Em and Joe

White Christmas

2008-12-25T10:26:00.000-08:00

This is for our mummy's, daddy's, brother's and Kate.

Happy Chirstmas!!!!!

Thinking of you all over the holidays.

Hope you had an awesome day and ate your fair share of ham, turkey, puddings, mums apricot slice ummmm.

Hola from EM....

AND ..............cheers from joe....

Here are some pics of our day so far!!!!

Em in her new PJ's

We had over 2 feet of snow last night so we are trapped in....

Squaw is on hold at the moment so we just hanging at home might go night skiing if it opens!!!!

Em digging her way to the letter box... so much snow!!!

Looking across the street from our front door!!

AND THATS IT FOLKS OUR CHRISTMAS DAY LOTS OF SNOW AND MAYBE SOME RIDING IF THE MOUNTAIN OPENS UP!!

LOVE TO U ALL

EM AND JOE

2007-09-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

hi guys

sorry about the slackness.

so the last 3 months after tree planting we drove back to Montreal to stay with some friends and then moved across to New York where we had 3 unreal days of being a tourist we did all the sights in one day, did a spot of shopping. during the evenings went to a Broadway which was amazing we saw Tarzan and avenue Q (classic, they were puppets, they even had a sex scene)

After new York we headed to Sarnia southern Ontario to catch up with Jessie where we spent a week chilling at his lake side house, doing the summer thing.

from there we drove across US to yellow stone park for the most amazing week cruising around all the animals. before heading up to Calgary for the worlds largest show the Calgary stampede. were we catch up with Kat, Reubs and miss Haley, had an amazing time got illegally towed and we are still fighting the company that did it..... never mind.

After that we headed to Banff were we sta had a spot of r & r and a little bit of rock climbing behind lake Louise. That lasted a couple of days then we went to whistler to jam with cam and his 320 dogs had a great time with him chilled drunk you know the story, o and played friz golf. before heading back home.

Any ways pictures means a thousand words so i shall stop ranting

PS the only reason i got round to updating the blog is cos I'm stapled to my bed i have no excuses, there is a story behind that one. it started of being a nice sunny day at BR (ski hill) the snow was a bit slush so when i landed a jump one of my skis caught an edge and twisted in the opposite direction,

results -snapped my ACL ligament in my knee

- had a sled ride

- got a chopper ride over the craggy range to chch

well apart from being in intense pain my day was pretty good. Joe was gutted cos the chopper wasn't big enough for him to come. and a little stoked cos its usually him sitting in my position

any ways i created this blog 2 months ago and it never was posted so here goes>>>>>>

2007-06-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

HEY ALL
So this is us now professional tree planters!!!!!
Its been really hard, for one extreme to the next, we have had snow, rain for 8 days straight and a some high temps around the 30's.
Our day starts at 6 and finishes any time between 6-10.
The planting it self is OK , the company is ran like its in the 70's, and the BUGS well this is my biggest night mare come true. every day we rug up so not a bit of skin is showing but all ways come hope swollen and covered in bites. Joe had over 200 bites on his head alone the other day.
So the jobs pretty shit, but the foods good !!!!
any ways flick down there is some pics and a story or two

This is the get up!!! Joe looking like a crim.
And feeling like one

So this is the land not quite flat fields with actual soil...

So on the bus the other day our brakes failed cause a domino effect of the radiator blowing and a fire in the engine. not surprising as something ridiculous happens every day

And YES we ride in the magic school bus to work every day..............

WE ARE ROCKING THE EAST

2007-05-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

hey everyone sorry it has been so long technology is hard when you are on the road. have been doing lots of wireless thieving in the van outside random houses. anyway our road trip across canada was a stunner, well kinda boring but cool at the same time. travelled through alberta, really really flat, whats in the phots is what it is like the whole way. flat!!!

em just as we made it to saskatchewan.
abit more flat stuff with a pretty rainbow
this is where we camped out the first night on the manitoba boarder. not such a good spot in between the main trans canada highway and the main railway line.
this lake getting close to ontario where the landscape changes dramatically from flat to interesting. it was just thawing out and the wind was blowing the ice up onto the beach. pretty cool and only happens for a couple of days a year so lucky to have seen it. all you can here is this crackling sound.
we hit into ontario on the second afternoon.

lakes everywhere along the highway, pretty nice, roades are really windy and slow.

