snow bunny

the only snow bunny you're seeing around this blog....

Hello!

I type this slowly as I now have gimpy wrists from clutching my ski poles tightly in fear.

Where shall I begin my snow bunny adventures?? I don't have any photos but I shall try to get some of myself looking a total fool tomorrow.

I went to Paula's hostel for some lovely dinner on Tues night, and we made muffins because Nomads doesn't have an oven, grrrr...

On Wednesday I was up nice and early and excited for my first day skiing! Little did I know that I was about to have the worst day of my life. It began with a 2 hour queue for the bus to Coronet Peak. (In NZ you have to get buses to most of the resorts as they don't have accommodation up on the mountains - no idea why. This just makes me more excited for a ski holiday where I can ski to my hotel. BOOM.) Apparently it was one of the busiest days of the year, because: it's Australian school holidays; the mountains were closed yesterday so everyone was desperate to get up today; and the ski season has only just started as there was no snow until last week.

This meant the queue was horrific - shuffling forwards a couple of millimetres every 10 mins, whilst moving all your ski poles and boots and crap as well. Finally got on the bus very cold and grumpy, and very late for my 10.20 am group lesson. Beautiful scenery though.

I arrived at about 11.25, and there was a back-up lesson for late people at 11.30. I ran to get changed but still had to put my bag in the lockers, and they were all full, so that meant a half hour queue for the locker overflow. I watched in horror as my 11.30 lesson left without me.... There were no more lessons until 2pm. This meant I was going to be waiting around for 3 hours and then have 2 hours on the snow... for $135 ...

Telling myself to remain calm, I wobbled off in my ski boots to the café which was possibly the worst place to be if you are a slightly hysterical English girl who has never skiied before.... they were so incredibly busy that they had a ticket system for the coffee orders. I ordered a cappuccino, got ticket K44, waited 20 mins for a cold cappuccino, attempted to find a seat, drank the cappuccino standing up, realised I still had another 2 hours to go.... oh it was terrible. Even cancer wasn't this bad. I kid you not. At least there are no queues and everyone is really nice to you.

(Paula and I have talked about how emotional you get when travelling alone and you're a bit homesick. When having a total sense of humour failure it helps to have friends/family who can laugh at you or jolly you along, or just whinge together - if you're completely alone it just MAGNIFIES all the crap... hence I had to go for a bit of a weep in the ladies'.)

I soon cheered up in the afternoon though, as skiing is really rather fun! We had a nice Australian girl called Naomi teaching us. As complete beginners, we learnt:

* how to get skis on and off

* how not to slide down a slope when you don't want to (keep your skis perpendicular to the slope)

* how to wedge and snowplough (i.e. not slide down scarily fast)

* how you're supposed to keep your weight at the front of the skis which gives you more control

* how to have slippy slidey fun!

* how not to hit people when you lose control and start sliding away - I saw one girl plough into a snowboarder - his face was hilarious as he panickedly put his board up to protect himself - they all ended up in a heap.... I felt so bad for laughing but hehehehehheehee.

apparently you should just sit down and flop and eventually you stop.

After the lesson finished - I managed not to fall over at all! - I had a couple of goes whooshing down the baby slope until they stopped the magic carpet (a sort of conveyor belt up the slope), then joined the 1 hr queue for the bus home. I talked to an Australian guy all the way about how much we both hated queuing... haha.

Once back down in Queenstown at the NZ Ski Centre at about 6pm, I rushed to the front desk to see if I could get a refund; apparently not because it was all part of a package and even though I'd missed a lesson, it had still been cheaper in the package than to buy the lessons separately....(?????) by this time I was too tired to argue, or even attempt to lipread anymore. I didn't want to write off skiing completely after one bad day, so I booked a novice package at the smaller resort (the Remarkables). I then went to give my skis back and realised in horror that I had left them on the back of the bus from Coronet Peak.

At this point I failed to hold the tears back any longer and had a small but spectacular breakdown in the NZ Ski Centre. Embarrassing.

