Update from the New Zealand Ski Instructor Trainees
Here's a continuation of the week two diary from the famous "Aspen Boy". Unfortunately no more photos at this stage, but the powder-filled video from Porters is definitely worth embedding again...
After an in-weekend, we were all itching to go skiing again and see whether our skis had survived our first attempt at tuning them. Monday saw us each receive hour-long private lessons from our magnificent teacher, Jase. We all felt our skiing come along leaps and bounds, and we also had a chance to rip up the slopes of Porters.
To Alice and Jason, this meant swapping skis, with a different make of skis on each foot and then act surprised when it went a bit pear-shaped. After a hard day’s skiing, it was time for the weekly staff night at Springfield Pub. Although it couldn’t match the excitement of the horse-rapping the week before, a good time was had by all, especially Alice. Fortunately for some, Porters was closed the next day, giving people a chance to nurse their hangovers and catch a bit more sleep. However, there was no rest for the wicked, as we had a very productive day doing some indoor lessons. I mean that quite literally, as we took it in turns to teach each other how to ski on the carpets of Springfield Pub. This proved to be the first of two ways we discovered this week in how to make a fool of ourselves in front of large groups of people.
After the anguish of a closed day on Tuesday, we received just reward in an amazing powder day at Porters. After several warm-up runs to rediscover how to ‘pow-pow’, we decided to head up to Bluff Face, the steepest run on the mountain. It was at this point that the clouds mercifully gave us a break for a while, leaving us with a perfect powder run and a chance for Alice to get acquainted with the snow. In return for the crater left in her wake, she received a rather large face full of snow. Round 1: Bluff-face 1, Alice 0. After the exhilaration of the perfect run, I was brought back down to earth with a bump, when the lift stopped and I stupidly dropped my pole. Penalty: a round of Pimm’s for the girls. After lunch, we took Bluff-face a step further, and undertook a twenty minute hike to get to the top of Allison’s peak. Another glorious powder run ensued, giving Alice another chance to get cosy with the snow. This time, Alice was prepared for the onslaught and responded with a fantastic head butt. Round 2: Bluff-face 1, Alice 1. As it was a tie, victory was handed to Alice for KO’ing the mountain with a slap and a head butt. To be continued...?
With all of the fresh powder falling around us, the timing of the avalanche course on Thursday was perfect. We learnt how to use transceivers, running around the top of the mountain trying to recover a buried transceiver. Jason’s transceiver somehow ended up a metre and a half under the snow after somebody dug a hole down to China in order to ‘simulate a real-life situation’. I wonder why he is now plotting against me now...? After skiing around looking at safe-spots, potential avalanche slopes and the effects of wind, we dug holes where we analysed different layers of snow. We all went away with a good understanding of avalanches, which will serve us well in the future.
On Friday, we made our way down south, to Lake Tekapo and the nearby ski fields. First up was round-hill and our first encounter with the dreaded nutcracker lifts. These lifts are basically rope tows which we attach ourselves to using harnesses and a metallic device called a nutcracker. As if this was not tough enough to master, we decided to make our first attempt on the longest and steepest one in the world. Several attempts later, we were all up, although we were too exhausted to make a decent attempt of what was a difficult run, especially in flat light. Full credit goes to Andrew who decided once was not enough and went back up with Jase while the rest of us decided to hone our café-skiing skills. After we all tired ourselves out, we headed into Lake Tekapo, where we saw a magnificent turquoise lake and bore witness to a phenomenal sunset. Not content with what was already a great day, we discovered our second way of making fools of ourselves in front of large groups of people at the backpackers lodge. This came in the form of a board game called Cranium. The highlights included Sophia, Jason and Jase bouncing around pretending to be Telletubies and Jase trying to demonstrate Hot Pants by stripping down to his underwear and pretending to be a woman. Andrew and Jason eventually prevailed, winning the game and we finally decided to head to bed to catch some rest ahead of what proved to be our best skiing day of the trip so far.
There were a few weary eyes as we took the long access road and a few were feeling a bit cranky from the early start. After a few minutes that was all forgotten about while we skied down never-ending fresh tracks, having the time of our lives. Inspired by the movie ‘Aspen Extreme’, we held a powder-8’s competition (two skiers skiing one-behind the other, forming figure-of-eights). Jase and Andrew won after myself and Jason stopped to watch and applaud Sophia’s epic crash during her and Alice’s attempt. As the runs on-piste started to get clogged up by other skiers, snowboarders and a random snow-tricyclist (what is that about, anyway?), we decided to push the boundaries (don’t worry NONSTOP, it is perfectly legal in New Zealand!) and found endless fresh tracks which we willingly indulged in. After what was unanimously agreed had been our best powder day, we went back to the metropolis of Springfield to watch the rugby, where the Aussies, much to Jason’s delight, smashed the Springboks.
Sunday was a rest day, which meant a much deserved lie-in and a bit of free time. The guys decided to have a ski tuning session, talk about the rugby and generally relax while the girls went off to Christchurch to have a manicure and pedicure. All they really cared about though were the massage chairs. I could swear they were recruited in Christchurch as salesmen judging by the way they were drooling over them! A nice relaxed day was the perfect way to recover from a hectic but amazing week in New Zealand, although we still found a way to make further fools of ourselves by playing another round of Cranium in Springfield Pub!
Until next time
Nick
