Skiing (30th July)

Had our first skiing lesson (ever!) at Cardrona about four weeks ago now and we had such a cool day. The weather wasn't as good as we had hoped it might be, it was a bit overcast but i think we were concentrating more on not falling over than the view anyway! We went up early in the morning with Rach, Elaine and Hayley (the girls that we work with), oh and a load of second hand skiing equipment that we had begged for, borrowed and stolen! Our first lesson was due to start at 11am, we had bought a lift, lesson and rental package for $95 which i thiught was really good value. It included boots and skis, two 2 hour lessons and a lift pass for the beginners lifts. The girls left us to it as they are all super good and with the help of our instructor Jonas, we learnt the basics! Our second lesson was a bit more daring as we went up on the chair lift to a run called The Skyline. Most of this lesson was spent practicing and falling over but it was all good fun! At the end of the day we had to hitch to the bottom of the hill as the girls had already left to go to work and then we spent a few hours in the pub hurting!

(Sunday 3rd August)

The second time we went up the hill was not so good as the first! The weather was grim and towards to afternoon the visability got quite poor which made it really hard to see other skiiers. The snow was also quite compact and icy which made it harder to stop! The good thing was, we were given free day passes from a guy that works at the hotel so it was still worth it!

(Tuesday 19th August)

Yesterday was our third trip up the hill and we couldn't have chosen a better day! A Cardrona Bluebird day they call it as there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Had such a good day and managed to get half price day passes for working at the hotel! The snow was quite powdery and we both felt a lot more confident than last time. We even went up Captains chair which is a lift we haven't attempted before, however, i think Neil might have taken us the wrong way because we ended up on a very steep slope that certainly wasn't for beginners and Neil tumbled down most of it! Another run that we haven't done before was the Queenstown return and this gave us awsome views all the way to Queenstown. It was FAB! This was definately the best day up the hill so far, the weather made such a difference!

On Sunday night we left work early as we were going to Queenstown for the night, courtesy of our boss, Pete. He has an appartment for the week and is giving all of his staff a night each in QT. Kristen and Jacques (two of the French chefs) had been there the night before so we met them for a drink in the town center so we could collect the keys. The appartment was absolutely stunning. We stayed the night and enjoyed the luxury and then spent the next day in Queenstown. It was nice to get out of Wanaka for a day!

Work is still the same really... Have been at the hotel for about 8 weeks already and we are still really enjoying it but nothing really exciting happening!

Bye for now!

Oh P.S. keep checking the skiing @ Cardrona album as i'll just put any new skiing pics on there!