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Published: June 29th 2009
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Kia Ora!
(Apologies if you get this one twice: there were server problems when I posted this and I don't think the emails went out).
So, here I am, back in New Zealand. I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone when I say, that, I quite like it here!! Arriving in Christchurch I didn’t really have much of a definite plan, all I knew was that I was probably going to hire some form of transport and head down to Queenstown and do some skiing at Coronet Peak when it opened on 13 June. As by this time, I’d decided that I was nearly ready to come home, I couldn’t plan anything until I’d spoken to the airline about changing my flights so, that was my first job. All sorted, I found the Spaceship office and organised myself another travelmate.
Unfortunately, Kody couldn’t (maybe wouldn’t) come out to play for these 2 weeks, but Libra did. I don’t have a photo of him, but he’s just like Kody, (Kody’s still my favourite! How does that song go: “First love is the sweetest”; or something like that!)
Anyhow, I took to the road with Libra and started heading south.
I stopped in Ashburton, about an hour south of Christchurch, and while I was there heard that they were hoping to open the ski field at Mt Hutt 2 weeks early on 31 May. They’ve been having some really good snow in most of the mountain regions, which hopefully means it’ll be a good year for them. That fitted in perfectly for me, since Methven, which is the town which services Mt Hutt, is only half an hour from Ashburton, so I headed up there to find out about the skiing.
Now, I haven’t skied since about 3rd year in high school so, who knew how disastrous this outing could be! Just as well I took out that insurance policy that covers absolutely everything and added on the snowsports package too! I booked myself into a group lesson to get back on my feet, but after getting kitted out with my skis and boots I had a while to kill before the lesson started, so I hit the slopes. Well, I had a shot on the beginners' slope.
For anyone who’s been skiing at Hillend where I learned back in primary school, you might remember the baby slope
that didn’t have a lift, and you just had to walk up the side of the track and then ski down it. Well, they should get one of these magic carpets that they have at Mt Hutt. Who knows, maybe they already do have one - I haven’t been to Hillend in years. I’ve never seen one before - it’s basically just a conveyor belt that goes up the slope (it’s not steep, it’s just the beginner’s slope after all), I had a good few runs on that, and was feeling quite confident and ready for my lesson to take us up to the real slopes. 1030am and still no falling over - quite impressive I thought!
My lesson was really good - they took us up for a little practice run so that they could watch us and get an idea of which class we should be in. I was half expecting to be demoted from the level 3 they put me in, but I got promoted to level 4. My group were all very nice and we had a good few runs with the instructor taking us down the intermediate slopes and correcting our bad habits and
teaching us a few new things too. I couldn’t perfect my hockey stops that morning, but I think I might eventually have got them - I can swoosh to a stop and kick up a snow storm with the best of them now!!
Skiing at Mt Hutt was really great, especially as I was only going during the week when it was a lot quieter. I never had to queue for a lift the whole time - it’s still early in the season, and as I mentioned they opened up 2 weeks earlier than planned. There were a few days over the couple of weeks that the ski field was closed mainly I think due to gale force winds up on the hill, so I spent a day in Methven and had another day where I took Libra for a run and revisited a few spots I’d seen before, not really wanting to stray too far.
The first week was really cold in the van, and my heater didn’t work properly (as I discovered later). I had to wimp out of the van for a couple of nights when it was that cold, and had a little room
in the motel my campsite was attached to. Over the weekend, I had gone up north to Kaikoura where I had thought I might go whale watching again (that’s where I went whale watching before when I put the video on the blog - that seems like such a long time ago!!), and picked up a new heater and stayed in the van where it was lovely and cosy again with my 2 double duvets and my hot water bottle. The test would be whether it was still going to be cosy when I was back in Methven.
Thankfully, the supercold snap seemed to be over after the weekend, so no ice on the windscreen in the mornings, and that, combined with the new heater meant it was bearable to sleep in the van again. One night I was actually too warm, I couldn’t believe it!
After all that skiing, and still no injuries other than a bruised big toe (I did fall once and then later in the same day I got knocked over by one of the boys in my group lesson when he couldn’t stop), I am quite amazed, and headed back to Christchurch ready
to get organised for my flight out of NZ, this time bound for Vancouver.
I’m sitting here in Christchurch airport, nearly time to board my flight up to Auckland where I will connect for my long haul flight. At some point tonight I cross the international date line, and I will arrive in Vancouver before I’ve left NZ - here in NZ it's now 5pm on Sunday - I arrive in Vancouver around 2pm on Sunday - the more I think about that the more it pickles my brain!
My long haul flight leaves around 9pm NZ time so I’m hoping for a good sleep and then will wake up and jump on to Canada time with no ill effects. Well, I’ll wait and see what happens on that front!
I have a week in Vancouver itself, a few days up in Whistler, some time in Seattle, and then probably a train ride down to LA. I must have gotten the bug for the long distance train journey in Australia, here I am thinking about doing it again! Although, on this one it’s a lot more within my budget to have a bed for the night, so
am looking into that option, and failing that, I’ll fly.
Speaking of flying, that’s my flight being called so I better pack up now, and get going. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post this up, online.
Haere ra!
Take care everyone,
Lots of love
Claire
Xx
PS: I know I still need to put all the Aussie pictures up and probably a few more besides that, hopefully I’ll get round to that soon too!
PPS: I’ve also just realised that I’ve misquoted the song and it’s first cut is the deepest, but poetic licence and all that!!
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