about an hour in to ontario round 5 we broke down, very long cool story but in a huge rush so here is the short version. broke down alternater shat itself. 3 real nice people later we are sleeping at this garage in the middle of nowhere. i had to drive his car down to get ours coz he was already drunk. stayed the night at his yard then he ordered the part the next day luckily they had 2 hours away. we had lunch with his wife and played with his kids. he gave me money to go get beer for everyone as he just drunk all day. (it was his weekend) had a shot of zambuka b4 lunch with him. the part came charged us hardly anything and sent us on our way. full on redneck but absolute legend.

gotta wash on the road........fucken cold though!!!!

this is on the forth evening in saint sant marie on the boarder to the usa. chill for a bit nice to get out of the van.

so we camped that night at a random lake, was super nice to wake too. then drove the last half day to pembroke which is basically where the worlds were being held. luckly got hold of Brendan and told us where to go and meet them. was super sweet watch some sick boating. well the best in the world i guess, had some huge nights on the piss especially with all the kiwi team, absolute classic guys, and got free accomodation and managed to even steal some food. good times. here are some pics from the comp.

the mighty bus eater wave....
josh i think
brendan.....
someone kick arse.....
funnels for all, yeah!!!!
so after the worlds finished we we went on a trip with brendan and josh and the kiwi team for a bit. this was our first night on the shores of lake ontario. beautiful, can u fell the serenty.....

sunset at the lake shore. the next day we drove down to niagra falls through toronto. crazy highways and traffic everywhere. go the convoy and the kiwi boys getaway van in front!!
niagra falls was pretty sweet. the guys walking past it.we decided not to paddled it today maybe another...
so much water!!!
after we finished checking out the falls we decided to cross the boarder in the usa. stupid idea, took forever but we left the getaway van and headed up the otherside of lake ontario to montreal for acouple of days. was cool went for a kayak on the sheen wave, nice wave i have ever been on. scary as driving round though as we had no map for a day and half but we made it ok. looked round old montreal. B and i got a tandom bike and cruised, was sweet....... until we got a flat tire trying to jump the gutter an hour and a half walk away from the bike shop. suck balls. still had a good time though.

faster, faster>>>>
looking back on the city.

old montreal had cobblestone roads, pretty bumpy in the van. after montreal we drove to ottawa for the afternoon had a wee look around and a couple of beers. droped josh off at the airport for his early morning flight.

outside parliment building. this fountain is sick. water is pouring out yet there are flames coming out the top. way cool!!

respecting the war veitrians!!!

the next day we dropped B off at the airport and felt a little lost as what to do. thought we have no money left so lets go tree planting!!!!!

tree planting stuff is below we stuffed it up. our bad.

oh yeah we coming home early to. lucky for all u people coz u get to see us sooner. em will be home in august to go to uni and i will be home in sept after spending some time in aus.

peace out

joe

THE END HAS COME

2007-04-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

hey everyone, well the end of the snowy season in lake louise has come. we had our last day at work on sunday have spent the last few days organizing all our shit. it has been dead on the hill pretty much rocking it with just the staff. super cool!! snow is still good nice and slushy by the afternoon. did my level 2 instructors last week and passed all sweet, so super happy bout that. so pretty much now we are in calgary and we are driving 3500kms east to ottawa to see josh and brendan at the worlds. we have bought this huge v8 beast of a van,(we fit right in with it over here)!! after theworlds, planning on getting a job on the river somewhere for the summer. so here are some photos of the last few days in the rockies.

me throughing down a back 3 over one of the booters. (yeah super stoked my latest tick)

em boosting it in the park on our last day skiing at the lake, a very sad day!!!

we had a our staff party on ems birthday (lucky) and we went bowling. but no ordinary bowling 5 pins and it is bingo style, crazy and very intense but way cool.

we also had to do random tasks while bowling, em bowling between our legs
hello kat....
some of the guys from work and our supervisor. drunk as a skunk,(she got kicked out of the pub later on, hahahaha!
em and her old room mate bec. after bowling we went out for em birthday to the pub with everyone. good times and sad goodbyes to everyone.
last night was our first night in the van. very excited (when the van is a rocking dont both knocking)
there is the beast!!
we spent a day kitting it out with a bed and stuff to make it our homefor the next few months. we have all our shit under there.

