New Zealand Instructor Course Diary – Week 9
Hello again from New Zealand, where the wind has finally dropped and the sun is shining!
Welcome to week 9, it seems like so long ago since I wrote weeks 1 & 2, and this week just gone has been one of the most amazing I’ve experienced (and I like to think I’ve had some good ones!). This week was excitingly busy starting from Monday when we attempted to go skiing, alas the slopes were closed again, this time due to avalanche danger rather than high winds. Fortunately we were prepared for this and had a back-up plan – rock climbing! So off we went in our mechanically depleted bus to the next town of Castle Hill, which has some spectacularly formed rocks from when the land used to be under sea. After playing a few hide and seek kind of games, we decided that attempting to climb the boulders would be equally as fulfilling as running around them. There were of course a few scratches and bruises to be shown off later, but it was so much fun I’d do it again tomorrow!
Well as it turned out I couldn’t actually do it again tomorrow because the next morning we set off for Christchurch, heading for the beach to try surfing. Making the short walk from the surf hire shop to the beach, I began to wonder what the hell I was doing – I don’t particularly like being in the sea, and the concept of trying to stand up on a big board as a wave picks you up isn’t really my idea of fun. However, once I got in there that’s exactly what it was! I only managed to stand up and actually surf twice in the space of 2 hours, but a few of the others were much more successful.
The day was far from over though, as we were on a mission to do something that you can’t do in very many places in the world – surfing and skiing in the same day. Christchurch is about an hour and a half away from Springfield, our small town near the mountains, so we had a few hours to rest before we set off for an evening’s skiing… yes that’s right – evening. We were heading for a small club ski field called Broken River, which is an experience in itself even if you don’t ski. If you’ve read Pieter’s week 3 blog you will already know about it.
When we arrived it was snowing quite heavily, and had been for most of the day while we had been surfing less than 2 hours away! Night skiing started at 7pm and the new snow had brought with it about 100 people, which is quite a lot for a small ski area, especially as only half of it was under the floodlights, but there was still plenty of fresh powder for everyone. By the time we had made our way back to the car park and driven the bus down the snowy, icy, rocky access road and home, it was almost midnight and needless to say it wasn’t long before our rooms were filled with more of a satisfactory purring noise than the usual intoxicated kind of snoring usually heard.
Anyway, the night skiing was so good that Broken River decided to repeat it the next day, and we couldn’t wait to get back up there for some more evening action. On the Wednesday the storms that had been coming in from the north west over the last couple of weeks had started to ease and the weather was perfect, including an almost-full moon to help illuminate the slopes. That night though we didn’t come home, instead we drove further across into the mountains to a small town called Arthurs Pass, where we had booked a night in a hostel.
There was a reason for this change of accommodation, and that reason is a place called Temple Basin – which again is a club field, but bigger with far more challenging terrain including steep, narrow gulleys, various natural jumps, and even small cliff drops. To have the privilege of skiing there though, you must first make the hour long hike up the mountain path while your baggage is sent up in a huge basket lift. Strong walking boots are definitely helpful with this, but of course we had no such luxury, so we made the journey through what became quite deep snow in places and uneven rocks in others with my just our regular trainers!
Once we were settled in our rooms, no time was wasted before heading out to ski some delightfully soft snow. However, as with Broken River, there are simply a few rope pulley systems that you clip onto from a waist-harness and you literally get pulled up the hill, it is quite an experience and not easy to get used to! We skied until we could ski no more (or at least until we got tired of using the rope tows), and then it was dinner time. The interesting thing about Temple Basin is that nothing is normal, so one group at a time we trudged down to the big basket lift to carry a load of food and drink up to the lodge. The snow outside was deep, it was quite dark, and many of us already being tipsy made this an interesting challenge – I almost accidentally rugby tackled someone whilst attempting to carry 2 crates of coke!
As the evening went on there were all kinds of activities going on, mostly involving the use of what had previously been our dinner tables. After a few games of twister, played mostly by the NZRAF (New Zealand Royal Air Force in case you were having trouble figuring that one out), then both table climbing and table sliding were introduced. I had a go at the latter and had the aches and bruises to show for it the next day. We were also invited to take on the kiwi top guns in a drinking contest, which they of course won, but more through cheating than anything else, still we weren’t about to argue with them.
Meanwhile, back in Springfield, Jheni and Sarah were having their share of fun with the Porters staff at the backpackers. I don’t have all the details, but it involved attempting to skateboard around inside two at a time, which as you can imagine wasn’t very successful. The girls also had a good time skiing up at Porters, with great conditions on Bluff Face.
Back to Temple Basin and my skiing the next day deteriorated slightly due to being very hungover, but was still enjoyable nonetheless. Our lunch break was most welcome that day, and I took an extended one in an attempt to revitalise myself by way of caffeine and chocolate. It worked a treat and I was soon back on the slopes high on sugar! Sadly the time soon came for us to leave, and we faced the long hike back down the mountain. Not wanting to spend another hour walking, I decided instead to embark on a calorie-fuelled run down and made it in about 20 minutes, surprisingly without twisting an ankle.
We slept very well again that night, which was definitely an advantage as Jason woke us up early on Saturday morning having managed to get us booked in to do heli-skiing! So as we dragged ourselves out of bed, half reluctantly and half excitedly, we could see that it was another beautiful day, almost resembling summer if it weren’t for the mountains being half covered in snow. For anyone unsure as to what heli-skiing involves, you basically get flown into the heart of the mountains where no one else can get to, and get dropped off near the top of a peak with a guide. You get to ski some of the most amazing deep, powdery, natural, untracked slopes in the world, in addition to flying in a helicopter – which is also an awesome experience!
Like any adventure worth doing, there are a couple of drawbacks – it is quite expensive, and the chance of serious injury is a little more likely than in normal skiing. In fact the group in front of ours lost their guide in the afternoon after he fell and broke his leg, he was choppered back to base and off he went to hospital. This was a freak accident though and I never felt in danger at any point, even when I took a few tumbles down a very steep slope!
That brings you up to date with things here in Springfield at the end of an adrenalin-soaked week. There will be more to come as we prepare for the last week of the course, including our end of season party – so watch this space!
Cheers
Matt
