Shooting and heli-boarding down under

Well it’s that time of year when I head down to New Zealand (NZ) and last month I took a deep breath and boarded the long flight to the southern hemisphere. The flight was from London to Auckland, stopping in LA only to walk off the plane stand in a little room for an hour and get back on the same plane – ha! This trip was made a little bit easier as I was sat next to a pretty normal young man, which was a relief because I was going to be sat next to him for the next 22 hours and there’s no getting away from it – if you end up next to a weirdo you have to quickly get your headphones on and ride the whole trip out solo. On this occasion though it was all good – I find it funny that you meet such random people and share stories about your life and by the end of the trip kind of feel like you’ve made a friend, only to say your goodbyes, wish them well on their adventures and board your next flight.

Billabong shoot in action

Jenny with Occy

Anyway I made it to NZ and was greeted by the Billabong crew who were on the same final flight and by chance one of the best surfers in the world Occy, or Mark Occilupo to the uninitiated, was also on the plane. I did totally fan out and as we got off the plane and asked for a photo with him and I noticed at the time I was nearly as tall as him.

After ramming the car full of board bags and luggage we made our way to Queenstown to check out the Billabong store and taste some epic NZ food – anything tastes pretty good after plane food but a shout out to NZ for their great food. The main reason for the trip was for a Billabong shoot, a mixture of action and lifestyle. We were also there while the Billabong Slopestyle competition was running which was great to check out. Congratulations to fellow team rider Jamie Anderson for her first place and then another first later in the week at the New Zealand Open – that girl is a contest machine.

I was taking a more laid back approach and chose just to ride for fun as it had been a hectic winter season. Over the week we had some great days at Snowpark, I hooked up with Aimee Fuller for a few days for some epic lap sessions. I also got to shred with some friends from Bristol – Dawn, Helen and Jo. A big shout out to these ladies – they all have jobs back home, teachers most of them and they took their summer break to head to NZ for a month and go riding nearly every day – respect.

Bristol girls

One of the highlights of the week was going heli-boarding with the Billabong crew. We flew out of Queenstown to mountain ranges about half an hour away and we lucked out. It hadn’t snowed for a while so I was pretty sceptical that we would find anything – I’ve been heli-boarding twice before in NZ and it was pretty pants. This time though we found some great snow, super fun terrain and I did a lot of slashing. Sooo much fun. I think I even made some slash noises like a 10-year-old playing shooting games. I LOVE snowboarding. It wasn’t anything mega extreme it just was simply awesome fun and I highly recommend it.

Heli-boarding with the Billabong team

The trip went so fast and I wasn’t even there for two weeks. It would have been great to have stayed longer but I had a wedding to get to back in Bristol, my friend Roz who I’ve known since I was four, so it couldn’t be missed. I was shooting lifestyle until about two hours before my flight – nothing like leaving it till the last minute! Then I doned my sexy flight socks, washed my hair and jumped on the plane. This time I was exhausted and went for the solo approach – I had to watch all the bad films that I hadn’t picked two weeks earlier. The plane was an hour late arriving so it was onto the train to Bristol and into the taxi for a 20-minute turnaround at home. I threw my bridesmaid dress on and arrived just as they turned up at the reception – it’s ok, she had four other bridesmaids for the ceremony. I was so happy to see Pat and Roz on their wedding day, eat cake, drink champagne and dance like an idiot with hula-hoops. The next day was mostly spent in bed.

Roz's wedding day

Last Sunday I did a charity bike ride in support of breast cancer – shout out to all the lovely people I met and well done on completing the 26 miles.