new years adventures in the snow

Hey hey happy new year. Hope everyones all good. Jase and I headed over to Calgary (near the Canadian rocky mountains on the west side of Canada, Toronto is on the east) for a minibreak ski holiday.

My mum and sis did the mission over and met us in Calgary. My mum did a house-swap so some Canadian people are staying in her house in Chch for a month while shes in Calgary. Their house turned out to be mint, so we were definitely the lucky ones. It was great to see the whanau, I got marmite & roses choccies, Jase got an All Blacks beanie and toilet bag, ahh you just cant beat nz sometimes. We flew in and I thought I was landing in Russia, there was a hardcore snowstorm happening. All good though the next few days were amazing for skiing. We went to Banff, which is kind of like Queenstown, resorty little town in the middle of the mountains.

We crashed at Rueben and Kat's place for a couple of days, they are working on Lake Louise (an awesome skifield) flatting with a bunch of kiwis. They looked aftered us superbly, yummy thai dinner, cheap lift tickets, mountain tours, wining and dining, nz music, what more could you wish for. It was very very cool to see them. Also went to an ice hockey game, was pretty funny, wanted to experience the Canadian sports culture. The supporters get hyper (like at the baseball Matea) and in the last 90seconds the home team scored a point and everyone jumped up, my mum got so excited she threw her hat up in the air and lost it ha.

Back at work now and trying to sort out visa for another year over here. After that Im keen for a new adventure...lets hope there are many more kiwi reunions to look forward too in 07.