Kiwis are really very, very nice people. As I sniffled forlornly and tried to take my boots off, the guy from the rental place came and helped me, a girl went off to get me some tissues, and they all reassured me that the skis would come back because the bus drivers always drop them off... and then this lovely woman called Amanda went to talk to someone else about remuneration, scored me a 50% refund, and then gave me a lift home!

My faith in humanity restored, I had a quick shower and then went out to meet Paula and her boss, Arthur, for a drink and dinner at Flame Bar and Grill. Arthur very kindly bought us dinner - I had a fantastic fillet steak and chips!! and then yummy icecream with Mars Bar sauce. and some tasty Cabernet Merlot.

I fell into bed happily tipsy and full, for about 6 hours' sleep before getting up nice and early for my first PROPER day skiing. As I was there so early, the queues were negligible and I was set up with all my hire stuff well before my lesson started. I even had time for a cappuccino! BOOM.

more beautiful scenery on the way up....

Our level 2 teacher was called Matt. Unfortunately I made a prat of myself attempting to ski down the slope - it was steeper than I thought so I fell over... hem. I don't know how the intructors stop themselves laughing! The lesson was pretty good, and I learned to stop quickly, turn (wedge turns and parallel turns, I think?) and basically spent a couple of hours getting more confident on skis.

Went and had my lunch of chilli (last but one serving, THANK GOD) with a pleased and smug feeling. This soon evaporated in the afternoon - haha. Matt said I should try the 3A lesson, so I booked that and off we went with another girl whose name I have now forgotten (Claire? Charlotte? Becky? Alice? I think the fear knocked it out of my head.) We went up in the chairlift - this was interesting, if rather pressured getting on and off... I think the idea was to ski down the green run. I realised pretty quickly that this was a terrifyingly steep slope but had a go anyway. It became apparent that I was, rather than skiing, falling uncontrollably down a horribly slidey slope with NO WAY OF STOPPING MYSELF. Every time I managed to get back up I fell over again, sometimes with exciting 200m horizontal whooshes... the last fall ended with me zooming downhill for a full 10secs at breakneck speed, and landing in the snowdrift next to the chairlift. Claire/Charlotte/Becky/Alice/whateverhernamewas zoomed up to me holding my poles, with a panicked expression on her face as I'd been heading for the chairlift queue! She helped me up and then kindly but firmly suggested that I go back down to level 2.

I gratefully went back down and was handed over to the care of Bonnie. She was brilliant - she made us ski down the hill with no poles, and putting our arms in the air to go straight, then down onto the leg we were turning with. It really helped me get the hang of it. I practised my turns some more on the steeper baby slope, but still haven't quite got it. I fell over every single time! I refused to leave until I'd managed not to fall over. On the last one I gave up on the turning - as that's what makes me fall over - and ZOOMED down with a swish to the left and a swish to the right - great fun! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

I had to wait a little bit for the bus but nowhere near as long as the day before! On the way home I talked to the guy next to me who is from Queenstown and has been skiing/snowboarding all his life. He reckons deaf people get half price skiiing in NZ- I wish I'd known that before...

After a shower I headed out to meet Tim and Jackie - from the glacier, remember? - and Paula for a Fergburger!Ferg is a Queenstown institution that claims to be the best burger in the world. It might be right - my burger was INCREDIBLE. There was a half-hour wait but it was worth it! Plus the gluten-free bun was the same size as the burger, which makes a welcome change (fellow-squeeliacs will understand the annoyance of being given a burger sandwiched between 2 tiny slices of gf bread...)

Tim got the Big Al which was gigantic and had bacon and eggs as well as burger... wow. They also have a burger called the Bun Laden which is falafel! heehee. I could quite happily work my way through their entire menu. It's pretty cheap too, only $11 a burger! though I had to pay $3 more for a gf bun which is fair enough.

burgers make me happy....

This morning Paula and I were going to go skiing together, but we ended up being a bit late and the queue was insane (yes at 8am) so we realised we wouldn't get our money's worth, so we're going tomorrow instead. I'm kind of relieved because I'm SO sore today.... my poor bottom. Though according to David it helps to have padding...

Spending my day faffing about on the gondola and ambling around Qtown most likely. and bringing this blog to you! whooo!