What a difference a day makes

Cardrona ski-field, nr. Wanaka, New Zealand

The school holidays were over so we headed back to Wanaka a less touristy town than Queenstown and just that bit closer to the ski-field we wanted to try out. We found a room. It was a good deal considering the time of year, as it was a large one bed unit, but this meant it was very cold. We sat for a while in many layers whilst the heater tried to take the edge off!

We signed up for three days of ski-ing and hired the chains we thought we might need. We set off early and drove the long winding track to the ski fields. We were both very glad we had a 4WD as the road was fairly scary. I was just glad that Mik was happy to drive as I really wouldn't have fancied it. We could barely see 5 metres in front of us and there were fair size drop-offs at the side of the road -agh! The bad weather was certainly going to make for an interesting first day's ski-ing!

We got ourselves kitted out, Mik with his snowboard and me with my skis, and hit the easy slope for a practice run. It was freezing cold, the low cloud meant everything was white and actually finding the piste was difficult, and it was snowing. Being a fair weather skier I really wasn't sure about all this.

We had both signed up for lessons so headed off to see if the professionals were finding these conditions any easier. There were only 3 in my group which was just as well as it would have been very easy to lose the people at the back. As the weather conditions meant we couldn't really ski very fast the instructor had us doing lots of weird tricks like ski-ing on one ski. To practice our balance apparently, although I think he just wanted a laugh. He also decided to try and teach us to stand on the tips of our ski's (whilst still in them), again just for the amusement factor. I mean I'd only need to know how to do stuff like that if I want to be an instructor and show off to my class!

Mik and I then spent the afternoon ski-ing down what we assumed were runs. The snow kept falling and the wind picked up and it got very cold indeed. So cold that the part of my hair which had been exposed was covered in frost and I looked like I had icicles hanging from my head. Still we braved it out til the end. It was our first day afterall.

As we were about to set off down the mountain road a couple asked if they could have a lift as they hadn't wanted to bring their car up. They chucked their boards in the back and off we set. I spent the journey trying to distract them and myself from the fact that the road was a little slippy after the snowfall. Again, god bless 4WD's!

That evening, once showered and fed I don't think we moved. We were exhausted.

We awoke the next day, aching slightly, but to a beautifully clear sky. The perfect weather made such a difference, for a start we could see where we were going. We managed to get a couple of runs in before lessons and it was excellent. Fresh snow and blue skies - now that's my kind of ski-ing. Mik was coming on in leaps and bounds. I was very impressed and after lessons we hit the intermediate slopes and there were very few falls - for either of us! We spent most of the day taking photos of the mountains we hadn't even been able to see the day before and LOADS of video of us trying to do our best ski-ing/boarding - we'll bore you with those when we get home!

We were there til the last lift as it was such a perfect day. Again we headed home and sat in a state of vegetation all evening.

The next morning we had to move rooms. This actually proved to be a good thing as when I went to collect the new key kitted out in my ski gear the lady asked if we were planning to head up to the ski fields at Cardrona. I nodded to the affirmative and she then informed me that the mountain was closed and would be all day! Apparently they had had so much snow overnight that the road was blocked. The weather in this country is just mad! We were really disappointed but decided not to hang around. Our bags were packed, we got a refund on our lift pass and decided to set off for Christchurch and hopefully get some more ski-ing in somewhere else.

Not a bad Plan B, however......when I went to settle up for the the lady said the roads towards Christchurch may also be locked - bloody brilliant! We drove to the information centre to check it out. Hooray they were open. It wasn't exactly what we had had planned for the day but it was an interesting drive. The roads were open but we saw at least one car which had come off the road due to the conditions. They should have paid attention to the radio warnings 'Drive to the conditions, if they change reduce your speed' - sung to a jingle of course!!

Cara