so after heading out of OZ, I landed in Auckland hoping someone would be there to pick me up. Deciding it would be easier for people to identify me, I put on my newly acquired "My life is going downhill fast" Newton's shirt. After a lil while, some dude walked up to me and asked if i was a skater. it worked!
He introduced himself to me as "sith". i was confused. are there jedi in new zealand? then i remembered what I had learned the night before about skate decks and skate dicks, namely that "e" is an "i", and "i" is an "e" in new zealand. this became the first step in my seamless and faultless adaption of the new zealandese dialect of english. combining the swapping of e's and i's with widespread use "oi", everyone swore i was a local when i spoke (cough cough...or they hated my guts and wanted to punch me. since this is my blog i'm going with the former).
after an hour or so, mr. andrew chapman showed up, and we began sitting around waiting for the mysterious "Dan" to show up. At least we had someone with a "cellie" who could call and see where they were (sith). An hour or so and some overpriced McDonalds (with my extensive knowledge of new zealand, i hypothesize this would be called "mickies") later, in rolled a van already chock full of people! after somehow piling all of our suitcases in, we three (sith, andrew and me) piled in and we took off.
We did the round of introductions, and in the car was Striker, Kel, Dan, Jestah, Richard, Jay, Seth, Andrew, Tony, and me, following us in a separate car was Speedy. thankfully a few people went in speedys car to make the van less cramped.
Rechard partaking in some baby bottle libations?
We drove through Auckland and made our way to the first bomb. a freeway. I was a bit hesitant, but we went for it. We tucked through an onramp, striker and others were up in front, and this huge truck comes flying by! I stand up and take it easy, but Andrew comes flying by drafting the truck. gnarliness.
after that we pack back in and head off. I must say that the beauty of New Zealand is something to behold. The lush greenery is simply gorgeous.
After a little bit of driving, we get to the first non-suicidal (or so i thought) bomb. We stumble out of the ridiculously packed van, and head down what looks like a sweet hill. but we soon discovered the ugly beauty of NZ chipseal. a road can look beautiful and inviting, but the pavement can be nothing but gravel with a bit of tar. you can skate it, but itll rattle you to death, you cant turn or you'll fall. you cant slide, and you can barely footbrake.
looks inviting right?
so after getting the best footmassage to date, we booked it off to a big mountain. known only as mount rapeyou to the locals, us americans and canadians decided to give it a more proper name of ruapehue (actually it's the other way around). The entire mountain was covered in clouds, so we couldnt fully appreciate it's beauty
going further up the road, the truly monumental epicness of this road dawned upon us.
jagged volcanic rocks strewn on all sides, falling off the road looked so deadly I was kind of relieved to see some guardrails to crash into. butter smooth pavement, looooong sweeping turns, and insane speeds, this road was majestic.
freezing in the howling wind at top, we suited up as fast as possible, teeth chattering and butterflies in my stomach, we headed down
in just the first drop the speeds felt insane. going through a slight kink then a lefty, you lined up for the first turn. luckily the road had excellent visibility, because by god did we cut lanes. you fly into the first righty, admiring the beauty all around you, illuminated by the setting sun, and praying you dont get a close up look of the beautiful landscape. immediately after the righty you fly into an uphill lefty, but you got so much speed you actually need to set up well for this turn. then you line up for another biiig righty, with epic views of the entire valley, and into a straight. again trying not to get carried away by the beauty of it all, there's a tricky righty that you cant spot if it's clear, so braking is advised. then into a long straight into the never ending right. a looooong sweeping right hander. then into a slower straight, you take a slight turn and get flyinnng into death left. a 90 kink with jagged boulders just in the part of the turn where you would drift out. then tuck and FLY down the road, nearing the new pavement at the end, road cones beckoning for slalom. going through another looong righty and across a bridge, you get to the end.
