We are pretty accustomed to keeping a keen eye on the weather; swell size, wind and the rest that comes with the day-to-day dreaming of waves while you’re working away. This winter, however, we were keeping a hawkeye on the charts in the hope of a very unfamiliar series of weather patterns.

You see, while snow coated mountains is a common thing throughout a New Zealand winter, here in the warmer North Island such an experience generally requires the long journey to the bottom of the country to find yourself camping, buried in snow. Now and then, however, a series of weather patterns line up just right. The temperature levels drop below freezing; a storm rears its head, and the North Island gets that magical low-level coating of snow that we have been dreaming of experiencing all year long. Some years it can happen more than once, others not at all. It was getting late in the season this year, and we had almost given up all hope.

But what do you know, one morning the forecast quickly changed and gave us some conditions that offered up a final glimpse of hope. It didn’t look all that convincing, but it was most likely our last chance to experience North Island snow before summer started to sneak on in. Like most things tend to do, this window of weather fell on the same weekend as a good mates wedding. Stuff it, we decided to soldier on, take it easy on the drinks and head down late that same night. Luckily, we had a solid crew of mates as mad for adventure as we were and a sub-zero five-hour drive starting at midnight seemed to excite them.

Join us for Corona Journey No. 39 as we proceeded to get as deep into the white stuff as we possibly could. Read the full story here: http://www.corona.co.nz/2016/10/corona-journey-no-39-north-island-winter-road-trip/