Rocky Mountain

Dusting of snow at the house.

Snowy Hospital Flat.

Summit of Rocky Mountain, knee deep in snow!

Back in Albert Town, relaxing in the community hot tub.

Tuhoys Saddle

Snow has finally arrived in NZ! Unfortunately, without a base for it to fall on, its still proving challenging for getting ski fields open. Snow is forecast for the next four days with high winds as a large Low tracks slowly off the south coast so there'll be plenty for the weekend, but that in itself will provide other challenges.

So, early on a Sunday morning, with snow falling at the house (but not settling) we headed up to Cardrona for a few runs.

After a wait in the bottom car park, the message came that the field would not be opening for the day due to the gale force winds at the summit so we assessed our options and went off touring instead.

The sun came out as we skinned up the Tuhoy Saddle track into the heart of the crown range. There was snow in the car park but is was thin.

Soon we had fantastic views across the valley to Cardrona.

Weather looking ominous north towards Wanaka.

Approaching the saddle.

A bitter wind was blowing on the saddle so we wolfed down our late lunch and heading back down the hill as the weather came in and it started snowing again.

By the time we got back to the carpark rain had washed away our tracks from the morning.