Snowlines: Rough diamonds

By COLIN MOORE

You can be sure that there is nothing quite like the Craigieburn toasted sandwich maker at any winter resort in Japan, nor probably Australia.

The rusted pot-belly stove in the lunch hut high on the Canterbury club skifield has seen better days. Flames can be seen through its joints and the burned-thin iron would likely collapse if it was moved.

The stove still gives out a vicious heat, which is comforting when the wind slices through the Craigieburn Range near Arthurs Pass.

On days like this, every skier and snowboarder on the field hovers around the pot belly to cook lunch on its flat cooking iron.

Lunch is something like the stove - monstrous sandwiches made in the club lodge lower down the field and brought up the mountain.

The filling is tuna or lasagne left over from last night's dinner.

While the degree of epicurean sophistication may be light years from Tokyo or Melbourne, some holidaying skiers from those parts have no trouble adapting.

They even cotton on to a mind-boggling toasting technique that must be the double black diamond of toasted sandwich making.

Gently push a sandwich on to the vertical face of a pot belly stove and, believe it or not, it sticks there, without the outer piece of bread falling off. Wait a minute or two, prize the sandwich free and cook the other side.

Amazing but true, although it could have something to do with the efforts of the lasagne cooks.

Amazing but true as well, is the skiing at Craigieburn. A whole skifield built like Whakapapa's Haensli Face for a vertical drop of 609m, crisp snow, magic scenery and fewer players than you'll have in a game of rugby.

It's why the Japanese couple are here. They spent a day at Craigieburn before skiing the commercial fields. They couldn't wait to get back to the toasted sandwiches, rope tows and friendly club lodge atmosphere.

A group from Melbourne and a family from Tasmania are back for the second year. And a couple of Aucklanders on their first club ski week - $400 to $450 for lifts, accommodation, food and a daily ski lesson - have already booked for next year.

I am here with Black Diamond Safaris, a Methven company set up by Heather and Symon Dent to take skiers to Canterbury's club fields.

The Dents say the club fields offer a ski experience unique to New Zealand.

The fields are primitive. Mt Cheeseman has two T-bars, but it is rope tows only at Mt Olympus, Broken River, Craigieburn and Temple Basin. At Broken and River and Temple Basin you need to be prepared for a hike from the carpark.



A day with Black Diamond Safaris is a good way to see whether club skiing is for you. A full day with everything provided, including all-day instructional guiding, costs $135. It also has weekends and a full week.

Do your own thing and it costs less - but when you have never used a nutcracker rope tow before, having a guide and teacher helps a lot. In setting off, before the nutcracker device took the strain, I painfully aggravated a niggling tennis elbow.

Chuck in a humdinger of a cold and my day at Craigieburn should hardly rate as memorable. But I'm heading back next year.

Links

Black Diamond Safaris

Chill Out

snow.co.nz

* colinmoore@xtra.co.nz