Winter arrived today at the Snow Farm!
![](http://noahhoffman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/New-Zealand-Snow-Storm-011.jpg" "New Zealand Snow Storm")
We got 6 inches of snow last night and close to a foot today. I’m so psyched! After talking all week about having to go home early because all the snow was melting, this is a nice change. I can’t remember the last time I experienced a snow storm like this.
![](http://noahhoffman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/New-Zealand-Snow-Storm-014.jpg" "New Zealand Snow Storm 2")
Today felt like the holiday season. It would have been a good day to curl up with a book by the fire or go powder skiing.
![](http://noahhoffman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/New-Zealand-Snow-Storm-016.jpg" "New Zealand Snow Storm 3")
My teammate Kris Freeman and I went cross country skiing instead. They only groomed about 1500 meters of trail. We tried classic skiing off-piste first.
![](http://noahhoffman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/New-Zealand-Snow-Storm-010.jpg" "Kris Powder Classic Skiing")
It was too deep and heavy to ski in the powder. So, we switched to skate and did 6 minute laps for two hours. It was a monotonous workout. I had the afternoon off. It was fun to just watch the storm.
![](http://noahhoffman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/New-Zealand-Snow-Storm-017.jpg" "New Zealand Snow Storm 4")
I am now looking forward to the rest of the time here way more than I was yesterday. If they groom all the trails, about 30km, it is some of the best training in the world. As a bonus, temperatures are supposed to stay cold so we may be hard wax skiing (a type of kick wax for classic skiing used for colder snow) for the first time since the middle of last winter.
