white july

It's been a long time since I woke up to the sight of an all-white landscape with fluffy snowflakes falling from the sky. I'd forgotten the peculiar light of a bright day when you can't see the sun, the light diffused through clouds and snow. It's been several years since I've had the opportunity to wake up and make a snowman with people who suddenly have a day free of obligation.

Years of Mississippi living meant I hadn't lived through a real winter for quite some time before coming to New Zealand. Even before that, real snowfalls in Missouri were few and far between (more often I woke up to a blanket of ice after a night's freezing rain fall).

We've been staying in a house full of travelers here in Queenstown (I don't think there is such as a thing as a Queenstown local). Our connection is through an Irish friend, one of the five regular inhabitants of the house. None of the five ended up working on Friday, the day of the snowfall. Even the snowboard instructor was told not to worry about going to work (the ski field was open, but transportation was a bit dodgy). So instead, everyone put together the street's tallest snowman.

The snow also provided the added benefit of great skiing on Saturday. I'd gone up on Tuesday to Treble Cone, an area an hour and a half outside of Queenstown, with a group of Irish friends. It was my first day of skiing since last September, and the conditions were somewhat similar. Just like my day of skiing in the North Island last year, clouds dominated. Unlike my North Island day, we weren't actually skiing in clouds. This time, the air was clear and we had great views of the valley below. The clouds filled the sky above, however, leading to a flat light making it hard to see the contours of the snow.
Saturday at Coronet Peak there was none of that. The sky was clear, the sun shone, the snow was fresh and soft. The downside, of course, was the giant crowd waiting at the bottom of every lift. But the conditions made up for the waits.