Advertisement
Published: August 14th 2008
Edit Blog Post
A 3 hr scenic journey took us from Mount Cook to Wanaka, past lakes and through mountain roads. The town of wanaka is surrounded by a beautiful boating lake, Lake Wanaka and again reflects all the surrounding mountains. We pitched up at our holiday camp before dark (the plan was to have one night out of every two at a powered campsite where we could get hot showers and cook some warm food).
After claiming our camping spot with views over lake wanaka we drove into town and had a walk around to soak up the atmosphere. We loved this town, every shop or house was single storey, timber framed, no concrete high level buildings spoiling the skyline - which was absolutely stunning. 360 degree mountain views. We stocked up on some groceries from a local store - New Zealand is much cheaper than Australia on pretty much everything except petrol - which is always expensive, and then caught up on some emails at an internet cafe.
We also checked out our skiing options - there are a few ski fields around Wanaka, of varying degrees of difficulty. We had a 2 for 1 voucher for Treble Cone (from
our Jucy Campervan hire) - but decided on Cadrona ski field instead as it was much better for beginners. Had we have known that the biggest challenge of the day was actually getting up, and then down the mountain in our campervan then we may have decided against it!
So the next day an early morning began with scrambled eggs on toast and a rushed cup of tea, before we set off for Cadrona for our very first attempt at skiing!! The roads to Cadrona were fine, despite the warning of predicted snow from our campsite reception. So good start - we had our snow chains in the back ready nonetheless. It was about a half an hour drive before we hit the signs for Cadrona ski field and began our journey up the mountain to where we would be skiing. Well, this started off fine, gentle inclines and clear roads. We took notice of the sign about a quarter of the way up which suggested we put on our snow chains - we were both a bit suprised by this as the roads seemed snow-free to us. But, keen to stick to their advice, we hopped out and
spent about 20 minutes trying to fit them (which I think we managed okay). About half way up the mountain we began to realise the need for the chains - where did it suddenly come from? And then as we looked up we saw a big snow cloud over the peak of the mountain we were driving up and suddenly fear set in! It was a pretty hair raising journey up - but nothing compared to the journey back down!!
But first - to the skiiing. When we arrived at the top (a little shaken but excitement beginning to win us over again) we headed straight to the ski shop to get kitted out in snow jacket, pants, boots, gloves, goggles and of course skis. Learning how to walk in the ski boots was the first hurdle of the day (well second if you count the mountain drive!). Once in our gear we made our way out to the beginners slopes and to our instructor. We had booked in for morning and afternoon lessons, and were glad to see that the morning lessons pretty much began on flat ground. Just a briefing on how to stand, hold your poles,
point your skis to stop (which is called wedging) and how to get up again if you fall down (which we did a few times). It was pretty cool actually. We both really enjoyed it, and even the falling over part didn't hurt (not like ice skating). Dale had a pretty amusing incident in the morning lesson. We had been taught how to slow ourselves down and practise coming to a stop (with the wedge position) but after all taking it in turns to come down one by one and come to a nice stop in front of the instructor, Dale actually didn't manage to stop - and he carried on down the to the next slope below us ( a bit steeper than a beginner slope, lol) and eventually ended up in some orange fencing. None of us could figure out where he had gone - as the instructor had been destracted by me losing balance and falling over after my nice wedgy stop. Eventually another instructor pointed him out to us, bless him, trying to walk back up the hill he had just skiied down. He had a smile on his face and nothing was broken - but
I think it pretty much gave him the buzz for the slopes!
Lunch time consisted of some hot chips and a warm up in the van with fans on full blast ( it was soooo cold on that mountain!). So after a quick break we headed back to the slopes for lesson two - how to cope with steeper gradients. Most of the group from the morning lesson had actually disappeared by the afternoon - it may have been the increasing snow storm, and the threat of not being able to get back down the mountain again....but we had paid for a full day, and knew if we gave up now it would be ages before we got the chance to do it again so we stayed. And we pretty much had private lessons with our coach Andy that afternoon - which was value for money after all! So I would say, after the mountain journey, that the second most terifying part of that day was going up on the ski lift. Well, it wasn't actually a ski lift, it was a pully system where you put a seat between your legs, keep your feet (in skis) on the
floor and let it pull (or ski) you uphill. It is so easy to fall off these things - it takes concentration to keep your balance, and a couple of times we stacked it. Though it didn't put us off.
The afternoon was fantastic. We actually got to do some skiing. And we picked up some speed too. The trick is, to master the art of how to slow yourself down by pointing your skis inwards. Once you had this sussed you pretty much didn't fear the slopes (it took Dale a little longer to figure this one out lol). Steering was the next thing we learnt - to point your toes in the direction you want to go. The snow was getting harder and visibility was getting low, so unfortunately by 3.30pm we were calling it a day. We were also pretty achey and cold so ready to get out of our snow boots and back into some comfy trainers.
The journey down. Well, first of all our campervan lost all power. We couldn't even get it started. So we had to sit and wait for the ski field mechanic to come down on his quad and jump start us. Then just a few metres on our way down our snow chain came flying off, and so quad man had to come and fit it for us. What a hero. Not a good start though, and we still had the trechorous journey down hill ahead of us. It took about an hour, at 2 miles per hour, with no accelerator and just a continual pumping of the break to get us down hill safely. It was a pretty horrendous journey, as our pictures will show - and we were so glad to be at the bottom taking our chains off.
All in all the day was an amazing success. We absolutely loved it, and will definitely go skiing again some day, although not whilst we were in New Zealand as our schedule was pretty tight from now on. Our stop for the night was in Queenstown, not too long a journey ahead...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.214s; Tpl: 0.025s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.1391s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb