Hitting The Slopes In June???!?!

Posted by Emily

That's right, it's the end of June and time for the ski opener in New Zealand. From Fox Glacier, we took a bus to Wanaka, a very beautiful little ski town at the foot of the Southern Alps (I think....). The was a lovely, and very cold, lake near the center of town and surrounding the entire town are beautiful snow-capped mountains. The clouds were so low at times that it wasn't even possible to see the snow at the top. It was interesting to see the clouds so low but that also meant a cloudy, cold day for us.

The first night in Wanaka we went out to a very quirky movie theater with recliners, couches and even a vintage car instead of proper theater seating. There is an intermission during the movie during which they serve fresh baked cookies and homemade ice cream. The theater itself was amazing but the movie was a bit of a disappointment. It was called Hidden, Cache in French. The reviews of it were so good and it won an award at the Cannes Film Festival, so naturally we thought the movie would be brilliant as advertised. Well, it was certainly one of the strangest films I have ever seen, mostly because there is no real resolution. It reminded me of all those times, while writing the conclusion to a paper in college, that I thought to myself "Why do I really need a conclusion? It will be understandable without one." This is apparently what the writers thought to themselves, "The audience will be intelligent. We don't need a conclusion or a resolution. They will be able to figure it out for themselves." Oh well. To make up for this I suppose, the stars were beautiful on the way home. In case there were any doubts, they do really look different in the southern hemisphere. They seem to be more bunched up and there is line of stars (a galaxy I think) that extends in a large arch through a good portion of the sky. Too bad it was so colder we would have stayed out longer to enjoy them!

They next day we got up before the sunrise (stupid winter) and prepared ourselves for a day of skiing. We got picked up by a shuttle bus and taken to a ski area called Cardrona about 40 minutes away. I slept for most of the way there so I didn't see the scenery change but the views were quite amazing when we got there. The slopes are at the top of a mountain, and because of this, we were well above the clouds. It was beautiful and sunny and a perfect day for skiing. We got our lift passes, rented our skis and were off. Having taken ski school and having been skiing far more times that me, Nicki was the winner for ski skill. I managed to fall down every single time I went down a steep hill. I even took 3 tumbles down one hill. I swear, I've never been this bad at skiing before! It didn't help that they seem to have decided that labeling the runs was a waste of time. They were vaguely marked at the top, but get down the hill and get to a fork in the run, you just have to take a guess as to what you are going to encounter on the other side of the ledge (that you usually couldn't see over....). Oh well, it was still a good time and the day was filled with stunning views of the mountains and lots of sunshine.