As soon as Fran left big sis and other half Alex arrived for a week of fun in Queenstown, it was amazing to see them and in between the hang overs and speed jet boating on the Kawara river we squeezed a few days snowboarding and of course hit the Luge track again!! With Fran and Deb and Alex gone we found ourselves a nice Alpine style house to rent with our mates Rich and Hannah and settled down for our first long stay anywahere so far. With nearly three months to kill in Queenstown and the surrounding area, it was time to dust off the snowboard and get back on the slopes. The snow fields over here are much different from the European ones I have been too. First you have to get to them and that involves driving between 5 and 15km up a muddy, gravely, small track which hair pins its was up the side of which ever mountain you are snowboarding on! Then as the mountains are quite small they only have a few lifts but when you get to the top you can pretty much snowbaord on any part of the mountain you want, no real routes to stick too, which is great fun!! Apart from snowboarding most days near Queenstown we have been exploring the surrounding areas too, we have been snowboarding on 5 mountains so far Coronet Peak, Remarkables, Cardrona, Ohau and Treble Cone. The last of which has a bit more advanced tracks and I was treated to my first off piste experience down a black run with several vertical rock chutes, AHHH!!