…09/06/05:

First run in Alta chutes with 5cm of sloppage:

Top of the chutes, next to the weather station, looking down on Lake Wakatipu:

and then migrated into this chute in the fog, with wetslide dangers all around:

View from the top of the chute…hard to navigate in this weather:

….a little further…

…and the rest (I took these pics due to the avy conditions, ski a little, stop, wait for the snow to slide down, and so on)

Diangulator (nice and fun on the left wall)

The Sugar lift along with the monster snowpack:

Kea Birds following me up to the chutes:

Looking true north:

Double Cone looking nice, but probably really dangerous due to the rotten snow:

My last turn, er straightline of the trip:

NZ….thanks for having us: