New Zealand Instructor Course 2010 - Diary Week 1

It’s exciting times, as our Ski Instructor Course in Porters and the club fields region of New Zealand has just got underway. Alice and Sophia are the first volunteers to write a course diary. Take it away ladies...

The first week was a week of many firsts. We all met for the first time on Sunday, having woken Alice up from a 40 hour slumber, and got ready for the first day of skiing on Monday.

During the first few days nicknames were quickly established. First and foremost Hooda, as in who the “Hooda **** is Alice”. This has also become the motivational team roar from Jase, our instructor. Nick was named Aspen by Sophia (a moment of pure genius) – we’re not sure why because he hasn’t mentioned it once. At all. Ever. And he doesn’t have an Aspen t-shirt at all. Seriously. Jason started out as Nasoj (that was him trying to spell his own name backwards) but he quickly became known as Munchkin (just look at him!) Andrew and Sophia have acquired the most original nicknames of all; Andrew and Sophia. ACE!

On the slopes, we have been learning the 4 movements of skiing, which has helped us understand technique, balance, positioning and coordination in greater detail. The weather has been up and down, as we’ve basked in sunshine on the slopes, along with character building breezes, aka gale force winds, with the added luxury of flying ice. The variation of runs at Porters keeps the skiing interesting, with gentle runs to work on our technique and steeper more challenging runs to enjoy out of lesson time. Jase has already kindly called in a favour with Mother Nature to bring us two non visibility days – not being unable to tell if you’re skiing up or down the mountain definitely tests your balance, as if the frisky t-bars aren’t enough. Having only been skiing for a week we’re starting to get to know most of the Porters ski area, as well as the staff and instructors. They rock the pub every Monday (the pub we live above) so we’re there a lot, chilling, drinking, eating and playing pool.

This weekend we decided to go on a road trip to the Franz Josef Glacier where it rains 220 days a year. We drove across the Alps to the west coast where the rainforest meets the ocean. When we arrived at the lodge, some of the guys chose to take a dip in the hot tub, whilst the wiser of the group (us) sat by the fire with a G&T watching NZ beat South Africa in the rugby. Luckily we had a clear and sunny day to enjoy the 2km walk to the base of the glacier and the hike up the ice. We got to walk across the ice and in the crevasses, where we saw the famous blue ice and the layers showing its formation. After a beautiful drive back to Springfield, we are now ready for another week of skiing.

That’s it from Alice and Sophia (Hooda and Sophia). Tune in next week for another interesting, but not as entertaining, blog. (It’s Munchkin's turn) x