NZ Ski Instructor Course - Diary Week 5
Here's the latest update from our NZ instructor course NONSTOPers. It's Alice and Sophia turn to write the diary this week, and it seems that they've had a week packed with technique development, teaching and rugby games. Enjoy...
The week started with Porters being closed for two days, due to strong winds and avalanche danger. Instead we headed out to Mount Cheeseman (that's actually the name of the mountain, and not just us being funny). While waiting for the mountain to open, Alice and Sophia engaged in a game of Extreme Ping Pong (playing with full ski equipment, including helmets and goggles) hitting the ball 72 times in a row! Amazed by our achievement, we ventured onto the mountain to conquer Short Turns. Impressed by our skills, Jase turned up the heat by creating another Powder 8 competition which we won (we are tempted to say of course!). Nick had at this time already given up due to his ankle injury, which he got by falling down the last two steps of the stairs. Epic, Nick! Tuesday was also a closed day in Porters and us girls decided to go to Christchurch for some shopping. We are not really sure what the guys did, but they looked well-rested.
Wednesday the skies cleared and the winds settled down to let Porters open again. Busses with hundreds of school kids arrived early for a taste of the snow and life as a skier. We were thrown right into it again and with our instructor jackets on, we paired up with real instructors and got to teach. We don’t know how it happened, but somehow Sophia ended up with her own group of teenage boys. Epic! Alice and Nick were actively catching their students to stop them from hitting the fence. Only one little tiny mini note to that, they both had students three times their size putting their strength to the test!
Thursday we paired up with each other to teach a group. Sophia & Andrew, Nick & Jason together and Alice went for a free ski. While Jason was playing “head, shoulders, knees and toes” with his part of the group, Nick was constantly running after his kids to stop them from hitting the fence. Andrew and Sophia had the slightly more distracted kids and they both looked like they had been through a marathon at the end of it. But everyone was still smiling.
In the evening we prepared for the epic night, “Aspen Extreme” night, themed around the 1993 ski movie. Everyone rocked their best retro gear (including one-piece suits) and joined the shots-rewarded movie quiz. Not more shall be said about this night, other than this: Alice ended up packed into a snowboard bag she had just won for best cougar outfit.
Nick’s friend Kevin arrived Friday from Aspen only 24hours after Aspen Extreme night and unfortunately missed out, but more than made up for it with great Cougar/Ski-instructor stories at the dinner table.
Saturday, a day we had all waited for. The All Blacks were meeting the Wallabies (translated, New Zealand vs. Australia in Rugby) in Christchurch. More than 20 Porters staff and skiers 
had tickets and the tone was set for a great night! We started by eating Chinese (quite unrelated really, but very tasty), and then we took our seats. Although Munchkin was hoping for a miracle, the All Blacks won 20-10 and it was exciting to see them in action, especially the Haka at the beginning. Unfortunately they had their backs against us while they did it, but that didn’t seem to bother the girls too much.
On Sunday night everyone slowly recovering from the rugby night. It rained in Springfield all day, and snowing on the mountain. The guys headed to Broken River for a night ski in the powder while the girls stayed in, to lick their battle wounds from a tough week. Ready for another one, bring it on!
New Zealand ski instructor course
Canadian ski instructor courses
Canadian snowboard instructor courses
