New Zealand Ski Instructor Course Diary - Trip to Mount Olympus
Here's the latest from Mike on our New Zealand ski instructor course...
A change of scenery to start off the week. We spent Monday and Tuesday at Mount Olympus, with two completely different days ahead of us.
Monday was all about the spring corn. Everyone loving it, with Jase leading the way taking us to ski some shoots and some really great lines. But one of the group decided he didn’t quite like it as much as the others, Jamie having a pretty hard fall and slide (quite a way) twisting his knee in the process. That wrote Jamie off for the next week.
Mount Olympus is a great place. It’s got a cabin with a few rooms with bunk bed stacked up to the ceiling. A great little chill-out/eating area with sofas and really comfy seats. It’s also got a hot tub, which a few of us decide to sample in the snow that evening. Getting in and out was a tad cold due to the fresh snow that had started to fall. Getting the covers back on was a challenge in its self. Way too cold on the feet while trying to work out how to put the covers on.
Tuesday was POWDER DAY!!! 10cm of fresh snow fell over night to make it an awesome day. We were awoken at 8.00am by Jase who was already in all of his ski gear. Giving us the grand news of the pow in store everyone jumped out of bed skipped breakfast just to get the first tracks. And did we. Fresh tracks all day, dropping in where you wanted and ripping it up. But one of the crew didn’t like the powder. Andrew coming out with the quote of the week, “I don’t like it, I like to see my skis.”
Wednesday was just a normal day at Porters, one man down due to Jamie’s injury. Just working on our demos and personal skiing.
Thursday we had more pow to ski at Porters. The morning started off quite windy and crappy. Then when all of the instructors went home it started to snow laying down a fine layer of pow. Which we obliged with the ceremonial rippage well into close and beyond. The mountain closed as there was only a few cars left @ 3pm. However the staff ( us included ). stayed around and the mountain was open to us only until 5pm. Our own private mountain. Some of the crew with some motivation by Jase hiked bluff face and some awseome freshies.
Friday was again a normal day at Porters. With Zoë skiing bluff face for the first time and Andrew learning how to snowboard with his lady friend who had just passed her snowboard level one. In the evening we had a bit of a party with the snowboarders who had all passed their level one instructor exam. Then headed back to the pub to watch the All Blacks thrash the Japanese.
Saturday, Jamie and Andrew decided it would be a good idea to throw themselves out of a plane at 12,000ft for a sky dive. Even borrowing a merc for the day to arrive in style. In the evening we had more rugby, with Ireland well and truly stuffing the Australians to the delight of the entire pub and one very happy Irishman (me).
Sunday is the day of recovery for most, also the day for hunting for Jamie’s birthday. Well it should have been the day for hunting for Jamie’s birthday but he failed to get up in time. He must have been the lucky charm as they failed to catch anything.
