I finally went out and brought some skis this week, and then headed off to Hamner Springs to stay at the ski field there for the weekend.

It was the clubs 'Barcardi Cup' weekend - which basically means they drink barcardi and have a ski race, followed by a right proper piss up .

So that was Sat night.  Me and my friend Brian decided to drive up on Friday evening, an idea which I was pondering the sense of, as it meant driving up the access road that we'd never been up before, in the dark. 

Originally we were going to take my car as its a wagon and would have more room for skis, but my mate had a 4wd - not a high wheel base jeep or pajero etc, but a sedan which has 4wd so when it turned out my skis fit in that we went in his car, and thank god we did, because I really dont think it would have been any fun at all trying to figure out how to fit chains to my car on the side of a super narrow road, in the dark in sub-zero temperatures....

The road was much rougher than Ive encountered before going to a ski field and my mate is not originally from NZ so had no 'ice and snow and 'generally rough as guts' road experience, so I ended up driving up the access road, thanking god for the time I spent 4wd'ing in australia....  Luckily the road was pretty dry and apart from some ice etc near the very top it was not slippery.  The cars 4wd was fine and I never felt as though it was even slightly slipping.

We got there and I parked in what turned out to be a really stupid place, and as Brian and I were unpacking the car it started sliding backward towards us!

Anyway we managed to stop the car sliding any further, reversed it back to a slightly flatter bit of ground, and got all our stuff out, and headed on in.  Two other friends, Perrine (who I met in WA, Aust) and her friend Marine - were already there - they are visiting NZ at the moment.  And we had a megaton of bedding as they had asked us to bring more for them cos they were cold - and it was FREEZING!.  If you are staying on a mountain in a ski field lodge which has no power (and therefore no heat) when the generator goes off... these little heat thingys you can get at ski and sport shops are worth their weight in gold!  The cost between $4 and $10 dep on the shape, I had some on the first night that stuck to the outside of my sock at the toe end - and then last night two that were like an innersole, and also this amazing hand warmer one!.  You open them up and expose the pack to air and the thing heats up and stays hot for hours!  Anyway I opened this handwarmer one about 12am sat night/sunday morning.  It was still toasty hot at around 3pm this afternoon! (The label said about 5 hrs).  Now (at 11.30) its still warmish.....  Im definately going to get the feet ones next time I ski - if you are someone who gets the cold curled up sore toe thing in cold spots - these things are the go!

So saturday morning up we got - well Brian - being a first time skier was up at 9am to go sort himself a lesson, and I got up at the more civilised time of 11am-ish....

Unfortunately Perrine and Marine were so knackered from a day of rope tow / nutcracker boarding on Friday they (and their ripped to buggery gloves and aching muscles) headed off on Saturday, having decided that further sking was physically impossible and that they wanted to spend their last week in NZ heading down to queenstown....

I ran into my workmate Tessa (who was decent enough to get us beds at the last moment for a booked out party weekend!) in the day lodge and so off we headed. 

Hamner has 2 tows, a rope tow... which if you havent been to a club field before is basically just a rope that is moving, which you have to grab with your hands, then fold this metal thingy (nutcracker) around it and then hold the nutcracker really tight to keep it wedged around the rope.  Its hard work for skiers, hate to think what its like for boarders....  Anyway so there is that - and then there is the poma/platter.  Which is like a T-bar for one person, and not as hard work as the rope toe (though it had a decidedly evil patch just after you got on where the rope that the pomas hang from is really low and the thing tries to evict you at that point....

I hate rope tows, have never used a nutcracker and everything ive been told about them has convinced me i never should!  So off I went up the poma.

Got to the top and realised it was significantly more difficult terrain than Id skied before....ever.... on top of that I was in brand new skis Id never worn before so unused to and unsure of them.  Then to make things worse the run was not all groomed, and my skis are carving skis with a 'narrow waist' which means they arent fit for off piste, and about 10-20 times throughout the purchase process I was asked 'now you dont want to go off piste on these do you because they are no good.....'

So here I am on the hell steep slope, with ungroomed snow in brand new skis..... with Tessa, who is a very good....snow boarder, and therefore totally unable to help me ski!

Luckily this aussie dude steve heard me saying something along the lines of"How the f--k am I going to get down I cannot f-king ski that!".  And talked me thru side skidding/slipping thru the worst of it.  I even got up the confidence to start sking it a little.....

Then he headed oiff and Tessa and I headed across the poma and ended up on ungroomed snow, and kinda lost as to what was the best trail.  Luckily for me, Tessa is a very good boarder so although she couldnt tell me how to ski it, she could board ahead of me and let me know what the snow was like.... it was like concrete!

About this time a combination of the heat, the fact I was on prednisone for an inflamed inner ear, and a hangover all kicked in and I started feeling so thirsty that I would have happily sold off a member of my immediate family into slavery, in exchange for a cup of water - I even tried to eat snow.

When we finally got down I was feeling light headed, and off balance, and very very sick.  According to Tessa my eyes were all red and I looked unwell.  I felt like I was burning up and went and brought a pump water bottle and was putting that all over my face (this is up a snowy mountain!).

