Marte in the land of the long white cloud.

Norwegian crow Marte Tveten and her companion sampled all the fruits that the kiwi hemisphere has to offer, traveling through sheep-infested pastures and across immense mountain ranges to find what they were looking for and ride a wave of oceanic wonders.

It is always winter somewhere on the globe. Crispy minus degrees, snowflakes in the air and skiers out shredding the mountains. This fascinates me. Therefore, I decided to leave the Norwegian summer, and head to the southern hemisphere to catch up with winter.

On the 14th of august, my Swedish companion (Adam Björk) and I left Oslo and headed to Christchurch, South-Island. With return date the 31 august, we already knew when we landed: 2 weeks in New Zealand is not enough – this island is a big lollipop! We got a sweet cheap rental car and drove around to make the most out of our 2 valuable weeks. We started with some tourist stuff first. The same day we arrived, we drove to Lake Tekapo. Such a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains. And sheep. On the 3-hour long drive from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo, we saw seriously over a thousand sheep. Waiting to give their wool to a Mons Royale neck warmer, which most kiwi-skiers wear.

Next stop after Lake Tekapo was Lake Pukaki. At the north end of the lake is New Zealand’s highest mountain, Mont Cook, situated. We could drive all the way in to more or less the foot of the mountain. That was so cool, easy access to such majestic mountains! A 5 km trail took us to the Hooker Glacier.

After two days with touristing, I was so stoked to go skiing! Being so close to the mountains, but still not skiing them. Next stop was Wanaka! A sweet little town with mountain lovers everywhere. Treble Cone is Wanaka’s freeride paradise. A small resort with lots of lines and stuff to do. And the view from the top is really unique.

One-hour drive south from Wanaka is Queenstown. Another cool place to hang out in the city, and to go skiing. We were happy to go there for skiing the Freeride World Tour Qualifier event in The Remarkables Ski field. The terrain there is amazing. A big bowl with easy access freeride. The 2* event went down on a Monday, and the 4* on a Saturday, so we had some nice days to explore the resort.

Both the competitions had very fun venues, in quite good snow conditions. I was happy to land both of my runs which gave me 4th place in the 2* and 5th place in the 4*, and that’s great points to bring with me for the upcoming season in the Alps!

After such great days with blue bird skiing, we ended the trip by driving though the West Coast. Our 2 weeks went by so fast, but we sure had a great time! I will come back next year! That is for sure.

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