July
15th July
Hi sports fans. After last month's strange US departure I'm back in New Zealand and we're having a ball!
Winter has well and truly set in and I'm doing my best to cover areas of the south island that I had previously been in in Summer.
The picture to the left is me on Mount Hutt during my first ever, snowboarding attempt.
We headed out from Christchurch around 9:30am. We had checked the web site at http://www.nzski.co.nz/ and while the mountain was closed with strong north easterly winds the outlook was good and we figured, by the time we got our gear together and got to the mountain everything would be fine. We arrived in Methven about an hour later and began getting ourselves fitted out for our gear at Big Al's Snowsports.
The fitting was fast and professional. We had no gear at all so we needed everything. Apart from snowboards, boots and goggles we also needed gloves, jackets and pants. No we didn't leave Christchurch naked, this was waterproof over gear.
Big Al looked after us very well. Six of us were all fitted, supplied and out the door in about 20 minutes with no fuss. As part of this process I learned that I am actually 'goofy footed'. I'm hoping this is treatable.
As we headed to the mountain we heard on the radio that the lifts had finally opened and the wind had died down. As we headed up the mountain I was a bit nervous. Coming from Perth I have never driven on snow and have never had the need to fit chains to a car. Fortunately for $20 a team on the access road to Mt Hutt will fit chains for you if you pay at the lower transfer station.
From the lower transfer station it is an 11 kilometre drive up the mountain. Even with chains it is a little daunting for anyone not used to alpine driving in New Zealand. The road is icy, exposed in places and there are no safety rails. I advise anyone coming here to take it easy. Don't kid yourself. People do die from a moment of inattention on these roads. We have just had a couple of instances at Coronet Peak and the Remarkables.
The car park was pretty full by the time we arrived. Skiers could be seen on the slopes.
Since my only real experience of ski fields was from James Bond I didn't quite know what to expect.
The lodge contains a ski hire place, a guest services desk, cafe and bar facilities. If you are going just as a spectator you will be very comfortable.
There are a number of lifts, including a novice tow. There are lessons available for the neophyte.
I decided against lessons, opting instead for several hours of falling over, being dragged along on my backside by cable tows and skiing into crash barriers. They do a good package where for one price you can get two 1.5 hour lessons, gear hire and a novice lift pass. I might try that on my next trip.
Surprisingly, after a couple of hours I was able to stay upright and ride quite nicely from about halfway up the novice slope to the bottom. I also developed a nice method of stopping. As I reached the bottom I would scream like a girl and fall abruptly onto my backside. This would bring me to a comfortable, if somewhat undignified stop within about twenty metres.
The part of the sport I couldn't get the hang of was the novice ski tow. Try as I might I could not stay upright while being towed. I tried a number of styles including falling on my face; falling on my backside; and being dragged along until my waterproof pants came down.
Each of these was unsatisfactory and at one point a group of onlookers gathered to watch my attempts and applaud the inevitable failure.
Eventually I gave up and spent the rest of the afternoon walking up the slope which is quite manageable on the novice slope.
We worked up a fierce appetite after about an hour and had lunch and coffees at a table outside the lodge house. As we were sitting there it started to snow. This was the first time I had ever had snow fall on me and I was absolutely enchanted.
After lunch we returned to skiing. Intermittent fog and increasing snow fall meant that visibility was patchy for the remainder of the day. Quite a lot of snow had fallen by the time the lifts closed, around 4:30pm, and we returned to a snow covered car. I took my time driving down the hill. It took me about an hour to get back down to the lower station. With the falling snow it was much better to be safe than sorry.
After dropping of the hire gear at Big Al's we headed home again, exhausted and exhilarated.
--Brook
| <<<Previous |