Time for the skiing update

About time I got around to this… my skiing holiday! I’ve been updating Twitter and Twitxr, but neglecting my blogs.

 

So… I got back from Whangarei (visiting my parents) on Tuesday of the second week of the holidays, ran around like a lunatic Tuesday afternoon trying to get ready, because a change of plans had us leaving for Ohakune on Tuesday evening. We got there at just after 11pm. The guy who ran the place we stayed at the first night left the key for us in the letterbox, but when we got to our room we found that someone was already in there. WTF? We called the manager, who came and told her to leave, but found her another room to stay in, and we moved in. Didn’t get much sleep that first night.

 

Wednesday – we hit the slopes! Went to the Turoa side, because that’s what we’d planned and it turned out there was more snow there than at the Whakapapa side (yes, that’s the place that’s said the rude way, for those overseas folks). Spent the whole day skiing. Oh my, so much fun! I probably spent half the day on the beginners’ slopes before finally braving Clarry’s Track after lunch. But once I’d done Clarry’s Track once, I just wanted to keep doing it! Yeah, baby!

 

Thursday – we were skiing for half a day. Rachel and Elizabeth joined me on Clarry’s Track, and Elizabeth finally saw what was so great about skiing and why I was having so much damn fun on Wednesday. At some point during the morning she completely took me out from behind while going down the steep slope in Clarry’s Track. I didn’t know what had hit me! We went down in a tangle of limbs and skis, but neither of us got hurt. We were laughing so hard that it took a while to get back up again. The afternoon turned horrid. High winds and rain. This wouldn’t have been so bad, except that I had no way (apart from my rather ineffective goggles) to protect my face, and one trip on the ski lift left the exposed parts completely numb. Not just the numb that you say is numb because it’s really cold. Oh, no, real numb. The sort of numb you usually only feel after the dentist has given you several injections. So, yeah, I only did the one trip on the ski lift, then managed to get back down in time to get a refund on half a day.

 

Friday – weather just as bad, but because we knew Saturday was only going to get worse, we were going skiing no matter what. We all armed ourselves with neck warmers, that we could pull up to cover our faces on the ski lifts, and managed to get in a full day of skiing. After about two or three runs down Clarry’s Track, I stopped in at the store and bought myself a proper pair of double-lens goggles (non fogging, you see). Visibility much better after that. We took some photos and videos of our skiing, but that was quite dangerous. You see, when you’re holding the camera and standing at the side of a track with a drop behind you, and the wind is blasting at you, and you’re standing on two planks of fibre glass, there’s not a lot you can do to stop yourself from blowing off the side of the mountain. But, we managed. A few hairy moments where I had to grab for my ski poles to stop myself sliding away, but I got the videos and photos I needed. Will post at some point. Or not, if I forget. I still haven’t even transferred them off the camera onto my computer yet. Damelza joined us on Friday, too, but left after only a few runs. Still, it was good to see her.

 

Oh, on Thursday night I went to the shop that Damelza works at and bought my own skis, poles and boots. All for a lovely $400. The skis are ex-rental, but the poles and boots are new. Yay. So Friday I was skiing with my own gear. The skis I bought are somewhat faster than the hire ones I had, which was great! I often came to a grinding halt on the last corner on Clarry’s Track, because the skis just didn’t keep my momentum. No problem now with my own skis!

 

Friday night we went out for dinner, which turned out to be a bad move. Jase and Elizabeth ended up with food poisoning and both spent the second half of the night either feeling queasy or throwing up. They were like clockwork. Elizabeth rushed out of our room, then a minute later Jase came rushing out of his room. So, even if the slopes hadn’t been closed on Saturday because of strong winds, we wouldn’t have been skiing anyway. We made our leisurely way home.

 

Oh my, what a wordy update! Well done those people who read all the way to the end. I’ll put today’s activities in another update. Maybe tomorrow. It’s cold in here and I want to get back to the fire in the living room.

 

Picture is Jase in the foreground, looking out over the bottom beginner’s slopes at Turoa, Mt Ruapehu. Taken Wednesday, our first day.