We’ve been undecided regarding taking our children to the ski slopes during Australia’s winter for a number of reasons. Recently close family friends of ours invited us to visit the Alpine village of Dinner Plain and to stay with their large group. We decided to take the opportunity, and brave the 829km drive.

Looking the part

We borrowed, purchased and were gifted various items of snow gear . As our day of departure drew closer the pile of clothing for my family grew higher and higher, it looked like I was planning an expedition to the South Pole. I often wondered aloud to veterans of the trip if we would use all the clothes and I was reassured most vehemently that we would. I also wondered (very privately of course)how long it would take to peel of all those layers if one had to use the toilet and I was assured, (again very, very privately of course)that there will not be any issues.

Setting out

Unlike prior Family thingys, I was not my organised self prior to our departure. No groceries, piles of laundry(washed and unwashed) everywhere etc. The week before had thrown up some personal curve balls, as life sometimes does and dealing with that had left me a bit distracted. The Fifa 2018 soccer world cup was in progress and this meant the rest of my family (of the male species) was sleep deprived and confused.

Finally, the night before our departure I divided the heap of clothing into five individual potions and asked each family member to park their own bags/suitcases. I will advise you to try this strategy at your own risk.Child 3 had a little help from mum, Child 1 couldn't believe his luck and would have packed his whole bedroom, bed included, if I had let him. Child 2 worked it out like a well oiled machine.

The drive.

We set out and met with our friends and fellow travelers, Dr Ken Wanguhu, his wife Susan and kids Lerato and Kijana. We drove the full day and spent the night in Shepparton. As we were self catering we also purchased our groceries at Shepparton before proceeding to Bright for lunch and Alpine diesel and then to to Harrietsville to hire snow chains for the car. I vaguely remember my darling husband (dh) asking Dr Ken Wanguhu what the drive up the mountain would be like and he said something like

‘it is a bit interesting, but very different……

Just watch out for ice on the road…….

Your car may start sliding on ice and it's not a good feeling……

You’ll be told further up the mountain if you need to fit the snow chains on your car…….

You guys just drive behind us and you'll be fine……….

During our conversation when I hinted that my daughter and I suffered from motion sickness and that I have learnt to always have a pack of quells in my bag, I was instructed to ‘take the quells now, you are both going to need it’ ….

Alarm bells started going off in my head…

The drive up the mountain did not disappoint. We were driving at an average 40km per hr and the passenger side where I was seated seemed to be literally aligned to the edge of the cliff. Each time dh negotiated a yet another left curve, I died a thousand times over. On one occasion dh reached for his water bottle and I pleaded with him not to take his eyes off the road, I was ready to give him whatever he wanted to eat or drink and promised to be henceforth the most submissive wife as long as he kept his eyes on that strip of snow framed pathway called a road. It was the longest one hour of my life, and right now I’m trying not to think about the drive down the mountain.

And my children,? They enjoyed every minute of it, the drive and my hysteria inclusive.

We arrived in one piece and I found myself in a ski hire shop being fitted for ski boots, poles helmets etc. It appears I am now going to ski, we are going to organise lessons apparently I will be sliding down mt Hotham or someplace called Big D.

My original plan was to stay indoors, move as little as possible and keep my adrenalin levels at the bare minimum required for survival, how did I end up in this situation, do I tell them my ancestors were not mountain climbers?…….

Day 2

I tried to learn how to ski, I really did and I can honestly say I have learned how to move/slide/shuffle. Unfortunately, I cannot predict how or in what manner that movement happens . After a couple of hours of lessons, our instructor, a very VERY PATIENT Englishman, with typically english diplomacy said to us “your kids are doing really well, they'll be on the slopes in no time, you and Godfrey are…..coming along……, you just need to get rid of your fear of falling and hurting yourself……”

How do I tell him I don't wish to get rid of my fear of falling and hurting myself, it is a very useful tool that has served me well in life.

To be continued…….

