We've Arrived In Japan!!!

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... :)

Japanese Camp

So amped to be heading to Japan in mid April for a two week training camp with my Dynastar buddy Prue Lange.

It's going to be a great experience and my first trip away on my own :)

Bigtruck Hats Truckee CA

What a great day off!
We went across to Truckee for some shopping and a late lunch, we ate at a really cool retro diner called Jax on the Trax and then looked around the shops in Downtown Historic Truckee, Mum and Dad bought me a pretty snowflake necklace ( which I love ) for doing well in my races over the weekend at Sugar Bowl which was really cool!
We then decided to try and find the Bigtruck Hat Factory and after some clever use of free Wifi here and there, Google Maps and some sleuthing about we managed to located it.
We entered the warehouse factory to be greeted by both Galen and Kelsen the two really cool guys that created the now very famous Bigtruck Hat Company a few years back and a brand now worn by many well respected athletes including my inspirational idol and Truckee local Julia Mancuso!
So what was really just supposed to be a quick drive by of the Bigtruck base in Truckee turned out to be so much more...
The guys were stoked that we had travelled all the way from Queenstown, New Zealand and had made the effort to call by their warehouse and say hi that they gave us a full tour of their operation showing us each stage of the design phase and how they make their wicked hats, after which Galen says "So Andie how about you design your very own one off Custom Bigtruck Hat" - I'm like speechless and grinning from ear to ear!!!
Then Kelsen rummages about in a drawer and produces a really cool Goggle Patch and says "Andie, you can be the very first person to use the new and yet to be released 2014 Bigtruck Goggle Patch".
I'm like wow, that's way cool, thanks guys!
So I spend the next 45 minutes with the guys in the factory choosing my hat, thread colour, custom flags and then I watch as Kelsen hand stitches it together right there in front of me, my very own one off, custom designed AndieG Bigtruck Hat, I'm so stoked, thanks guys :)
So then we are about to leave and Galen goes, so Andie I think you should have this pair of really cool KOSS Headphones just like Jules wears and oh, here's a Julia Mancuso Olympic Hoodie too...
I'm now totally blown away, a Custom Bigtruck Hat, Koss Headphones and a Julia Hoodie - Simply the best day off I could have hoped for!

Thanks guys, thanks Bigtruck!