Cardrona Bike Park

#followcamfriday from Cardrona Bike Park. New Zealand is sweet as. Hide your sheep, we out here. 

So. I have been in NZ for a couple of weeks now. James and I traveled here to race the TransNZ enduro. This 6 day event had a day planned at Cardrona, but the weather had other ideas. Heaps of rain and snow led to the cancelation of the race day in the alpine. ( heaps) is Kiwi slang for "lots". Still with me?? It only made sense that we got back up there after the race finished to get some sunshine and redemption for our rain day.  We were treated to a perfect day in the park. 

We were fortunate to get a tour from local legend, Pete Miller. Pete builds trail, wears purple shirts and is pinned. Got to love the Kiwi shredders. No gloves, no attitude, just pure love for riding bikes and getting people stoked on the trails. Take note cocky Americans, the Kiwi's are doing it right. My general rule of thumb is if someone needs to tell you how rad they are, the opposite is often true. So many locals that wear cotton shirts, no knee pads, and absolutely shred. And, won't talk about themselves. So refreshing.

Enter Brady Stone. Brady is a 19yr old Nelson local, running a similar program. A quiet, respectful, young shredder that will smash turns harder than anyone. Hide your berms. Cutties all day. Gloves? Yeah nah. Sweet as. Brady is intending to race a bunch of EWS rounds this year. Look out world. 

I hid James in my bike bag. He fits nicely in the overhead compartment. This was his first trip to NZ and definitely will not be his last. There are more trails to be ridden and more jumps to be sent. The seesaw feature pictured above is absolutely disastrous if you are trying to follow your bro. Wood to the head tube is never a good way to go. I was smart enough to go around, avoiding certain death. Just barely.  

I will be teaching you one Kiwi word in each of my upcoming NZ episodes. Today's word is "Chur" . It means, hello, good bye, good day, how are ya, yes, among other things. I would like to give a big CHUR to the Cardrona Bike Park for hosting us for the day. Definitely check it out if you are in the area. And definitely do the classic Peak to Pub run to finish the day if you can sort out the admin. 1300 meters to the pub. That is like 1 million feet for you Americans. Well worth ditching a car or having a driver for at the end of the day. Surely someone will be tired, or have broken their bike and volunteer to drive. Best part is you can all have a beer at the pub together. CHUR

Stay tuned for more shenanigans from the land of sheep and gloveless riders over the coming weeks. Maybe ditch your knee guards and pick yourself up some jandals. It should be noted that James did his first race in 10 years and handily won the 40 plus category. Chur James. Still got it. Never didn't have it. In the spirit of the Kiwi attitude, I am not going to tell you how my race went, but just say that is was sweet as. Chur.