We went to Porters ski field not far from Christchurch for a bit of Skiing. Chris can Ski but I cannot (although I did have that 1 hour lesson in the indoor place in Leeds). Porters is just a small place which has the advantage of being cheap and not busy. I got ski lessons for the day, although the beginners slope was barely a slope at all, but it really helped me. By the end of the day I was doing a few turns and hadn't fallen over which is an achievement in itself. Chris got a snowboard lesson, and was up on the steep slope after half an hour wizzing down the slope (I don't know how he does it!). It was a great day and we had lovely mountain views all around. We drove back down the steep mountain and we were nearly on the main road when disaster struck, our car stopped....and it would not move. A tractor was driving past gravelling the road and he radioed the Ski field for us to contact the AA. Luckily with our hired car we have 24hr assistance, so we only had to wait 2 hrs for them to come and tow us away. I didn't really feel worried as it's not like Australia where the nearest town could be 500Ks away. The tow truck took us to Methven, we weren't planning on going there but it was in the right direction so all was good. Apparently something had snapped, but it wasn't our fault so it got fixed in a day and we didn't have to pay a penny! It's all part of the adventure in the end.