When Dad and Mazy first took us to Whistler when I was 12, Dad wanted us to sit down every night and write in our journals about the day that we had had. At the time, I really hated it. We were having so much fun on the mountains and roaming around in the village in the evening, that I didn’t want to stop and do something that felt a lot like homework. At some point, maybe Dad got wrapped up in the trip too because the journal-writing started to lax. I kept mine up for the longest, but even then I think I only had four days chronicled? I think Luke used his to draw pictures mostly.

Looking back on it now, I really regret it. I know I was only 12, but now my first real memories of Whistler are when I went back again when I was 16. And then, to my knowledge, I became obsessed with living there. But it would’ve been so cool to have the retrospect of what 12 year old me thought of it.

That’s what keeps popping up in my head when I’m reluctant to blog. I kept a blog while I was on exchange in Denmark, but it was only five months and there was something always happening – it was more like an extended trip than a living situation. I tried to keep a blog when I first got to Whistler, but what was supposed to be six month stint morphed into four years and well, life happens. It’s not always fun to blog about daily happenings, so I fell out of it there too. Somehow it’s always Whistler that I forget to write about when it’s happening.

Two weeks ago I visited Skyline Bike Park and it was literally my best day ever on my bike. We went on a Sunday and got back late, so my plan was to write about it on the Monday. But I’ve never been so exhausted in my life than I was on the Monday. So writing got pushed back. Then, last weekend was another whirlwind. Then, it was my birthday. And now we’re here. So, yeah I missed a bit of time. But, I’m determined to keep this up, so let’s start from the top.

Two Saturdays ago, some of the Mons coworkers were planning on going to Skyline the following day. I’ve never ridden any bike park other than Whistler, so I was pretty stoked to see what was on offer here in NZ. Thanks to some birthday money from Mom and Billy, I was even able to buy a new downhill helmet and goggles! (I had to leave mine back in Whistler because they wouldn’t fit in my bag).

The next day, Sunday, we got an early start and headed off. It was me, Mitchy and Sam. We were also going to meet up with some members of the Dirt Town Queens, which is all-chicks riding group in Queenstown. We got some coffee and then were on our way.

We met up with Charlotte, one of the girls, and she stuck with us the whole day. Honestly, I could not have been more thankful for her. I was by far the slowest in the group and she hung back and let me follow her into different features so I could get the hang of them. It’s always easier to tackle something scary when you’re following someone else’s line into it. Which is great, because Skyline went waaaay beyond my expectations. It was really steep and a lot of the stuff we were doing teetered on my edge of capability. But it felt so good to get down every lap and it was such a high. Plus gondi laps – no climbing and I’m a happy camper.

We stopped for lunch and then switched over to our pedalling gear. We were going to ride up the gondi to the top of the park and then pedal into the mountains behind it. Charlotte’s boyfriend Callum was joining as well to shoot some photos.

Before I go on, get a load of this view from the top of the Skyline gondola…

So we headed up pedalling into the mountains. I’m quickly finding out that all the riders here are powerhouses. I was down off my bike and walking about halfway up. Everyone else took their turns walking too, but I was totally hitting a wall. Usually, the whole morning’s worth of riding that we did in the park is the most riding that I’ll do in an entire day. Same with the pedalling in the afternoon. So it was a lot for me. But it’s something to strive for; to be fit enough to have big days like that more often and recover more quickly.

Again, it might be tough, but the views make it worthwhile…

We got to the top, had a water break and then started the down. Which was long and had varied terrain and was so. much. fun. Beeched As was the trail name; it winds down the side of the mountain and crosses over creeks. It was full of rooty sections, tiny rockrolls and all kinds of fun features. It was so great.

At the end of the day, I was beat – both muscle and bruise-wise. But man, what an amazing day.

Life at work is going pretty great too. I’m getting to write a lot more of our content which is so cool. In fact, I wrote my first editorial for Mons, if you want to read it, link is below. Just make sure that your country is set to Australia or NZ. > https://brand.monsroyale.com/nz/how-merino-wool-works-on-a-bike/

The following weekend, Alice’s friend Hami had invited us to join him and few others in Queenstown for a comedy show. We got into town pretty early so that we could have dinner and then bar hop for a bit before the show.

Going out in Queenstown reminds me the most of Whistler. There’s so many people from all over the world and a million different bars. My personal favourite was one that felt like a greenhouse on the inside – it had white shuttered walls and hanging plants everywhere. Then outside, they had painted the patio ground all these pretty pastel colours. It was so neat.

After that, we headed to the comedy show. It was being held in the casino in a room just off the main floor. One comic was from Australia and the other was from NZ and most of their material consisted of making fun of Aussies. Which, having spent four years in Aussie-overrun Whistler, I can get on board with. It was super funny.

After the show, we headed into the casino where I turned $5 into $50! Woot! That doesn’t beat Hami though, who won $430 on $90 playing roulette.

On the way to Queenstown, I had mentioned to Alice and Hami that I had never tried lamb before. So as a birthday eve treat on Sunday, they made me a roast lamb dinner. Holy shit. I’ve been missing out. It was killer.

And then that brings us to this week! Monday was my birthday and this is something that I’ve been incredibly nervous for. I was worried that I wouldn’t have any friends to celebrate with. Which is dumb, I know. But still, it’s sad having no one on your birthday.

