A while back Jase and I made a snap decision to drive up to Auckland to see Rise Against.  Equally a snap decision, we decided that we might as well go snowboarding on the way.  I’ve only snowboarded once before but Jase is a season pass holder and was proper keen for his first run this year.

My dad lent us the jeep mostly because I think he was keen to see it actually do some off roading rather than living to cart giant dog down to the river and back.  Said giant dog is currently snoring so loud next to me he’s drowning out my music.  Dad was excited for us.  He filled up the jeep with gas and, very sweetly, packed the centre console with energy drinks and sea salt crisps.  We were stoked. We were also disorganised as hell.  I think we finally sorted our shit out at about 10pm and started the 4 hour trip to Ohakune.  For reasons unknown, Jase decided to take one of the more random routes out of the city and we were pretty merry for about an hour.  I had spent the day organising my ipod into playlists and was treating him to my hideously out of tune IKnowAllTheWordsToEverything skills.  Then we got to the top of the hill and the road was closed and we had to drive all the way back to Upper Hutt.

So at about 11pm we hit the road again.

Obviously we got to Ohakune pretty late.  The main pub was still open and serving food though so we were all good.  I had a sudden flash back to the last time I was in that pub with Zara.  Something was wrong with their sounds and they one singles Benny Benassi CD that they played on repeat for 4 hours.  We were pretty drunk and I think I cheerfully lost my sanity listening to it over and over again.  Try it.  TRY IT.

The next morning was some sort of horrible early start, probably not as early as I thought it was but anything before 11am is usually too hard.  We drove through tiny little towns I’d not seen before.  They were weird.  “Hey.  Was that rock wearing a hat?”  It was. I took a photo with it on the way back.

We stopped off in Hamilton for lunch and for me to buy a hair dryer.  By about this point Jase had learnt that when I say right, I mean left, I know where I’m going, why don’t you understand me, the iPhone is always right, trust me.  I reckon I did alright!  I also reckon Google Maps probably has been saving relationships since its inception.