the front part. so we have a bed then a bench seat in the back then in the front part where we have lazyboys as seats pretty much. and all this goodness only cost $1500. wicked!!

anyway should head to bed a big drive tomoro.

will update when we get there.

joe

ROAD TRIPPING

2007-04-16T18:07:00.000-07:00

Well finally we get round to undate our last adventures, on the last week of march we headed on a road trip to big white, Apex and kicking horse. We managed to get a blue bird powder day at kicking horse, followed by pure ice at big white and then we had apex to our selves as it was deserted almost scary wes tern movie styles.... any ways enjoy the pics

Joe loving the pow pow at the horse

So we had the pleasure of meeting up with the lovely Hayley, no longer a member to the blonde crew she has turned to the dark side.

Me peaking on the tubes they went dam fast at first, Joe chris and my self got hooked together and span down the run way.

Dont be lazy turn ur head side ways
opps

The gondy up to the village

Big White Village, it was so sweet! we skied down to the pub and around the town....

The view from the top of apex's, where through out the day we might have seen 20 different people on the hill.

Jo Jo on the super pipe!!
So gutted that the lake doesn't have one theres to much fun to be had!!

The view headind into Kelowna, this is were we might come back to at the end of summer to do some fruit picking,. the area is beautiful with amazing lakes and mountain surrounding.

and thats a wrap until next time folks
love em

CARPARK BOMFIRE

2007-04-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

So the other week when we did tourch light we decide to have a bomfire somewhere. what better place than in a carpark in the middle of nowhere. so after stealing some wood from work we headed up to the carpark in our friends camper van. built this little fire right there on the snow. used some flairs courtesy of work again to light it, cranked some beats and started drinking some ice cold beverages while it snowed on us. was very cool.

george and his camper...

drinking round the fire

we got the flairs and wrote our names with them. mike had a flash camera and could adjust the shutter speed and capture them. pretty sweet!

we also built a little kicker over the fire which we had to tow chris into.

enjoying the beers!

on the way home we towed chris down the road behind the camper which was crazy he had sparks and shit!!!

Torch light dinners

2007-04-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

so this is what we do for a free feed!!!!!
every friday night we go to a dinner up the hill. once every one is feed and totally tanked we guide them down in hill for some night skiing...

we pretty much get paid 4 hours for about 1 hrs work so we have a lot of time to fill in.... Em and chris tapped together.
the dinner comes out all on fire and with random cowboy music being played and a guy cracking a whip.

So this is where we come in...............

Duck tape is essential.. George being special

The crew heading down the last pitch before base
ps its been puking pow and beautiful blue bird days

THIS IS OUR CANADIAN HOME!!

2007-03-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

These are some photos of where we have been staying for the season. We are just in the process of getting some more interesting photos of what we ahve been doing for the last month. But if ya check out Kat and Reubs blog of what we did on one of our days off. Drinking, eating and giving the big man a mullet. good time was had by all and reuben looks amazing.
my room, im in the top bunk!!

my tiny room, sharing with 4 other guys

the communily kitchen

the upstairs living area bit. pool tables, couches and tv.

updates on our last few outtings will be coming. joe

WELCOME TO OUR OFFICE FOR THE DAY

2007-03-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

ITS BEEN A WHILE

2007-03-06T16:35:00.000-08:00

Hey folks sorry for the delay, but we are slackers!!!
so like a month ago we went on a roady to Fernie which was really cool.
we spent two days skiing, the second was a little ripper as it snow all day we could ski a run and by the time we got back up our tracks were covered.
any way check out the photos cos that's were its at right....

Ferine Village

Our ski in ski out accommodation, we got hooked up as fernie is part of RCR (same as the lake)
so our tickets were free, we got staff discounts on food and acom...

Jibber Joe hitting up the natural features

we found this tree jump all set up with a ramp in the middle

of these thick tragic trees... but the boys had fun

Angela and Suzie ladies from work posing it up!!!!