Getting to the bottom, me tony and andrew looked at each other in amazement of the road and it's smooth beauty. we all agreed it was one of the most epic bombs EVAR, and jumpe dup and down in anticipation of the next run. I cursed myself for not bringing my GPS along with me for the trip. cuz this road feels easy 100+kph. finally the van got back down, and we rolled back up for a second round. bombing down again, we got to the bottom and shared smiles and laughs, but when the van took a long time to come, i got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Turns out speedy took a bad line into one of the rightys and drifted out and nailed the guardrail. We helped him into his car with Jestah driving him to the nearest hospital. Later we found out he broke his kneecap and tore his ACL. Good luck healing speedy!!!!
truly a gnar road. sobered by this, we headed up, and with in the darkness, hiked up to the cabin we were staying at. We got all the gear we needed for the night, and got to hike across a steep jagged rock field in the dark to our cabin. which was the furthest away cabin. fun stuff. Seth graciously carried the chilly bin filled with food and drinks for us. We got to the cabin and were blown away by how sweet it was. Rows of bunks, an awesome upstairs living room. So we settled down, the kiwis graciously cooked us up some awesome food, and we chilled and ate.
the next morning we woke up well rested, and stoked to hit the mountain again. unfortunately it was raining hard :( disappointed but not disheartened, we waited for a break in the rain and hiked down, packed up the van, and headed out to wellington (or "wellie" as the locals call it). Just about an hours north of Wellie we stopped by this EPIC canyon road. so very malibu-esque it was ridiculous.
view from the top
at the top, a HUGE wind nearly blew us off the cliff, and sent our helmets tumbling. At the start, pushing against this wind we would push and push and barley move. Setting down this steeeep road, I was in full slide mode, not wanting to go fast. Andrew and Tony headed out in front, leathered up and charging hard.
simply gorgeous jungle canyon bombing. A couple good kinks in the road, with one soaking wet hairpin. the wind made it really weird cuz in some sections you'd be flying, and in others full tucking but barely moving. at the bottom we were all onec again amazed at the NZ roads and headed up for another round. Tony was borrowing my gopro and took off. Going through one of the turns, I saw him looking for his board off the side of the cliff. At the bottom (after waiting a while) found out tony took 1 tumble and nearly hit a fence, his board going off the cliff, then took another tumble, with himself nearly going off the cliff. the worst part? my gopro only got the first tumble!
heading out, we got to a wet highway that strike couldnt resist bombing, joined by andrew. unfortunately, the traffic cameras caught their antics, and a little ways down the roads, some flashing lights appeared behind us.
this is the best part about NZ. the cops were totally chill! they said theyd love to see the footy we got (i guess the traffic cameras also caught that)
then we headed into wellington for the night, all very tired, some people went out to welly to party it up, i just relaxed.
we woke up the next day, and did some bombing! We hit up this steep fun straight bomb right outside of our house, bombed that a few times, andrew almost got creamed by a truck, verrry sketchy to see that going down. basically a car pulled in front of me, I airbraked and took it chill. andrew comes flying by, and goes to pass the truck in what seemed like an ample shoulder on the side of the road. problem was that the shoulder narrowed to...nothing. and andrew didnt know this. so he did a little bit of griding on his trucks in the gutter and shot back in front of the truck inches from its bumper. sketch. We also hit up this fun road next to the wind turbines, nice turny (not super turny road) with fun pavement. reminded me of california :)
we then did a lil neighborhood bomb, and headed back. afterwards we rolled out for a lil cruisin in the mean streets of welly
after that we headed back to chill with some tunes provided by dj chapman and dj strike
on the way to the house, we did some zipline racing. dh style!!
just look at how aero tony is
then it was time to head back to mt ruapahue!!! weather forecast was good, and the road was gnar. it was go time!
...slight problem
it was all soaked when we got there. and still raining. not to be deterred I did a couple rain runs, sliding around and having fun, then went back to the lodge and got some chili fries and sat down to chill and hope it would dry. good news, it did dry, bad news tho, the chili fries were...strange. I envisioned like...chili. with ground beef, some spicyness, some cheese on top of the fries. what i got was a bucket of fries with sourcream slapped on top and some weird sweet and hot sauce on it. disappointed to say the least. now onto the main story!
so andrew strapped on his boomcam of doom. a pointy metal crowbar
despite the deadly looking sharp metal nature of it, with duck tape holding it on, it worked awesomely
and soon the others were bombing in style. i was still soaked from the rain runs, so I was taking it chill
side note: gorgeous landscape no?
waiting for it to dry more, i took a lil hike with richard to a nearby ridge, and enjoyed the view
after a while I just geared up and took chill leather-less runs, carving it up and enjoying the beauty.
finally our lucky dry spell ended and we headed back in the van. and headed off to a nice coastal town. we were planning on camping, but it was POURING rain, and just plain shitty weather, and by the time we rolled into town, late as hell. So after much freezing, wetness and overall grumpiness, we found a motel!
the next morning we cruised along, enjoyed a funny christmas parade, and a poof parade
turns out all the roads were flooded, so we were kinda stuck in the town. luckily the weather cleared up real nice!