But I got into work and my coworkers had all coordinated and dressed in Canadian Tuxedos and plaid shirts. They also brought in maple donuts for me and one of the guys put together a playlist that consisted of Celine Dion, Justin Bieber and Nickelback. It was hilarious and I was really touched.

Later that night, Alice invited a bunch of people over to the house and we had a BBQ. Millie and Hami both made me cakes (so now I’m obese) and a couple of the girls brought some wine and chocolates too. I really couldn’t be more thankful for everyone I’ve met so far. A lot of these people have only known me for six weeks and for them to come and spend my birthday with me meant so much.

And that about wraps up the last two weeks. It’s Saturday again today and I’m trying to avoid Black Friday online shopping by going to the gym and running errands. It’s kind of working. JK, I’ve already bought stuff – but they’re mostly Christmas gifts, so that’s allowed right?

PS. It snowed again here this week. So crazy. But it does make for beautiful mountains.

• JB

Holyyyy, it’s been two weeks since I wrote last. Sorry about that. Last weekend I was feeling super unmotivated to write, so I kind of let it slide. Apologies.

I realized this past Friday was my one-month anniversary of landing in Wanaka, which is crazy. Time flies when you constantly ask yourself, “what the hell am I doing here again?”

In truth, it’s been a pretty good month. I’m definitely feeling more settled at work and I’m beginning to meet more people. It’s starting to feel a little more like home here.

So let’s roll back to last weekend. Once again, I had zero plans, which was a great thing. Both Saturday and Sunday were perfect riding weather, so I went out for some solo laps on Saturday evening and then got up early on Sunday to join Phoebe and her friend Sophie for a few. Sophie is much more on my level of riding than Phoebe is, which is nice because sometimes I feel like I slow Phoebe down.

The girls were talking about an enduro race that’s happening in December in Dunedin and how they both want to go. I’ve never done an enduro race before, but I do have enough self-awareness to know that my climbing skills leave something to be desired. But Sophie assured me that if she can race five stages, then so can I. At the moment, I’m considering it. I think I’m going to go with Phoebe to Dunedin on Nov. 18th for a “fun-duro” which covers a lot of the same ground as the December race, so that will be my first trial.

On Monday, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my first Mons allowance had arrived. Each new season, Mons employees get an allowance to spend on clothing and my shipment came in! So now I actually look like I work for the company.

Summer seems a long way off here lately. It keeps snowing in the mountains and it’s freezing in the valleys, so my new merino-wear could not have come soon enough.

Speaking of Mons, for the first time last week I started to get a little frustrated at work. I’ve been feeling like I’m on training wheels a bit and I think, in an effort to not overwhelm me, I haven’t been given that many responsibilities right off the bat. So on Wednesday, I was a little bored and feeling unhelpful to the rest of the team. Weirdly, I didn’t want to call attention to this, so I didn’t know how to ask for more tasks.

I finally got over myself long enough to ask my coworker Ed if he needs any help writing content and he tasked me with writing some blog content. Which is awesome. It feels so good to get creative at work and use a humorous tone; it was something that I always disliked at Tourism Whistler – the lack of creative freedom. I also got some Photoshop duties put on my plate as well, so I’m pretty stoked on that.

This weekend has been pretty fun. On Friday, the weather was hell so Alice and I decided to go to a movie. The theatre here is SO cool. It’s set up like a regular movie theatre with tiered seating, except the seats are couches. There’s also old school cars set up that you can sit in.

They also do an intermission halfway through the movie where you get to go out and have FRESH BAKED COOKIES.

The next morning, Alice and I met up with some of her friends at a cafe and had brunch. Brunch is a little different here, it consists of mostly just having coffee and a baked good. I’m more one for a huge brunch with every breakfast food imaginable, but this will do.

I then headed to the gym to burn off the past 12 hour cookie/croissant eating extravaganza. I’ve really, really been trying to be good about going to the gym, but I’ve been in a bit of a motivation funk lately. It’s like my body was ready to hunker down for the winter in Canada and embrace hibernation eating and now I’m like, nope the quest for a summer bod is eternal. Plus when I go, I look like this,

Anyway, it’s a good thing I did because Saturday night was a big one. Millie, one of my other housemates, has been deadset all week on going out. So, that’s what we did. After some sangria pre-drinks at our house, we headed out to Cork for a craft beer tap takeover. We were all going round-for-round and somewhere along the way, things escalated and we ended up at Water Bar, which is kind of a club. Unfortunately (or fortunately? Up for debate), Millie literally would not allow my glass to be empty and I feel like every time I turned around a new beer was in my hand. It was a super fun night, but needless to say, today has been painful. So painful, in fact, that Alice ordered these at 11am this morning…

I really, really love how lawless everyone becomes when hangovers strike. Dominoes for breakfast? Why the hell not. It 100% helped though and now I’m up and moving again, getting ready for the coming week. If someone can explain to me the science behind greasy food curing hangovers, I’m all ears.

This week is gearing up to be a fun one – I’ve started riding in Phoebe’s girls group on Thursday nights and I already love all the girls in that group! I met another Canadian chick who might come with Phoebe and I to the fun-duro, so I’m pretty stoked on that.

I’m also riding in a women’s clinic on Tuesday nights starting this week with the Mons girls! I think it’s more a skills clinic than a trail-riding session, but it’s pretty rare that I actually take the time to try to work meticulously on skills, so I think it’ll be super helpful to be in a coaching setting.

Alright, well that’s all for now, I have to go and do some adulting.

• JB