The crew out for din dins we had tai it was fantastic we had a little reminisce

PS i hate this photo I'm way to drunk Joe is a meany and made me put it on

Dropping... skied the best trees ever. steep. spaced .LOVE IT

On our way home we encounted a big snow storm, snow flakes as big as old 20c piece don't know the size these days. ill have to come home one day. Joe and Chris got way to excited like kids in a candy store.......

we have more good times to share but need photos so will post them soon...

hope every one is well, drop us a note

would love to hear what everyone is up to in 2007

love em

Banff Trip

2007-02-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

hey guys, well we have sent a little bit of time in Banff this week. firstly we had a staff party/ scavenger hunt around the town. had to collect random things like, wax shavings buy toilet paper, put condoms on our ears, get a macca's empolyee. this is our team below.

it was a close hunt but we one because two of our members (em and paula) did a strip tease into there bikins in front of everyone, so we won coz no one else did it. yeah good stuff girls!! so we got a $50 liqour vouchor. big night to bee had with that, i think we going to drink it when we go to fernie next week.

em and i at the bar, i had to colour my hair blue for the hunt.

on our days off last week we went in to baff again and did the tourist thing. when we started hee we got this locals card thing that meant we could try out all these attractions for free. so we got a hotel and then were tourists for two days.

this is banffs main street

we went up this gondola which seemed and looked really dodgy, so em was freaking out but at the top were some amazing views.

this is em at the top and NZ is 12,000 kms behind her.

it was bloody freezing up there even though the sun was out and not a cloud in the sky. this is at the very top looking out over the rockies.

this is the endless view of the the canadian rockies

after the gondola we went to some hot pools then went out for the best mexian ever at a place called the magpie and stump. it rocks, you get nuts at the bar and then just throw the shell on the floor. good times. we were so stoked to have a big queen bed we rushed back to the hotel with baileys and ice-cream in hand to watch tv and relax away from the hostel life. and it was good!!! next day visited a musem and then headed back to the lake.
hope everyone is well and enjoying what they are up to. u can leave little comments if ya want just click on the comment button under this section. we off to fernie soon so will update once we back

later joe

This weeks shananagns

2007-01-27T16:39:00.000-08:00

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY IN PARADISE!!

This week has been an interesting one!!!!! Joe got work tipped even.. he is super stoked with him self, we went and checked out our budding ski resort Sunshine village, it was pretty disappointing as it skied like wind blown and icy mt hutt... but it had the most spectacular views as you will see, never the less had a grand old time.

view from top of goats eye at sunshine
STUNNING

Also this week we head out in the back country for the first time with Kat, Reubs and a few dudes from work, managed to find our selves on a dodgy slope with some of that crazy Canadian snow pack, the snow was like sugar running down the hill. very freaky!!!

This is Sambo a guy from Gisborne hussing it up on snow shoes. down the bottom it was like thigh deep snow. such hard work.

Me absolutely buggered A) for being an unfit punter B) crook as a dog(self induced)

Ruebs and kat taken by Joe (his new phase is photos through his goggles you will be seeing more of this.....)

Weekend out in Calgary with my two rooms (on the right) we had just watched the hockey. GO the Calgary flames!!! we had a cool few days off there at our friends appartment. had a shop around, bought some bindings to replace my 4 year old now retired ones. then we went out on the piss. was cool to go to a dencent pub for once and not the same old in the lake. went to a club even called cowboys. was real classic they had line dancing and shit. cowboys flinging girls round there arms and shit, they are actually really good at dancing aye...

Joe and Alex the Calgarian

CALGARY reminded me of chch when it was sunny but 4 times as big..... view from our friends appartment.

laters love em and joe

SUNNY DAYS AND MINUS 26 DEGREES

2007-01-15T21:03:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone well it has been freezing here for the last week or so, when we leave to walk to the bus in the mornings it is usually around -26 degrees. and doesnt get much warmer during the day prob about -20 or so. but it has been sunny which is good. basically when it is this cold u carnt have any skin showing or u get frostbite like after one run. sooooo cold!!!!!

(sam our instructor buddy from gisbourne waiting of the chair to open)

well the busy period has finished about a week ago so havent really had any work which has been pretty average. so everyone has just been free skiing and riding all day, which is sick but the $20 a day we get isn't so cool. oh well!!

(Backside fo the resort, some wicked lines and cliff drops through here)

we have had some epic powder days in the new year it snowed for like 3 days straight which rocked. got about 20 cm of fresh everyday. made for some narly lines to be had , cliff drops and huge tree runs. but now there is no more pow but they have built the rest of the park which is huge so have sessioning that the last couple of days.

