Springfield 
print Magnus Hörberg, Mon 7. Mar 11 21:25

RIMG0003.jpgSpringfield! And not just any Springfieldbut NZ’s own Springfield. No yellow Bart Simpson, but a hell of a lot of Hillbilly rednecks. Oooops, sorry all you Springfielders. But it is a bit of a redneck town! Not saying that is a bad thing. JusG0014.jpg]own and it’s a great little spot in the middle of the spine of NZ’s south island. Close to the clubfields and all the riding you can ever want. NZ’s club fields are a very Kiwi thing. Small non-commercial skifields that has at the most about 100 visitors on a big day. But of course the general maintenance is not the best, but there is so much love and character to go around many times over. Though they have an “invention (from the stone-age!!)” that I am not to impressed with. RIMG0044.jpgNutcrackers! This little mechanical device that you squeeze around a rope running up the hill in 100km/h… (haha, just joking. It must be over 500km/h!!) So your standing there on your snowboard rushing up the hill in 100km/h and holding on to your Nut(s)cracker for all your worth (going nuts) and hope and pray to the God’s you believe in, that you don’t ram your legs into any of the pully’s the rope is running on. Believe me when I tell you, It is not a very pleasant feeling to hit your leg into a metal bar flying up the hill…!  Never been so bruised in my life as I am now after two weeks in the NZ Mountain’s. But don’t get me wrong, I love it here! The terrain we get access to is amazing, if only there could be some more snow! But it’ll come!

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I’ve got another two weeks of Snow2 module and avalanche training and then another 2-3 weeks up at Porter Heights to do some Industry Practice and get more familiar with what goes on up a ski field. Good fun and great to get as much time in the snow as I can this winter.
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RIMG0014.jpgTo night is Pernilla’s birthday party and there will surely be a few drinks and a bunch of people around. Good fun and well needed break from course and snowboarding.


The last 10 days I have had a busy timeworking with the FB page to get the public support to save our Adventure Tourism Programme as well. NMIT, (Nelson Polytechnic, the institute I study at) is trying to close down our beloved course and we started a Facebook group page to support the cause. It has been my little baby to run the page and I am passionate about the course and our cause so it has taken much energy together with snowboarding all day and a bit of studying on top of that. But the public support has been overwhelming and I am very proud of the energy people has put into it. Yesterday we handed in our submission to get them to change their minds and now we have to wait for a certain Tony Gray to make his decision. IF he decides to axe the course anyways, against everyone’s will, there will be big public protests and demonstrations. I hope it doesn’t have to come to that. But we will be heard!

Now its time to get some sun and sort out the costume for tonight’s party… Come dressed up in something you normally don’t wear it says. Hmmm, well I guess I have to dig deep into my pack and see what I can find.

 

Peace and Love and Poilitics