Idea #1:
Temple Basin Ski Field. I was so excited to try this field! It's supposed to be a really unique experience - some would even say the best skiing experience of their life (in NZ), but as their website says, "It is not for the feint of heart". Since I don't consider myself to be that, I bought a GrabOne deal with two day passes- one for me and one for Cam. We waited for the perfect day and on a sunny day with 30 cm of fresh powder, we drove out to Arthurs Pass.Where it all went wrong:
The reason this field is not for the feint of heart is because you have to HIKE there. Remember the access roads I described in the last post? This field doesn't have one. Instead it has a "goods lift" that you access from the main road, and then you hike up the mountain and get your gear at the top. The problem is that every description we read of the goods lift said it was right near the parking lot. So we parked near the parking lot (it was full so we really parked on the side of the highway) and started up the track. About 10 minutes in we were thinking that this was really ridiculous and we couldn't see the lift anywhere. Cam decided to drop his stuff and run up without gear to see if he could find it, and in the meantime I called the number on the website to ask. No answer. As soon as I googled the goods lift and found out it was actually 800 meters PAST the carpark, I got a call back from the number I had just called. He said the goods lift had closed about 10 minutes ago and that we could maybe pay the goods lift guy, who would be coming up behind us, to carry our gear for us. No thanks, we said. We've had enough of you Temple Basin. |
| The view from the track wasn't too bad. If only we weren't carrying all our gear. |
The silver lining?:
We ended up calling to complain - the lift was poorly marked and the man on the phone told us the goods lift closed at 11 when the website told us it closed at 12. He also told us that if we tried to go down and see if it was still working, we wouldnt get up to the top for another hour so it probably wouldnt be worth it. The resort apologized profusely and said WHY WOULD HE SAY THAT ON THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR???Rub it in, Temple Basin. (They refunded us our lift passes, so that was nice)Since that wasn't much of a silver lining, I'll come up with the one we felt in the moment. The drive was beautiful, Cam had never been so far in to Arthurs Pass and there were at least 4 ski fields on the way back to Chch that we could stop at and just pay for a cheap half day pass. On to the next brilliant idea.
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| Sick of snow photos yet? This one is the view from Idea #2 (Porters Ski Field) |
Idea #2:
Porters Ski Field. One of our kiwi engineering interns told me to go to Porters at some point this winter. It's a club field, so it'll be cheaper than Mt. Hutt, and it's really close to Chch. It's on the way back from Temple Basin so we called to see how the conditions were and if we needed chains and they said all good - come on over!Where it all went wrong:
Twenty-ish minutes later we drove in, feeling great about the road and the day, and just as we thought we're gonna make it to the top, we run in to about 5 cars stopped at a switchback. A Porters employee comes over and tells us "it'll just be a minute, we had someone drive off the road" (MY WORST NIGHTMARE). About 10 minutes later a grater goes up. About 5 minutes after that, the same porters employee asks us if he can have one of our sour patch kid candies (only if you fix the problem, sir - nah he was the man, we shared happily). And to make a long story story, about 40 minutes later, we were told that the road was closing and we weren't going to be able to go skiing today. womp. womp.The silver lining:
They said if we called and intended to go back they'd "try to work something out... maybe some free food at the top". Cause everyone wants free ski resort pizza. We probably won't be going back, but at least they felt a little bit bad. And on the way home we stopped and made a snowman! That was pretty awesome. Oh also since Porter's messed up, we were able to get a refund on all the ski gear I had rented! Win! |
| Captured the snowman AND snowball fight in one photo! |
We made it back to Chch in time to relax a bit before the work week started. And the next weekend we were off to Tekapo with one of my new work colleagues and his girlfriend.
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| The road back - sorry for the overload of snow photos. |
Idea #3:
I feel a little bad doing it, but I think I'm going to anyway - this one was Cam's idea. Cam was really keen on going to Tekapo. It's about three hours away, there's a holiday homes website, so you can get a bach there, and most of all there's an observatory there where you can do incredible stargazing. Cam has never seen the milky way so we thought it would be fun to make a weekend out of it. There's also a ski resort, a hiking track I was interested in, hot pools, and a tube park. I agreed - it was a pretty good idea. |
| Lake Tekapo in Fall (March 2015) |
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| Church of the Good Shepard (also in good weather) |
Where it all fell apart:
God decided to dump a midwinter, blustery, cloudy, cold, miserable, rainstorm on Christchurch and Tekapo last weekend. The house was non-refundable, the observatory tour is only refundable if you're there in person at 5:50 pm for them to tell you the weather is bad, and chances are the forecast is going to be wrong in this country... so we went anyway. Despite our best wishes, the weather didn't really clear up, and it turns out there isn't much to do in Tekapo if its raining. Also it was a popular weekend for this rest stop/town because of the new moon (good for stargazing) so the "bach" we rented was pretty lame. Didn't even have a full size couch! |
| The drive around Lake Tekapo to the Roundhill Ski Field |
Silver lining:
Cam and I managed to get in an afternoon of skiing. (Finally!) Visibility wasn't great, but we had fun on the slopes while we could. I was glad just to make it to a field successfully after all the trouble we've been having.Once we met up with Kyle and Iona and realized that the obsevatory tour would probably get cancelled, we called the house-rental company and asked if they had any board games. They did! So we played a fun battle-of-the-sexes round of Cranium :) We also ate really good pizza, saw a bit of the All Blacks rugby game, and got a good night sleep. It was really fun hanging out with Kyle and Iona, but I still wish we had seen the stars!
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| Skiing was fun. |
So that's it for this episode of Ideas and Mishaps, but just so you don't think we have the worst luck in the world, here are a few things that went well:
We went to Paint n Sip!! We actually had to cancel and reschedule this twice, but we finally made it and it was really fun. The theme was Paint Your Mate - Picasso Style, and I think I hit this one out of the park.
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| Beautiful! |
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| Looks nothing like me. |
My sister got engaged!!! I'm so so happy for her and cannot wait to help plan the celebration!
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| This photo is THREE YEARS OLD. Still love you guys just as much as when we danced the night away in Hoboken. |
My mom's puppy went to Canada while my parents are out of town. This is particularly exciting for me because the family who is dogsitting take the best pictures of her.
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| This is her boyfriend - They like to cuddle. |
And finally, the New Zealand Film Festival came to Christchurch! We got tickets to five movies and have gone to four so far. Here are my ratings:
Enchanted Kingdom - ✶✶✶✶✶ (best nature documentary I've ever seen)
Pheonix - ✶✶✶✶
Dope - ✶
While We're Young- ✶✶✶
Lobster - TBD
Just two more wintery weekends until my trip to Australia/the USA! Spring will be here before I know it - just in time to kick my winter blues away :)
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| As much as I love this GIF, it's time to stop wearing sweaters. |
SEE YA SOON, SPRINGTIME
