another nz story

Day 2 from Queenstown

The sleep stealer let us have a sleep in today as we didn’t have to do anything until 10am. We packed the car, rugged up well and headed for our Shotover Jetboat ride. There is nothing like an early morning boat ride with a breeze in your face. Well the breeze was hurtling us at a rapid rate with a wind chill of minus 20 degrees. The spray coming of the water hit your face like a rock. Luckily for us, the kids were on the outside and copped the brunt of the spray.

The good news was that not only was Riley awake for the ride, but he actually enjoyed it. The wind chill made it impossible for him to blink and then open his eyes.

From there we headed in some direction. I don’t know anymore. I get told a place and head there while the rest of the family do wobbly dog impersonations while they drift in and out of sleep. We had a short stop in Arrowtown where the bad ones of the family purchased articles of the pastry types at a bakery. Me and Riley made the mistake of not getting lunch and never got around to eating until 6pm.

We arrived in Wanaka with three quarters of us asleep and headed for our accommodation. A 2 bedroom cabin with open fireplace overlooking a huge lake with a backdrop of snow capped mountains. I wonder what the poor people are doing. Oh that’s right they are in a 2 bedroom cabin with open fireplace in Wanaka,

We then headed off to the start of town to a place called puzzle world. It had all this stuff like puzzles and trick pictures and actually had the kids interested in something apart from what the next meal is. The big attraction here was a giant 2 story maze. The kids ripped into it and spent the best part of an hour looking for where to go. They ran around non stop and must have done about 10 km. The oldies just plodded around and did ok until dizziness started to set in and they made an early exit through the early exit. The kids kept going, trying to win. Jeremy came out first and we went with him to take some photos. About 5 minutes later, Riley comes out proclaiming himself to be King, until he looks up the hill and sees that Jeremy got out first.

We headed back to town, filled up with petrol (thank heavens for my 4c petrol voucher which brought it down to $1.61 a litre) and hit the local store to get some food for the next 3 days. In a country filled with cows and sheep, I can’t figure out why meat is so expensive. Then again I don’t know which direction I am going. Back to the Bayview for a roaring fire and plenty of sport on TV. The lack of internet access has totally stuffed up Riley’s chances of winning fantasy football.

Oops forgot that we had to go and hire our ski clothing for tomorrow’s big adventure

The Next Day

The sleep stealer was up to her evil ways as we had to get up to meet our bus at 755am. After a few pickups on the way we headed for Cardrona. It’s about 21 km out of town and then another 21 km straight up a very very windy road. We arrived at 910am and then went through the getting tickets, getting boots, getting skis drama before finally walking out strangely to have our lesson. Of course it had taken us so long to boot up that all the lessons were full. Finally at 1130am we started our lesson. Pretty basic stuff for some of us, but one just didn’t seem to get it. We advanced to the point that we were ready to go up the beginners slope on the pommer. It’s like being dragged up the hill with a giant plunger. The first time Jeremy went on he fell off. “It’s the skis” and “I told you snow boarding was easier” was all we could get from him. When he finally got up the hill, he would crash a couple of times and then start again. At one stage, I was standing at the front of the line for the pommer and down through the actual up track comes Jeremy. Possibly the first person to crash into the Pommer cabin. But he did keep at it. Riley was a little better and at one stage could be seen falling off the top of the hill.

Annette was hurting a bit from the exercise while Mark was doing all right in the bright sunshine. Then it was time. Mark and Riley hit the chairlift. It took forever to get to the top, and we both brilliantly fell off the chairlift at the top of the mountain. Still there was only one way to go and that was down. I don’t know why it’s called skiing because crashing would be a better term. How many times you crashed was all that was talked about when we finally hit the bottom. Jeremy went up with Annette, and both kept up the family tradition by falling off the chairlift at the top. Both crashed several times, probably about 6 on the way down for Jeremy, but to his credit, he came up with the other 2 boys and we didn’t fall off. At one stage on the way down, Riley was complimented on his crashing efforts. Riley crashed into a wooden fence at one stage with his ski going over the fence. Mark could only hit the fence and keep his skis on. In the end it was a good day and Jeremy is finally getting it without complaining.

Today

I kept waking up last night hearing strong winds and rain. Same wakeup as yesterday, same bus ride and off we went. The bus was pretty expensive but I didn’t like the idea of the mountain in the afternoon with snowchains. Good choice. As we wound our way higher and higher, snow was increasing. By the top it was full on. Being our second day, we had it down pat and in no time hit the slopes. We warmed up on the beginner’s slopes and then the boys hit the big chairlift. Now the big problem was that they changed the course today and it was hard. Crash boom bam. Riley as usual sped off into the distance while the other mere mortals practiced their falling down. We all made it down and then decided to go again. Jeremy completed his full set by falling down at the entrance to the chairlift. As we headed up the long long long trip, it started getting cold, windy and snow was blowing sideways into our eyes. Cold cold cold. As we got to the top there was one problem. It was snowing so much that we couldn’t see 10 inches in front of us. Try going down a mountain blind. We went very slowly, practicing our snow plough and our falling over on the way. Mark and Jeremy finally made it a long time after starting while Riley decided to ski half way and get the medicab the rest of the way. He used to be quick. We will wait to see what the xrays reveal, but at least he walks faster on crutches than in ski boots. And so that was it apart from hitting the beginner slopes, sitting in the café, and generally freezing our faces off.

By the end of it, Jeremy had finally figured it out, Riley couldn’t walk, Annette probably won’t ski for another 25 years, and I could take it or leave it.

Then as we got retrieved by the other people from our bus who wanted to leave early, we went down those frightening slopes with snow chains and snow and ice. Lucky the inside of the bus has fogged up so we couldn’t see our impending death miles below us. We made it home safely. Jumped in our spa, pigged out on dinner again, put another log on the fire and started looking forward to a bit of a sleep in tomorrow. Good luck on that one.

Well tomorrow we are off to Franz Josef. Each time we say it the kids start singing the song by Franz Ferdinand. Well that’s it for now. We have to give Riley his drugs and while he is out of it might shave off half of his big Grizzly Adams beard for a joke. Maybe hiding his crutches would be fun as well. No one is spared. If you can’t walk the walk, then you are wearing crutches. No more reports until we get back to Christchurch and if we find the second hand music store there again, probably won’t have time for that.