Luckily after an hour or so and a lot of water I recovered, and headed back up again.  Decided to try and tackle the poma again, but having looked at the trail map thought mybe going around the back of the field would be better.  So Tessa offered to head up and check it up and then come back down.   It took ages for her to get back down and that turned out to be because a large chunk of the run was not ski/boardable so Tessa'd ended up on more of a hiking tour than a boarding one.  Anyway her and others said the snow was ungroomed and rock hard and pretty nasty so decided to flag that.  So we went back up and I decided to head down the same way I had earlier.  Tessa said will you be ok if I head off and Ill come back up & find you.  I figured id be fine and said go ahead, and so off she went.  I then managed to loose the track - (which was easy as there was a ton of ungroomed snow, and then what I guess was the day befores groom track as it looked groomed - till you skied on it and it was like concrete.).

I got down to the crossover point over the poma and from there started heading down a slope that was way steeper than I was comfy with.  Anyway - I got stuck and had a nice wee panic attack up there.  I was skidding down, and then tried to turn, not even attempting to parallel ski a turn but just trying to 'super-huge-snow-plow' myself around.  Even that failed and it was so steep and icy that as soon as I headed into the turn I started going downward and couldnt stop myself.  My new skis by the way - were great and had edges for africa - and still I couldnt turn on that slope!

So I sat there panicing and thinking how am I going to get down... It didnt help that right before I went up the poma, a woman skier had fallen and had a really nasty break in her leg in the same spot, they had brought her down on the sled thingy and you could hear her screaming in pain all over the field....  I wondered if she would have to be driven down all the way with no pain relief, but found out later from Holly who - works up there, that they are all trained in first aid to a level where they can give pain relief...  But anyway - while I was stuck up the hill I was wondering if I was going to end up the same way as this woman.  I couldnt traverse across the hil in front of me as it went straight onto a black run which was just ice, ice ice... I couldnt turn as I couldnt keep control in a turn, and I couldnt go back wards on that terrain....  So I sat there for a while like a big girls blouse and had a wee freak out.

Luckily Tessa found me and talked me down.  By that time Id just lost my confidence and the snow was all ungroomed and either rock hard, or - as I was about to findout - too soft.

I now understand why narrow waist carvers shouldnt go off piste.  Imagine a dolphin diving under the surf at a beach... This is what my skis did in the powder ungroomed.  They didnt go forward - they nosedived down into the snow.  Suddenly it wasnt just my lack of skiing ability - it was my skis totally inability to stay on top of the snow in that terrain!

So after a lot of back and forth and pissing and whinging on my behalf - and much tolerance on Tessa's we found our way over to the rope tow and crossed that - over another huge hunk of ungroomed concrete - onto the groomed runs there where I was finally able to actually ski....  Unfortunately by then it was the end of the day...

Meanwhile my mate Brian, was going great guns in the learner section.  Every time I saw him he was hooning down the hill, often falling, but back up straight away.  I was thinking to myself, hes doing pretty well.... then the tinny bugger headed straight down into a parallel stop...wtf?  I dont think he believed me when I told him thats (to my knowledge and confirmed by other skiers that evening) an intermediate maneouvure, and most definately not a beginner - day one thing to do!   He also managed a perfect balanced backward snow plough, and generally seemed to have a natural ability for skiing.  I hope he decides to go up again.

So then later in the day it was time for the ski event of the weekend, the Barcardi Cup.  This is not a Barcardi sponsored professional looking ski race.... its a free for all where everyone dresses up in some pretty hilarious outfits.... the barcardi is shared around prior to the race (and Id guess several times on the way up the mountain and around the back from the top of the poma to where the race was....)

All the racers were dressed up, Tessa was in a long dress and wig, her hubby Matt was in the most gorgeous pink skirt (with no arse) and stickings and a kayak front thingywhatsit (looked like those things that scots put in front of the kilt...), there were leotards, arabs, space suits, all sorts of stuff - everyone went all out.   Tessa won a prize for attempted bribery of the judges.  

The rest of the evening was a rfancy dress party, I went as 'the navy' Brian attracted a few of the ladies as Zorro, Tessa was supergirl, and there were most other characters floating about...

From that point on things get a little hazy... there was a lot of alcohol, a dj and dancing, 2 naked guys deciided to climb off the roof and do a nuddie run though the snow.... and by the end of the night there were some exceedingly drunk people.....

I crashed around 2am, and woke up at around 8.30 to hear Tessa and friends in the room next door laughing their heads off at one of their mates....

Everyone was too hungover to ski on Sunday, and so after breakfast, and a cuppa hearbal tea, and enough time to hopefully be under the limit, I drove Brians car back down.  The road was scarier in the daylight as I could see exactly how far up we were and how dam narrow it was!  Also Brians car has super super super strong sensitive brakes and I was just sitting in idle and braking the entire way down this narrow road with very sharp turns and lumps and bumps all over.  Apparently they spent something like 30K upgrading it recently (god only knows what it was like prior!).  I thought it would be a 'bit' worse than the likes of the mt hutt road, etc, -however to compare the two, the mt hutt access road was like a 4 lane freeway in comparison!  Anyone who is planning to club ski in NZ - I seriously recommend you get a 4x4- proper high wheel base one....

Next weekend Im heading up (ALONE) to either Cheeseman or Hutt, Jo and I were going up but she has been told at least 2 more weeks before she can ski - since hurting her back recently......  Cheeseman sounds good and its nice & cheap - but I need a 4x4 to get there - as Brian isnt going up again for a while, and I dont wanna drive my car up there....

Anyway - here are some pix of the weekend.

Sat Afternoon

Sat Afternoon (waiting for the Barcardi Cup racers to come down)

Sat

Friday night around 11pm - this is a night photo taken on long exposure.

Another night pic.  Though it might look like day, you can see the stars are out