World Heli Challenge 2011
I absolutely love having the chance to be a part of this event each year....The World Heli Challenge is unlike any other competion. This year shaped up to be a great one,with two storms hitting the south island in the lead up to the event we were so excited to get up in to the mountains. As soon as the storms cleared we ran the first day of the comp, the Freestyle day. We were flown up to a new venue that had not been used in this competition before. We flew around the corner and were all so excited to see a huge snow baked face full of natural features, rollers, cliffs, spines, it was a snowboarding and skiing playground. The day went great, everyone threw down. I had a really fun 2 runs, neither quite going to plan but overall I was happy and really enjoyed it. As always the heli rides up and back were insanely fun as the pilots showed off their expertise.....
The Freestyle day venue
As the weather was predicted to be clear the next day the Extreme day was to be run. The start of the competition that day was to be a little different....We were driven by bus from Lake Hawea to another massive lake where we were met by an enormous barge. We were all loaded on to the barge and were driven out across the lake, if that wasnt impressive enough we were then picked up by helicopters off of the barge and flown up in to the mountains....absolutely mindblowing concept, what an incredible experience. As Will Brommelsick said, well he can tick that off his bucket list, and he didnt even know it was on there, well said. It was an absolutely bluebird day, but it looked as though weather might come in later so we were anxious to get up there and hopefully get our 2 runs in. I was so excited as we were flying back up to Mount Albert. We rode Mount Albert 2 years ago in this competition and it was one of the best snowboarding days of my life, this venue is huge and breathtakingly beautiful. There wasnt quite as much snow as last time I was up there so many of the lines looked very different. I had my eyes set on a line I wanted to ride last time. The only negative was that with my bib draw, it made me one of the last to go for the day, and saw me sitting watching a good portion of the field enter the chute where I wanted to go....augh!!! looking back I probably should have chosen another line that wouldnt have been so tracked out but I so wanted to go in there and I did....It was scraped out and pretty chopped up so my dream run of big fast powder turns was replaced with a conservative stay on your feet line...I still enoyed it and was happy that I got to ride the line in the end. !! We were all flown up to try and get a 2cnd run in, only 2/3rds of the field got through then unfortunately Ted Davenport one of the best skiers in the world had a bad fall and was injured. The weather was also closing in as Ted was flown out of there so the decision was made to stop the event so a few of us did not get a second run. That meant our first run would be the only run scored for the event. Although we were all worried about Ted, the enegy and excitement was high as we got flown down to the barge to sail back across the lake and commence celebrations. Its always a massive high at the end of these events, a few drinks always go down well. Luckily Corona was on hand to soak it all in sailing across a beautiful lake surrounded by huge peaks on a barge with helicopters hovering around us, it was a scene I will never forget!
Mount Albert
Waiting for my heli on the barge!
This was taken on my run on extreme day. Photo Tony Harrington
Being in NZ for this event isnt all about the skiing and snowbaording, the camraderie between the athletes is one of my favourite parts of the event as well as the helicopters, epic snow, and huge mountains...the list goes on. When we are not competing there so many activities that we are a part of. This year one of the days was to go over to the west coast and go surfing with Occy.....When we got to the beach I saw the size of the waves and felt how cold the water was and decided that on this occasion I was going to be a spectator...what a sissy!! Some of the girls tried to battle out in the waves and they got hammered but at least they tried! It was great getting to watch Occy surf, drink some delicious Strom Coctails by a fire, wander up and down the beach,eat some cheesy damper, climb some rocks and soak it all in...To top it all off we went to Jackson Bay a beautiful and remote fishing village and enjoyed the most delicious fish burger ever at the Cray Pot....SO TASTY!! Awesome day to say the least.
I couldnt resist busting out my signiture move on Occy...the Koala Hug
Another must to do in NZ is sky diving. This was my second time doing it and I was excited to be going with 4 other girls from the competition, Shannan, Callan, Holly, and Torie..I was hoping that maybe I wouldnt be quite as scared as last time and maybe even enjoy it! I had a female skydive partner this time which was good for the Yeah Chick vibe we had going on! As we jumped out we did a backflip, it was a crazy feeling I cant really put in to words what my stomach did, a backlip for sure. I was a little more calm this time and was able to enjoy the 1 minute freefall, it was incredible.....2cnd time around was definately better!!! All of the staff at NZONE skydiving in Queenstown were so awesome we were so happy with our day they couldnt have been more friendly and helpful I would reccomend them to everyone!
And what to do after jumping out of a perfectly good plane at 15,000 feet????? Dress up in formal attire and go to the Gala Awards ceremony of course!! The awards night this year was held in Wanaka, it was a black tie evening, we were greeted with red carpet entry, delicious Strom coctails, a gallery of Harros spectacular photos, and a beautifully presented room. we ate, we drank, we watched the entries from the World Heli Challenge Shootout, and Trinity Ludlows breathtaking edit from the Heli Challenge. They were all so incredible to watch on the big screen, it gave me shivers to think that I was lucky enough to be a part of that. Go to this link from the World Heli Challenge website and watch the clips, they are so great to watch. http://worldhelichallenge.com/tv/191
The awards ceremony was a fantastic night and the placegetters were announced. The party continued into the wee hours and topped off an already incredible time in NZ.
We scrubbed up ok for the Gala Awards night!!
That was the World Heli Challenge 2011, My actual competition result wasn't great, I came in 6th overall... didnt quite manage to pull it together on the comp days, but that is quickly overshadowed by so many fun memories, lots of great times with new and old friends, awesome powder riding, sweet helicopter rides, jumping out of a plane, koala hugging occy, endless spectacular views, awesome Kiwi hospitality, countless laughs....Im going through NZ withdrawls for sure...can't wait until next years event!
Thank you to Harro and his hard working crew that help make this awesome event happen.
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