Wow, what a massive couple of days!
After long drive from Queenstown, calling by my sponsors Bobo Sports in Darfield to collect my new SL and G.S skis we overnighted in Christchurch.
The alarm went off at 3:15am on Thursday morning, I was at the airport in Christchurch by 4:30am for a 5:30am flight to Auckland with my Dynastar buddy Prue Lange. We had a really bumpy landing due to a nasty storm and then a quick transfer across to the International Terminal to hook up with the other athletes travelling to Tokyo for the camp.
After an 11 1/2 hour flight to Tokyo with Air New Zealand we arrived in Tokyo early evening, thankfully all of our luggage showed up so after clearing Immigration and Customs ( Thanks to the Air NZ staff for escorting us ) we met up with our coach Simon Brown and his daughters Tegan and Rebecca in the arrivals hall.
Simon - " Guess what, change of plan the snow in Ontake isn't great we're heading North"...!
So after being awake since 3:30am in Christchurch and flying for 13 hours we headed off on a 9 Hour trek north to a small city called Moriaka in the Hachimantai National Park in the Northern Iwate Prefecture of Honshu on Japan's main island.
We arrived at 2:30am, you'd have to use they word shattered but I'm stoked to see snow :)
Awake 5 hours later at 8am we've just finished breakfast and are heading to the mountain to free ski this afternoon at Hachimantai Resort Shimokura then checking into our lodge near the mountain tonight.
Gate training will begin tomorrow, stay tuned for updates... :)
