• Skiing

To add to the jet lag - daylight savings commenced in NZ today! So up early, breakfast of NZ bread & honey (the NZ honey is different & better than Australia), then off up the remarkable to ski, we were going to catch the bus up - but the hotel reception advised that we needed to book in the day before (did try but they had closed) so we drove! WOW what a freeky drive (especially in a small Toyota - smaller than Corolla). 50Kmph is the legal speed limit, which there's no way to do safely - no safety barriers for much of the 14km really windy, rough & slidy road… with buses flying down the other way, certainly an experience (I'm surprised the hire company were ok with their cars being taken up, we did check, there's no way I would drive my own car on this "road").

The views everywhere are amazing! When we arrived booked in for our lesson, which was actually well run, even though they had 30 beginners (broken into 3 groups of 10). Interestingly our group of 10, all coupes, for the afternoon lesson ended up being 4 guys & 1 woman, the guys were a lot more into it. To get up the training slopes they have "magic carpets", the main one which we used, Rachel fell and knocked the emergency stop - bringing everyone to a halt (lift was reasonably full at the time, at-least 25 people)…

I (Luke) between lessons decided to try out the training slopes from the top without the instructor, which helped to know what I wanted to learn in the next lesson (i.e. how to steer properly). Rachel pulled out of the afternoon lesson and socilised with others who had also pulled out. I ended up spending the afternoon practicing on the training slope (not allowed on the real slopes until tomorrow) - but it was HEAPS of fun. Only 1 fall, found out that going as fast as possible then turning 90 degree results in flipping…

Had dinner in town found a restaurant one the river with an outdoor area that was heated, but no one else was sitting outside which was AMAZING - the view was spectacular, and there was hardy anyone around (even though we were in town center).