back to NZ

So you jump on one of the longest plane rides of your life to get to NZ, (good 12-14 hours) and jump off in aukland. Yes! back in NZ. Then through the wonders of the Aukland airport you're ushered into the longest customs line you've ever seen. because every international plane lands in aukland one after the other. So you wait a good hour and a half for customs. sweet. grab your bags and go. oh wait. another line. they need to xray all your bags to check for food, seeds, etc. Ok out of that line. sweet we're out. oh you need to transfer to a domestic flight? wait in that line over there. then finally make your way over to the domestic terminal. it's a pretty awesome trip to get here.

I had our new assistant coach Kris decoste and teammate sarah conrad on my flight out of LAX, then in aukland met up with a few more people from the team. Quick flight to queenstown, a meal at Furgburger (it's a must in Q-town) and we were on our way to our house in Wanaka. It's a fairly big place but is a bit of a zoo. we've got all the canadians staying under one roof. I think it's 13 people in total.brad martin, Dustin craven, kris and myself are in one room with bunkbeds. it's pretty sweet. we got enough room in there for all of us to chill and get away from the living room. and it's right near the lawn bowling so we've been getting into that in the afternoons. and i can see why it's an old person's game. it's a little slow.....

We've had 3 perfect days up at cardrona so far. The hill is closed and it's just the people that are there to shred the pipe. The kiwis obviously, a few polish riders, aussis, shaun white and us. it's a pretty mellow scene. Danny Kass and some of the japanese team just showed up also.

My ankle is feeling pretty good while riding. Just been riding super mellow to get my ankle back into it. but everyday is a little better and i'm bumping up the riding each day. So hopefully in a day or 2 i'll be up at full speed and trickery.

we're now on 2 down days due to rainy, cloudy crappy weather. We're spending the time on our super slow internet, gym, frisbee-ing, hot pools, video games, stretching. whatever picks your interest.

We should be back on snow tomorrow and the weather is looking sweet for the next little while.
later
jl

i've seen this a lot in my life and always wanted a shot of it. early morning hike up a freshly cut pipe.

customs in aukland