Heading back North on the East side this time back up to Picton to catch our ferry back to the North Island. Stopped in a very small village called Glentunnel to spend a day snowboarding at Mt. Hutt one of the bigger resorts in the South Island. The village only had one shop, which was also a gas station, except it only had one pump, with only unleaded gasoline (no diesel or leaded). We watched someone trying to fill up a car with it, it took five minutes to put two or three dollars worth of petrol in, it would have been quicker sucking it up in a straw!
Back to Mt. Hutt, another hair-raising access road, not as outright scary as Treble Cone but 17km of it so around twice the length. Like all access roads here, it is just a dirt road, hanging right on the side of the mountain with a massive drop down, and no barriers or markings or anything distinguishing the edge of the road, except for a giant drop. You can see the road on one of the photos. For part of the road you are on the top of the ridge line exposed to the wind and a drop on either side of the road. They close the road for strong winds, the 70-80km/h gusts we had were almost strong enough to close it, which would have meant a night up the mounain. Fortunately the road was clear of snow although apparently the locals say the road is much smoother after snow!!!MAD. Gale force winds on top of the mountain but the pistes were great with lots of dry powder, uncrowded friendly slopes and some great jumps scattered about.
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