An eventful first three weeks in New Zealand

Our 12 week New Zealand ski instructor course is now well under way. Here's how the first three weeks have gone for Lucia and Georgie...

Week 1 (by Lucia)

I was the first to arrive, a whole week early, awaiting the arrival of the other seven. By the time Georgie and Jenny arrived the following Wednesday, I was very happy to finally have some company. Alex arrived on Thursday and on Friday Richard, Maccou, Angus and of course, later than everyone else, Ingrid.

The first few days were spent sleeping, and after endless card games we went out to explore Springfield. All we found was a train station with one train a day, the Springfield donut and the petrol station (most of which we could see from our bedroom window anyway).

On Sunday we went to Darfield, the local town, to get our skis and boots fitted ready for Monday. Unfortunately the mountain was closed on Monday so our card playing continued and, suffering with jet lag, we all took an early night… apart from Ingrid who was happy to stay up and get to know the locals.

The rest of the week was filled with getting to know the mountain, meeting the Porters staff and finding our ski-legs, before going back to basics to start our training for the season. On Wednesday Sean and Andrew from last year's Nonstop crew arrived for a week of skiing and helped us to find our feet.

After a tiring week on the mountain, we set off to Christchurch on Saturday where Jase showed us around and introduced us to probably the yummiest Chinese restaurant ever. We watched the Canterbury Crusaders play the Bulls, which the home side won and, even though I didn’t understand much of what was happening in the game, I walked away happy after Jenny and I got our photo taken with Dan Carter. We headed back to the pub after a great night and it only got better from there, with the Jukebox on all night, everyone was having a great time: Ingrid certainly wasn’t holding back; Angus and Lucia were dancing the night away, and meanwhile Maccou who found himself locked made his way back in through Richard’s window. All in all a great first week, with such a good group of people and we’re all looking forward to the next few weeks.

Week 2

The week started well, now that Jase has seen us all ski, we began learning to teach and we practiced with each other. It all went really well and, of course, Alex was very enthusiastic as usual. We experienced our first Monday night, which we learnt is the loudest night in Springfield. This week we had karaoke, which we were all dreading but we soon discovered we had some talented singers among us, first and foremost Jenny with an amazing performance of Reach and although we know Richard can sing, we are still waiting for him to step up to the mic.

The next morning we all managed to get to the bus on time to get up to the mountain, all credit for this should go to Lucia for enabling a quick clear up due to her discovery of a Hoover. The rest of the week was spent improving our personal skiing and by the end of the week we could already see the improvement from the video Jase took on the first day.

Yet again the week finished with a rugby match, this time Chiefs vs. Crusaders that unfortunately ended with a victory for the Chiefs but Richard celebrated none the less with some new faces over a bite to eat. Following that, we had a quiet weekend watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony although we did find time to go Paintballing and back to the yummy Chinese to end another fantastic week.

Week 3

Unfortunately on Monday Porters was closed, so instead we took a trip to Mount Cheeseman and began the long and painful process of perfecting our wedge turns. On Tuesday Porters was still closed so we had an indoor session going through the technical side of teaching and after the session the girls took the opportunity to go and watch a chick flick in Christchurch.

We still got a lot of good skiing in, including a day jibbing at Porters, check out the video here!

On Friday it was Jenny’s birthday, and regardless of what her birth certificate might say, she claims she’s still young so we put this to the test and took her Tubing. For many of us the zip line was the highlight, however Alex could hardly contain himself when handed a cup to catch some glow-worms, or so he thought. So he was hugely disappointed when it was filled with hot chocolate. Despite her age, Jenny had a great time...!!

On Saturday night Angus and Ingrid showed off their best moves on the dance floor, but unfortunately for Angus it was Ingrid who walked away with the guy. On our way back from Greymouth on Sunday we stopped off at the beach where Richard ran screaming from the ‘towering’ waves and Ingrid continued her winning streak on our makeshift football pitch. Yet another great week.

Check out a full album of photos from the crew in New Zealand here and keep an eye Jase's posts on the left hand side of our Nonstop Facebook timeline for all the updates as they happen.

If you'd like to join Jase over in New Zealand for an amazing travel experience, check out our 12 week ski instructor course page here.