So, we woke early, and finally managed to check the ski report (wifi was down). It was ambivalent - lowish visibility (100m), wind and snow, but clearing. We hummed and haa-ed a bit, and I went off to find an old-school SD card for the old-school camera. (Didn't actually manage to take any photos, of course.)
LATE START
We left Wanaka a little after 9am, got to the carpark a bit after 10am, which meant we didn't have our lift tickets and rental sorted until nearly 11:30am. The reasons it took longer to check in than get there? Queues, sales assistant who managed to botch our order, more queues, nearly out of ski boots, and the rest.
We got tickets for the afternoon lesson for the kids, starting at 2pm, and figured we'd go and reacquaint them with skiing. Jos did fine, but sooked about a sore shin (turns out he didn't have his sock pulled up properly); JD did fine, but sooked a little about the cold; Ky sooked about the whole concept of skiing once he worked out what it involved, but eventually managed to let go my hand and do a couple of turns himself which helped his confidence enormously.
After three runs down the beginners (magic carpet) slope, it was nearly 12:30pm, so we fought the scrum for some lunch. The wind picked up and the visibility dropped while we were inside. Nonetheless we thought we'd try to get a few more goes on the magic carpet run before the boys had their lesson. However, by the time the boys had gone to the loo, JD had gone to buy a new hat (his beanie got lost somewhere in the lunch place), the wind had picked up too much, and they'd closed the magic carpet ride. Ky and I walked a little way up the slope, but a couple of failed turns completely shattered the little confidence he'd got up. Visibility was down to 20m, with a vicious cold wind whipping up a lot of snow. There was no way the kids were going to get their lessons with the beginners slope effectively closed.
EARLY FINISH
Time to call it a day. We confirmed that the kids' ski lesson vouchers were valid for any other day of the season, and then returned our ski gear, and walked back to the car. It was snowing lightly by now, and really fricking cold (I only had a headband for my ears, and was getting a rotten headache from the cold).
At the car, we discovered I'd left the car headlights on and the battery was absolutely dead. I walked back up the hill to the top carpark and found someone who called someone who was able to give us a jump start (or two, which is what it took). Somewhere in this exercise I lost my sunnies.
After allowing the engine to warm up sufficiently, and having JD literally push the car out of the slushy ditch we were frozen into, we started heading down the mountain. The water bottle I had packed proved more useful than we expected, to help de-ice the windscreen. Apart from a wild fish-tail around one corner that got our heart rates right up, and a bit of trouble getting the chains off near the bottom, the homeward bound trip was uneventful. Better than one poor bugger who'd managed to drive into the ditch on the side of the road - there was absolutely no way he was getting out without a heavy-duty tractor tow. Someone else had already stopped to help, so we didn't feel the need to.
IN CONCLUSION
All up, it was a bloody expensive day, even after allowing for the favorable exchange rate.
Lift tickets and equipment rental for JD and me: NZ$260
Lift tickets, rental and lesson for Jos and Ky: NZ$200
(She originally charged us $790 and was perplexed when I baulked - $460 is bad enough)
Storage basket (for shoes): NZ$5
Lunch around NZ$55 (pies, chips, pre-made pretty ordinary wraps)
Lost beanie - probably on AU$10, but irreplaceable (it was JD's favorite Australian SkyDive beanie)
Replacement hat: NZ$5, but too thin to be useful
Lost sunnies - around AU$300 (RayBans)
TOTAL: AU$720 (US$750) and I'm still down a pair of good sunnies.
For all that, we each got three runs down the beginners slope. Not a good day.
The forecast for tomorrow and Friday suggest they are supposed to be similar to today, so we think we'll explore some of the other things the area offers tomorrow, and brave the snow again on Friday. The following three days (Sat, Sun and Mon) are supposed to be sunny and fabulous, so we'll be sure to make the most of them. And we'll probably arrange ski hire off the mountain so we don't have to stuff around with that in the mornings.
Woo hooo! I found my sunnies, tucked into the back of a deep recess of the car. That has almost halved the cost of the day. And I don't have to go out and buy an expensive pair of eh-they're-near-enough sunnies.
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