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Published: September 11th 2009
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Tuesday afternoon I wandered into Queenstown and made my enquiries at the snow centre as to the possibility of skiing. Having done some research I had already decided that I was going to to do a days skiing in Coronet Peak and a day at The Remarkables however whilst we had been suffering from an excessive amount of rain the ski resorts had had a lot of snow but also a lot of wind and therefore they had been shut on and off over the past week. The snow centre advised me that they were not pre-selling any tickets for the next day as both resorts had been shut and they had no guarantee on the weather. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the town and down by the Lake.
Wednesday morning rolled around and I was really tired when my alarm went of at 7.30am. Unfortunately my fellow dorm mates had no concept of being quiet when going in and out of a room and seemed to want to take it in turns to get up and go out in the early hours of the morning. I was already reluctant to go skiing as I was
so tired and I then found out that the resorts were on hold till later that morning so happily rolled over and went back to sleep with the intention of skiing Thursday and Friday. Once I woke up later that morning I was still tired so decided that it was a day of rest. My hair was in dire need of cutting, and I knew Mum would lecture me when she saw me in Malaysia about it, so I went off in search of a hairdressers. I have since learnt that Mum had already decided that a haircut was one of the first things she would make me do when she met me in KL so it seems I may have missed out on a freebie!! Anyway I was soon scalped so having bought my next round of postcards and stamps I headed back to the hostel. A short nap later and I decided that i should actually do something for the day so decided I would walk up the hill and get a view over the town.
As I was heading towards the path to go up the mountain I saw Steve who had just come down he
warned me it was quite a steep walk but I headed off anyway determined I would walk up rather than catch the gondola up. Half way up and I would happily have paid the money and caught the gondola up - its was steep and long!!! Overnight there had been some snow down to a low level so I was able to make a snowman and send a picture of it to Jess and wish her happy birthday (I forgot to take a photo with my camera only on my phone intelligent I know!) As I reached the top it started to very lightly snow again. After wandering around the topand watching a guy do a bungee jump I headed back down the hill. About 5 minutes from the top I was stopped by a couple of guys asking how far it was so I happily informed them they didn't have far to go. We ended up chatting on the pathway for half an hour as it transpired one of the lads was from Stockport and was on a trip around NZ and Australia and the other lad was Irish but had done South America so we all stood exchanging
stories and having a laugh. It soon got cold so I headed on down whilst they continued their journey to the top. On arriving back to the hostel I met up with Steve and commited myself to two days skiing. Steve had also decided he would ski for a day so we booked ourselves in and headed off in the Starlet to get our kit. That done it was time for dinner.
That afternoon on my hunt for the post office I had passed a pub with a cheap meal and a pint offer on so as soon as I mentioned it to Steve he was up for it. So that night we headed out for our dinner and had a couple of extra pints. Once again I had a poor night sleep courtesy of my roommates however this time it was because two German girls came back at 2am and decided that they would turn the main light on. They got a lot of swearing from Steve and I however it didn't prompt them to turn the light off they carried on oblivious.
Thursday morning and I was up and about early and having checked the resort
info I knew it was open so was on for a days skiing. I got up and made sure the other dorm people were awake before making lots of noise for the benefit of our German friends!
So Steve and I spent the day out at Coronet Peak. I had chosen this resort first with Steve in mind as he had only skiied twice before and it was 7 years since he last skiied so I had promised him a 10 minute lesson and then he was on his own. Initially I thought it was going to be a longer day when he stood and asked to be reminded how to snow plough anyway two dummy runs on the nursery slope later and I was happy that he could manage an easy run so we got on the chairlift. Thankfully he quickly picked it all up again so we were able to spend the day pretty much skiing together. He did only ask me once if I was trying to kill him when I accidentally took him through a mogul field.
I did also do a good deed for the day and rescue someone. It was early on
in the morning and Steve and I had done about 6 runs and we were stood admiring the view and taking some photos when my attention was drawn to two guys and a lady. One guy could ski but the other two were not so confident and the lady seemed to be struggling. After watching them for awhile I decided to interfere as she was a liability to he other skiiers as he had little control and kept stopping in the middle of the piste with no warning. So I headed down to her and duly asked if she was ok to which I was told it was her first run of the day and she was ut of her depth so being the nice person I am I skiied her down to the easy slope and duly gavce her a friendly warning to stick to slopes she could manage.
Friday morning I was up and out early once again but this time heading for The Remarkables to ski alone. I had another great day out on the slopes however there was a lot of off piste slopes at The Remarkables however they also had a medium avalanche warning
and since I was skiing alone and didn't know the area I only stuck to the pistes or well worn off piste tracks. I also did a second good deed for the week and rescued another learner who had been taken down the slope by her friends however they had abandoned her. She was a true beginner and had only had 2 lessons so was still doing snowplough turns so I ended up skiing backwards and guiding her down. She thanked me at the bottom and told me that if there was a new meaning to snow angel then I was it.... grab your sick bucket or what!!
Speaking to the locals over the couple of days skiing and they all said that the past three days had been some of the best for the season so I was truly lucky its just a pity I didn't have my own skis with me....
Friday night Steve and I had decided we would go out and have a last blast before leaving New Zealand although I was aware that i would be driving us to Christchurch the next day so couldn't have too much to drink. We ended
up going out with two girls that had appeared in our dorm that day and they had also met up with some friends so we ended up out in a group of 7 of us so we all had a good laugh and i was a good girl and was home at a reasonable hour and didn't have too much to drink unlike others......
Saturday morning was another early start as we had to get to Christchurch.......
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