The Epic Road Trip New Zealand was one of those trips you will remeber for ever, lots of Laughs powder snow and sometimes a little to much to drink…. for the tour Epic Snow teamed up with Summit Balm Lip Balms for a special gift for all the team on the trip! Katie from Summit Balm wrote a beautiful article about our trip in land the of the long white cloud! Here’s a small excerpt from the article. Read the full article HERE Next up, day 3 offers turns at Ohau Ski Resort – Part of the Famous New Zealand Club-fields (small privately owned ski hills) which can be found midway between Christchurch and Queenstown. A day of exploring runs like ‘The Boulevard’ (a groomed trail as wide as a highway) and ‘The Escalator’ amongst amazing conditions what’s better than that?! Then off to Wanaka for a stay at Stony Ridge Lodge and recover after a 1.5hr drive of terrible Kiwi accent impersonations and plenty of laughs. Stony Ridge Lodge offers the perfect environment for some memorable family dinners. Shop for Summit Balm NOW “Summit Balm was born as a result of a long, unsuccessful search for the perfect all
“this is first mate Scott speaking, we are starting our decent in to Narita airport, we have made up time a bit of time for the Epic Snow Crew and our arrival will be at 6:45pm” Yep that’s right a big ol shout out over the PA system on Jetstar as we started out decent into Narita. Our excitement level was high after hearing that although the good time started on our first leg to cairns and then on from there. We arrived at Gold Coast airport bright and early for check and got put in isle seats… who doesn’t love a bit of leg room! After having a conversation with the happy looking dude sitting next to us, he turns out to be Captain Paul was the pilot flying us on to Narita from Cairns! Didn’t he look after us on the long haul flight!. A quick convo in the terminal and we were in the cockpit checking out the flight deck and getting a tonne of happy snaps and meeting first mate Scotty …. What a couple of legends! The good times didn’t stop there! Introduced to Cabin Manager Nat who’s a mad keen skier and our attendant
5 Secret shredding throw in’s.
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Have you ever been at the top of the mountain and just thought, damn I wish I had packed my ……. or shit I should have thrown in my ……..
At some ungodly hour we are up and saying see ya later to Benny and Hamish. They are homeward bound and leaving behind a devastated Epic Snow crew. Del,Marty and I are hot on their heels but to Tokyo! We are meeting up with Epic Snow Japan’s ambassador Kimmy and his wife Miyu. After a day seeing the sights of downtown Tokyo we bid another farewell to Marty who is off to surf the North Island of NZ. Del and I are scanning the weather radar looking for the next storm. Kimmy gets word that there is a storm heading for an area 3 hours north of Tokyo, at 4.30 am the next morning the Van is packed and the 4 of us are heading north! The prediction was spot on….SNOW all the way down on the valley floor too. We are frothing! We meet Kimmy and Miyu’s friend Hayato who is a Pro Shredder who lives and owns business in the area. Hayato placed 7th in the Japan Big Air comp with his trademark “Tayo Grab.” Del and I are the only westerners on the mountain and loving a true Japanese ski hill. Iwakura has a gondola and we
Twas the morning of the night before, the hang over was real. Climbing out of my hostel built timber capsule at 1am with a very sore head, I released we are in the North of Japan! Ricky and Del who were very spritely from the minimal amounts of shochu they drank, dragged us that afternoon to the Sapporo Beer Brewery for and afternoon of beer tasting, which the sore brain did enjoy. Up early and on a bus to Niseko, where our crazy english friend Duncan picked us up and took us to the hostel in East Hirafu the Popcorn lodge!. Ramen for lunch then night riding at Grand Hirafu. Head phones in, Major Laser blaring, Hard and fast. The new snow on the groomers was a little tracked out although it was fun to bomb the hills. There was however still 20 centimetres of fresh in the trees. The next 3 days we changed to our short boards for a bit more of a freestyle throw down, as the snow forecast wasn’t predicting the 50-70 cm’s a day we were getting in Myoko. There was only around 10-15 cm’s of new snow each day, that on the groomers did
As we sat at the airport drinking 8:30 am beers watching Ricky, Del and Marty scramble to buy exiting tickets from japan the prospect of getting on the flight for 8 hours was getting exciting. Famous quote comes to mind, “adventure begins when things go wrong” After Tickets where purchased, next thing we know we are in the air sipping on beers en-route to the land of the rising sun. After arriving in Narita airport and picking up our bags, Our Japanese ambassador Kimi sent us a message saying “ its completely legal to drink on the trains, so grab some beers and ill see you soon” along with directions on how to navigate the rabbits warren of the Tokyo train system. Kimi and his wife Miyu welcomed us in true Japanese style beers and Ski movies! Kimi grew up skiing the Japanese alps from the age of 4 and knows the mountains of Myoko like the back of his hand. A true locals eye when it comes to powder spots! Ramen, Rain & Trains. Tokyo was a blur. An amazing city which we felt welcomed and safe. With Kimi’s wife Miyu as our tour guide we were covering some