The piece de resistance of this trip. A bluebird day, rare in NZ. Adam and I skied 4 runs with Harris in 1997, but they were very weather constrained.

Today I signed up for their 7-run package, and we were only constrained by a first timer from Ohio who had neglected to rent fat skis. Our guide Eric took charge of the situation and arranged places for him to rest while the rest of us stepped it up. The other 2 skiers (we were in small Squirrel helicopters that have the same capacity as A-Stars) were also first timers, but Graeme from Melbourne had skied in Whistler, Switzerland and Italy and Steve was a younger snowboarder from Sydney.

As the fresh snow was 6 days old it was not deep, but on protected south exposures it was silky smooth and stable. Thus Eric found some serious terrain: 40 degree chutes, a couple setting off shallow sloughs. No heli operator would ski some of this stuff if the snow was only a day or two old.

New Zealand was at its photogenic best, with Mt. Cook 90 miles away being visible. The pilot shot some video of our extra 8th run which I am trying to get eventually to FTO for viewing. 16,600 vertical.