After day one, I was beginning to feel muscles I did not even know existed. My shins felt like they have been put through a torture device. Falling on your backside in front of hundreds of strangers does something to one's sense of self. It gets worse when one minute you are looking ahead and the next thing you looking at the sky and you hear your instructor’s voice saying “unclip your ski, use the poles to pull yourself up and have another try at turning right…….”

What?!!!!

And it gets even worse, my children with the arrogance of youth began to instruct me as well!!!

“Common mum, you can do this”

ME thinking: I’m doing my best

“It's easy to turn, don't overthink it”

ME thinking:I’m a lawyer, it's my job to overthink things

“Stand straight and engage your core abdominal muscles”

ME thinking: I lost my core abdominal muscles when I had Child 1, still looking for it…..

On day two of our lessons inspiration hit! I gently suggested to our teacher that since our kids were doing so well and no power on earth was going to make me get on that chairlift up the mountain ( I didn't tell him the second part), it will be be better use of his time (and our money) if he took the kids up the slopes while dh and I practiced with the other no hopers in the learning area.

It worked! Actually I think he was relived and took off with the kids. As soon as he left, I finally got to sit on the snow, enjoy the warm sun while taking in the beautiful mountain view.

Dh kept practicing, I watched him ………

The children kept going up and down the slopes like they have no African blood in them, I watched them too……..

Our instructor came down to ask me how my practicing was going

Great, I answered, “I now know how to stop ….. .”

“Awesome” he said and took off again

I meant one thing, he understood something else, I did not see any need to explain.

I continued watching dh, his resilience and stamina was fascinating.

Right now, I have just enough stamina to return my ski equipment first thing tomorrow morning.

I am not giving up, just redistributing my resources. I will try another sport called drinking-hot-chocolate-and -window-shopping Or reading-and-intermittent-pondering-of-life's-issues. I hear it's quite the in thing.

13/7/18

It's our final day today and dh has just informed me he has made it up the chairlift and down the slopes like the others ‘several times’. He asked me whether I wasn't even going to try again? I refused and informed him that I had found a better way, I had walked around the village in my snow boots and enjoyed my first ever cup of peanut butter hot chocolate. We both rejoiced and celebrated each other's achievements.
Snow tips for dummies
1. If you have family members with similar shoes sizes and same ski boots, please label
the shoes. In typical Amaechi drama we had two family members wearing each other's boots and wondering why it would not fit their respective ski, and why it kept falling off.
2. Find what interests you and do not budge from it. Do not believe that you can only enjoy yourself if you are sliding down the mountain.Negotiate the $ equivalent of your snow pass and get yourself some hot chocolate or whatever. You will be called names - chicken, lazy, wuss etc be comfortable with who you are and let life be what it is. In other words, tell them to deal with it.
3.Travel with people who know what they're doing and who have the patience of Job. A
4. Buy your food/groceries before you get there, unless you’ve won the lottery, eating out everyday with 3 children ( two of mine eat more than the average adult) will bankrupt you. We went even further and each family took turns cooking for the whole group each night.
This brings me to the question, why do we travel?
This latest Family thingy made me appreciate the value of friendship - cementing old relationships and creating new ones. I often find that deep down we all, irrespective of our culture, have the same basic innate desire to survive as best we can with the resources we can find. I am reminded that it is our relationship with others that give us fulfillment, not what we are or what we have. So we try to keep our family thingy real, simple (never happens), within our budget and attempt to create more “remember when?” experiences.
So each time we return (without killing each other) I am forced to focus on the fact that that I am blessed, and subsequently I am enabled to put life’s chaos into proper perspective.......
The popular saying it takes a village to raise a child is relevant here, we would have found this trip very difficult without Ken (your dogged determination to get dh skiing from the summit is legendary) and Susan (especially for the peanut butter hot chocolate experience). We also appreciate the Hancock family for letting us join their group this year, Kijana Kamau for his professional photos and David Amaechi for his videos. I hope you both realize you're getting special mention because I do not wish to see any videos or pictures of me on Facebook that could compromise my image.