(sun rise over the T bar Learners slope)

we went to golden and kicking horse on our other weekend off and saw one of ems good mates hayley. was awesome she hooked us up hard core, free tickets satyed at her place, had a night on the piss on the mountain. the mountain is amazing it has basically 3 backcountry bowls that u can access inbounds from the lifts and are all double black diamond. similar terrain to craigeburn. em got real pissed, was quite funny (she blames it on the altitude). hayley lost her job the day we were there which she has been trying to do for ages so that was funny hearing all the ways she has been trying to get fired..

(Em haven a wee nap on the walk home)

we are heading in to calagary this weekend to check out the big smoke with one of ems roomates. should be good to get on the raz and buy some cheap gear.

(hayley trying to dress em at the pub)

carnt be fucked trying to make this look all pretty has been pissing me off for like an hour!!!
will update once we get back
Joe

Fun Fun

2006-12-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

well its been an interesting past week, Joe caught the lake Louise disease, he had chronic shits and vomiting, trust me it didn't look fun as he climbed down from his bunk every 5 Mins.
he was severely disappointed in missing the festive season

so finally we got to have some fun with Joe's health fully restored we are able to get out and about. Joe had a really low key x-mas in bed, and i managed to sneak away to a night of lots of eating and drinking, it was really nice cos every one was in the same boat away from home.

Today we headed up to lake Louise it self, we went up through the trails on snow shoes, but for next time we're going to get some cross county skis to skid along on.

The trail was absolutely beautiful but it had fully tracked. i was a little disappointed i wanted to plow through the deep snow like a yetty.

any way hoping every one had a great x-mas and new years
em

here some pics.........

here is where we live in the hostel

looking down at the main lodge at work on a early morning training session

loooking over the carpark at work

in the village, they call it a mall!!

looking out over lake louise with some glaciers in the background

snowshoeing up to the lake

ENJOY.......

I HAVE A JOB AND A HOME!!

2006-12-22T17:02:00.000-08:00

Hello people.......

Well it has been a great week here at the Lake. I passed my instrutor course so now have a job with the ski school, yah!! so i start tomorrow which is going to be very cool coz i slowly running out of money. Since got my job for sure now it meant i could move into the hostel where all the ski school people live. its abit tight (4 to a room, bunk bed styles) but its all good, its only $6.50 a night so carnt complain too much plus there is a real good vibe here. had our resort xmas dinner on tuesday, a nice big turkey feed. and then last night we had our snow school party in Banff. it was cool more free food and lots of drinking.

This photo is at the resort on the deck looking back acroos the valley.
In the background is mt Temple which is 3400 metres high.
Pretty cool!!

This photo is from the same spot but looking up at the frontside of the ski field.
The little slope next to the gondola is the kids ski area.
This is where we spend alot of our time, as well as the T-bar.
From the top you drop over into a huge valley with heaps of wicked stuff to ride and ski.

Em ripping it on her new skis!!

We had a day off today and so went out for the afternoon exploring through some trees. There is still abit of pow pow to be found but we really need some new snow.

Christmas is rapidly approaching here and i have had enough of it already as all we hear at the reosrt is xmas charols cranking over the loud speakers. Aaaaah. but 3days to go.... em and i are working christmas day but should be a few good days of eating and partying.

SO I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A GREAT
AND SAFE CHRISTMAS.

Think of us shredding pow for the day!!!

Take care....... Joe

Save Canada

2006-12-13T18:17:00.000-08:00

Howdy party people!!

So we arrived safe and sound with our rediculous amount of luggage....(120kgs)
We arrived in Calgary and got a shuttle straight out to lake louise in the dark , next morning looked out the window to the canadian rockies , mountains and snow surrounding...unreal

We have been chiiling at Reub's and Kat's house for he past week, which has been great to have somewhere for free.....we have been up riding and skiing for about 5 days. awesome place, is massive. mellow stuff on the front side and steep as slopes on the back side. has just been snowing for 2 days. had a wicked morning up the hill about 15cm of fresh pow pow!!! yeah!! it is so so dry, crazy as just floats in the air like in the movies!!! ha....

Im all set up at work at the moment just doing orentation at the mo. joe was looking for a job and came into work and manage to scratch up a job he has to do a 3 day course to instruct so its all worked out well. currently on the house hunt its really hard to find a spot the place is way over populated. got a place on the down low fingers crossed other wise its living in a hostal with 4 to a room woo hoo.

toot a loo