I think we were all glad to have a little break from nonstop driving and skating to enjoy the scenery and relax a little.
after that we headed out to beautiful auckland!
we spend the night at dan's house, and skated this rad set of TIGHT switchbacks. everyone had fun eating shit
I feel horrible, but I totally forget at what point in the trip/road this was, but enjoy some footy of striker ripping it up!
then we were off again! this time cruising for some jungle bombin!
we headed off to forestwhosenameiforgetbutwasepic, and skated some fun hills. sooo cool riding through the middle of an insanely lush jungle!!
on the way out we hit this hill we thought was just going to be a little tiny bomb, but turned out to be this epic bomb from lush jungle at the top of the mountain all the way down to the valley below
on the way back we had an entertaining episode involving striker attempting to chase a cattle herd
not realizing he was rolling through cow shit, having cow shit splatter all over him, his board and his clothes, and trying to clean himself with andrew's freshly cleaned pants. and licking his board clean (dont ask, but ask andrew for the vid)
hilarious to say, and very very smelly.
after some epic bombs we headed of to dan's uncle's farm to set up camp and get some sleep. we made striker sleep outside cuz he smelled of shit. the next morning, i felt like this
but our ever diligent safari leader kicked us all the hell out of bed, for some nice RnR on the beach!
chilled there for a while, striker had fun tossing his board on the water, and we enjoyed a nice relaxing break.
after that, we headed back to dan's uncle's place for a freshly caught seafood FEAST. we all ate until we could eat no more, then headed off for more more skating.
somewhere around here we hit mungamuka, this awesome turny road going off on both sides of a mountain, super nice turns, nothing too crazy, with gnarly logging trucks going up and down. sketch and awesome to say the least. stay tuned for a cool video of the runs, along with Sith doing some insane surfing of turns.
there's so much more skating I feel like I'm forgetting, so I'm truly sorry, but it's been a little while, and there was SOOO much skating.
after the day, we headed back to dan's uncles place so striker could shoot his board
and then set off for another beach to chill on!!
isn't that gorgeous?
finally we dug out a skatedick for rechard to ride on in the sand, and got a High Grade Safari shot!!
we drove some more, skated some more, and saw a cool waterfall
and saw a cool girl skating
and back in auckland we went! chilled at dan's house again, headed out to the city to enjoy a punk show, and relaxed in general
the next morning we tried to wake people up bright and early, but no one wanted to, so me and striker skated this crazy looking hill we rolled down on the way to auckland. hitting it dawn patrol style was the only way to survive. It seemed crazy gnarly, but going down it it actually wasnt too bad. fast as hell, but quite survivable.
finally, on the last day, dan took those of us left to this beautiful beach to enjoy a sunset.
and it was mind blowingly beautiful
rich dan and andrew
tony knows the right people to thank ;)
.
and with that we wrapped up the most epic skate trip of my life, the High Grade Safari!
I must apologize for all the hills i've forgotten, people i've left out, fun times i've omitted, and epic thing's i've skipped, but soooo much happened on this trip, and I didnt have time to properly write it up immediately afterwards, so my memory is a little hazy.
also, thanks go out to all the kiwi's for their awesome hospitality, their insane roads, and their funny accents. and a shout out to the crew who trooped it all the way across NZ in the smelly, crowded van! Dan, Rich, Sith, Kel, Jae, Strike, Tony, and Andrew! and those who joined us along the way for fun times, especially Jistah.
and once again, big big big thanks go out to Dan for organizing this trip, putting up with our idiocy, being the only one responsible enough to kick us out of bed so we could skate, and overall being our dad for this trip. without his diligence and awesome organization none of this epicness would have happened.
stay tuned for some videos once I stop being lazy and actually edit some footy! I have soo much footy to edit i dont know where to begin
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