Great Gallumphings - Skiing and a road trip

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Skiing and a road trip

Posted on Thursday 24 July 2008 at 08:29 - Post Comment

Here's the second installment of our time away the weekend before last.

After Dunedin we had the evening at home and then first thing in the morning it was up early and out into the dawn for the 1 and a half hours drive from ChCh city centre up to Porters Ski Field(www.skiporters.co.nz) for our very first bash at skiing/ snowboarding in the 8+ years we have been together.

We were both really excited as it was the first time in a couple of months that we had been away alone together for more than just a day. I had taken 3 days off work and so we had no rush to get back for anything - just a nice relaxing few days with a bit of skiing and the like thrown in.

The run up to Porters was about as simple as it gets - hit Yaldhurst Road out of West ChCh, follow for 90 minutes, turn left at the Porters sign and climb up a dirt road and 10 minutes later there you are! Compared to the US and European resorts we have both been lucky enough to learn at, the difference between them and Porters was amazing. Why? First off, Porters is right on the snow line, in a valley that shelters the main fields from 80% of direct sunlight and so it holds onto its snow very well for its relatively low altitude - yet just 20 or 30 metres down and it's all shale, rock and scree. Secondly, the size is much smaller - from being there I'm guessing that throughout its entire coverage Porters probably caters for about 2000 or so skiiers max. This gives it a great 'belt and braces' feel, and it's a real local spot which caters brilliantly for day skiers. Thirdly, this is no huge night spot once the skiing's over. Nope - everyone heads off home except for the staff themselves to prepare for the next day. No bar crawls, roaring open fire pubs, fondue or fine dining here! No pretensions or 'this years' ski suit fashions and colours. It suited us down to the ground.

On arrival we parked right at the bottom of the nursery slops, and got ourselves sorted out with a beginners snowboard package each (2 for one on Mondays - bargaintastic!). This gave us a lift pass covering the learners slopes, snowboard and boot hire, and 2 x 1hr lessons on how to do it. Before we even headed to the slopes though we saw loads of these:

Yup - it's the world's only alpine parrot species called Kea. They have a reputation as tricky little characters, and on watching them you could see why. This fella is stood on top of car, and the pic was taken just before he started prising the window seals out with his big old beak! We didn't know if our car would last and so just crossed our fingers that it would survive any Kea attack. Amazing birds, so curious and brazen - not much seemed to phase them, even snowballs from annoyed car owners from up on the slopes!

After queueing up for ages to get our gear, we were soon on the slopes and looking for our lesson. We'd been told 11.30 and so had 30 mins or so to wait and decided to use the time to have a little bash at the boarding to get the hang of it. I had boarded about 9 years ago for 3 days, and was semi-confident of getting to grips with it again pretty quickly. T had only ever skiied and so it was all new to her - and it showed! Still, that's what lessons are for right? Well - yes, if your lesson times hadn't been ballsed up by the booking lady. The 11.30 time we had been given was completely wrong, and we had missed the 11am lesson (taking place right next to where we were standing!) with the next one not being until 1.30pm. Seeing as that was ages away and we'd paid a fair whack for a full day's skiing Toni went to the booking place and made her thoughts heard. 20 minutes later we had been given 2 full ski passes and Toni had been upgraded to skis as she didn't fancy the boarding after all. A great result for us, and a decision which saved Porters a slagging. I went to the manager at the end of the day to thank him for turning the day around for us.

So - on to the skiing proper! The snow itself was great, and we were both soon back in the groove on the nursery slopes. Myself falling all over the shop, but T looking smooth and controlled. So we decided to head up the big ass T bar which was the next step. This was a different kettle of fish, being loads steeper and much busier. Still we managed to get down (just) and it was now really coming back and I was managing to carve a few turns in between falling arse over tit. T's confidence was down though following an awkward fall, and by 3pm we were both knackered.

Here's the view from the top of the T bar - that's the Canerbury plain with ChCh on it in the far distance:

Nice, eh?!

Still - Rome wasn't built in a day and all that, so we decided to knock it on the head for the day and come back again the next. Before we left we booked T onto an early morning one-on-one ski lesson for her to get some tuition.

We went back to our lodgings, a motel in Springfield just 20 odd minutes and a great twisty drive away. Brilliant to do in the dry, but I wouldn't fancy ot in the snow/ dark - no wonder they insist you use snow chains on 2 wheel drive cars if there's even a hint of snow in the air as some of the drops were hefty enough to severely damage your life expectancy if you got a turn wrong. As my mate Andy says, on many roads in NZ you only have the one chance to get a corner wrong.

The motel was ace, and we had a great relaxing evening before battling the mountain again the next day. The morning dawned clear, still and bright and we were raring to go! Back up the mountain and it was much quieter. We were on the slopes by 9.30 and T was straight into it with her instructor. I carried on trying to snowboard, and we met up at 11 for a coffee and a debrief. The lesson had gone well for T, with the guy saying that the technique was still there, just a bit rusty, so the confidence would come back as the skill did. I was still falling over about once every 5 turns or so, but loving every minute so smiles all round.

The rest of the day we skiied/ boarded and generally had a great time, not forgetting take some time out to get some video in. Here's T showing what she's made of:

And this is of me showing the Andy situation is normal:

Overall we had a fantastic time, and can't wait to go and have another go. It was well worth waiting 1 and a half years for. Right now it's close to 2 weeks since we were up there and it has just been on the news that the slopes have had a massive dump of up to 1m today so there'll be a rush up there if the weather clears this weekend!

All this fun, yet still another day off work to go. We had originally planned to ski all three days but decided to use the last day for the sole purpose of sight seeing. As we were using my firms car, along with the fuel card that comes with it, we decided to head off on a day-long road trip. This took us over Arthurs Pass, and down into Greymouth. From there we headed up to the pancake rocks at Punakaiki (pronounced Poo-nah-kye-key) which were something we had missed when we did the West Coast on our honeymoon. We then took in the Maruia hot springs on the way back to ChCh over Lewis Pass. On the map it looked like a nice easy 5 hour drive, but took a full on 10 hours with about 2 hours in stops - and that was with some spirited driving on my part. I absolutely loved it, and it is a highlight of July for me. The passes were brilliant, the pancake rocks completely freaky, and the springs heavenly.

I'll leave you with some pics of it all:

Moeraki at sundown: