Advertisement
Published: September 17th 2006
Edit Blog Post
After the buzz of doing the bungy jump it wasn’t long before we were planning our next extreme activity. As intended and planned we all were desperate to try our hand at snowboarding, something none of us had ever tried, so we booked ourselves a 3 day package in mountains with a few lessons to help us get started and give us the vital instructions to help our progress with such a short time to learn.
We seemed to get a pretty good package for about $485 with daily lessons and progression lessons, snowboarding at a different mountain each day.
DAY 1.
After picking up our snow gear the day before (also inc. in the package) we were up very early at 7:30 to catch an 8:30am shuttle bus to Coronet Peak, a 25minute drive away. As the bus ascended up the mountain side the views just got better and better, very Lord of the Rings scenery, funnily enough!
We checked ourselves in at Guest services to get our slopes passes and then off to collect our boards, boots and lovely wrist guards (we really didn’t think a broken wrist would be cool on holiday). We then waited around a
while before our teacher a young girl from Melbourne guided us to the beginner’s slopes. I felt pretty confident I’d pick it up pretty quickly with 5 years of skateboarding under my belt and I wasn’t wrong quickly being the top of the class, woo! I glided down the slope with relative ease and then moved on to learn a few turns etc.
It was and awesome day just going up the magic carpet (like a conveyer-belt to stand on) and then riding down the small slope. I was beginning to get the hang of it and was seriously enjoying it. Like with all these things time flies when you’re having fun and it was soon 4pm when we had to get back on our bus and head home.
The altitude and exercise really took it out of us and we were all very soon asleep.
DAY 2.
A slightly earlier bus at 8:15 as we were going to a group of mountains a little further away called the Remarkables. The Remarkables truly live up to their name and can be seen from almost everywhere in Queenstown. They also feature quite strongly in Lord of the Rings for their
awesome shapes and rugged-ness. The bus journey was brought to a temporary stop whilst the driver had to attach chains to the back wheels, so no to slip on the ice/snow. We couldn’t have stopped at a much more impressive spot, high up above the clouds, gifting us some magnificent views of mountain sides cloaked in white cloud.
On arrival to the slopes it was the same checking in process etc. and I was once again strapped onto my board and taking some ‘stacks’ (falls, for those not in the know, haha) one the slightly more icy slopes, something I didn’t expect and wasn’t ready for.
We then met up with our teacher for the morning lesson, Kenny, who was a pretty cool guy and got us linking our turns so he could take us up the large beginner’s slope and up in the ski-lift. Once he felt confident enough we were ready to take on a bigger slope he gave us a quick lesson in getting up in the ski-lift and we were heading up the hill. Some nice falls off the ski-lift from the majority of the group and then he staggered us down the slope stopping regularly
for pointers and tips for each individual. I for some reason was having a major problem with going way too fast, which began to annoy him a bit and really annoyed me as the only way I kept stopping at each place was to slide fast onto my bum, not cool at all. I got pretty annoyed on the first run down the slope and each time we stopped he’d tell me to slow down and to stop it before I hurt someone or myself. Matt and I went up for another trip down the slope, this time I sorted out my speed and thoroughly enjoyed the cruise down stopping at the same places as we had with Kenny to compose ourselves for each section of the slope, much better!
After our lunch, consisting of cheese slice sandwiches, wee decided to miss the afternoon lesson and just hit the slope to get maximum riding time rather than stopping and sitting all the time. The ride’s down the slope got better and better each time and we were both really enjoying it and getting more and more confident. Once again time flew by and we were back on the bus itching
for more slope time.
Another early night.
DAY 3.
We all woke up in serious pain, all our muscles stiff and sore from the previous days riding, but we were determined to beat the pain and enjoy our last day on the slopes. It was an even earlier bus this time, 7:30am, taking us to Cardrona. The views from the top of the mountain were once again incredible. Our teacher this time was a cool guy from Doncaster and turned out to be the best teacher we’d had. Now we were confident enough on the slopes linking our turns well, he explained how to improve our riding style and techniques and also got us doing some spins, which were awesome fun. I picked them up pretty quick, again using my skateboarding balance and I was soon doing 360 spins all over the place, frontside and backside, it was so much fun. He also got us doing a couple of hops (jumps) which were also good fun and my skateboarding ‘ollie’ was put to very good use. We had a short stop for lunch and desperate for more slope fun we were back on the ski-lift up the mountain. This
time we did a filming run, filming each other, now we were all confident and accomplished snowboarders… I’ll probably be pro soon!
That afternoon was by far the most fun I’d had on the slopes, cruising down the slope with relevant ease, throwing in 360’s, 180’s and hops all the way down. It really was an awesome afternoon, with beautiful views, beautiful weather and a snowboard attached to my feet, awesome!
It was so frustrating when the day was over as I was just getting my head around 180 hops, grr! But the fun had to end eventually and it was very sad handing in our boards for the last time, knowing we had all now got the hang of it and weren’t able to do it again until who knows when.
It was definitely worth the money and having the lessons as I really got to grips with it in just 3 days, something I may not have done without the lessons. From never before doing any kind of ski-holiday, I can definitely see myself trying to get to the Alps next year to do it again.
So far NZ has been a lot of fun!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.039s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 6; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0198s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Colin
non-member comment
Cool
Looks like fun mate. Miss you buddy.