First things first, here is some insight into my miserable Plant Ecology class. This is what I had to come back to after a weekend away. Could you identify this if the name wasn't right there? Eventually, I'm going to have to. After looking at my dismal stick figure plant drawings, I've decided to shadily try and take pictures of the plants to help me better study for the wretched lab final eventually.
This is the adorable kitten that greeted me when I was walking home from a group meeting a few nights back. He was extremely friendly and triggered fond memories of Caesar. I'm hoping we will cross paths again.
Our room at Nomad's Hostel. My bed was the top, front bunk on the right. The mess on the floor is mostly mine.
Starbucks found its way to Queenstown and I found my way to it! Oh Starbucks, how I've missed you.
Me readying myself to ski down one of Coronet Peak's slopes. Simply amazing.
On top of one of the Coronet Peak slopes. Toto, we're not in the Pocono's anymore.
View from the shuttle ride up to Coronet Peak.
Taken during the bus ride to Queenstown. Notice the picturesque reflecting water.
Sun setting on the mountains during the bus ride to Queenstown.
Dunedin sheeples! Yes, yes, there are A LOT of sheep in NZ but, NZ has so much more to offer as I hope this post demonstrates.
Nice right? Just imagine skiing among this gorgeous mountain backdrop. OK, I suppose I should back up to the one minor glitch to my weekend before I get carried away with my love of Queenstown. So, me being me, I booked a bus ticket for the day before I was actually supposed to be leaving for Queenstown, a fact which I regrettably found out after lugging my travel bags to the train station Friday morning. However, I was determined to make it to Queenstown at any cost so I shelled out another $36 NZD to purchase a last minute Friday afternoon bus ticket. Not the best start to the weekend but, it very quickly became a thing in the past once we left Dunedin's sheep infested hills.
The scenery on the way up was gorgeous, and although I was bummed that I foolishly missed the morning bus, I took advantage of the mountain sunset with my camera by my side the entire ride. Once I arrived four hours later, I quickly met up with Chloe and Liz who escorted me to Nomad's Hostel. This was my first hostel experience and overall, it was a positive one. The hostel was relatively new and complete with a sauna, welcome desk that doubled as a concierge (well, we used it like a concierge and we named the guy who checked us in and fielded a million of our questions "Frank"), and morning tea and toast. We stayed in a 6 bed room located on an all-female hall although the room was only occupied by five travelers for the three nights we were there. I could not have asked for a better first-time hostel roommate. Steph, the stranger who served as our temporary roommate for three nights, is originally from San Francisco but has been traveling the world for the last few years in between getting her doctorate. We instantly hit it off with her, chatting as if we were friends at a sleepover rather than complete strangers, and we even ended up skiing/snowboarding with her on Sunday. The room itself was tidy and nice enough, although very loud at all hours of the night (what can you expect though?). You can find a picture of the room above. We had a balcony and our own bathroom which was split into an individual toilette room and shower room. Minus the sound level, it's starting to sound more like a hotel then a hostel as I describe it here.
Once I settled in, we set off in search of a dinner location, finally deciding on Winnie's, a popular pizza parlor with a personality. As we waited for a table, the ceiling momentarily mechanically opened up, revealing the clear night sky. After we consumed our expensive pizzas, we left to explore the darling town of Queenstown, briefly stopping in a few shops that had not yet flipped their open sign. We spent the rest of the night conversing with Steph. The next morning we awoke early so to go rent our equipment and grab breakfast. It took about 40 minutes for the shuttle to reach Coronet Peak, the mountain we had selected for our first day of skiing.
As I hadn't skied in a few months and am not generally accustomed to skiing in August, I accompanied Liz and Chloe on a green beginner's trail for my first run. My muscles quickly remembered the skiing sensation and I zoomed down the trail. Until that point, I was not exactly sure of the skiing skill level of my flatmate companions but I quickly discovered after waiting at the bottom several minutes that my skiing experience far exceeded theirs. While I have skiing experience and consider myself a decent skier, I generally ski with avid skiers so I was thrilled to be the best skier in the lot for once. As I lingered at the bottom scouring the mountain for my flatmates, I sympathized with my father who often waits for my Aunt Carol during our ski trips. Not keen to waste most of my time at the bottom of the mountain, I took off on my own, heading over to the blue squares. Normally the intermediate squares do not pose much of a problem however, here, they definitely presented a little more of a challenge. Nevertheless, they were absolutely fantastic runs. The chairlift ride was short and the runs were long and not in the when will this ever end sense. I have never been on trails as long as these before. I frequently had to stop on my way down to catch my breath (and to capture the mountain scenery with my camera). One of my favorite parts of skiing is when you can ski up on the side of the mountain. On these trails, you could ski the entire way down on the side of the mountain if you so desired. It was not until midday that I realized the one major difference about the mountains here and the ones back in the States: the trails were not thickly lined with trees. In the absence of trees, you could just cross over to other trails and completely customize your route to the bottom. There would be some moments where I would end up somewhere, wondering if I had made a wrong turn as there was no longer a set trail to follow. Creativity at its finest! The entire mountain was yours for the taking. Also, trees did not inhibit your view of the stunning snowy mountain scenery (see above for pictures) which caused internal conflict as I frequently had to suppress the urge to pull over and waste the day away snapping pictures.
While my flatmates gave in to their fatigue and returned to the hostel at 4PM, I stayed around for night skiing. Night skiing is fabulous anywhere but, particularly in New Zealand. I love the quietness, concentration, and determination associated with night skiing. For a bit, I went over to the easy section to work on my technique before heading back to the few blue squares still open. Although I completed the same blue run countless times, I could not predict the next part of the trail which was interesting and different from the runs back home. At 8PM, I dragged myself from the slope, unknowing that I was about to embark on a rather bismal bus ride home. I boarded a cramped bus that could not have been built later than the 80's and patiently waited to take off. While the bus was supposed to leave at 8:30PM, the driver stayed another half an hour until every seat on the bus was filled with drunken college skiers. He then proceeded to drive at a speed that made the elderly seem like speed demons.
The following day, we tested out Cardrona, another mountain. While the conditions were ideal the previous day before despite the rainy forecast, during our stay at Cardrona, the mountain remained heavily encased in fog, obstructing our vision beyond a few meters. I have never skied in complete fog before so it was a little eerie yet, thrilling at times as you felt like you were the only one on the mountain. The slopes here were slightly less challenging and more reminiscent of those at Colorado. Unlike Coronet Peak, the blues had that usual fun and windy feel to them while the greens were unbearably slow. There were some truly wonderful blue runs that entertained me for most of the day however, I did attempt several black diamonds as well. At Coronet, I did cross over to a few diamonds, I do not think I completed one in its entirety (The walled off sign by the diamond slopes designed to filter out the posers from the true experts deterred me). Cardrona's blacks were much more inviting, although not without their challenges. As I was traveling down my first black, I found myself thinking how easy it was. Then I got to a point that just dropped straight down. Initially, I thought I made a wrong turn so I peered through the haze, looking for someone whose lead I could follow. Eventually I concluded that this drop was the trail and I just dove right in, hoping for the best. It ended up being one of my favorite runs. Several trails, including the previous trail, met at this narrow, flat, and windy path that led to the lift. This bit of the path was literally on the edge of the mountain and judging from the ski tracks, even the most experienced riders took caution during this patch so to avoid spiraling off the mountain. Throughout the entire day, I only fell once albeit it was a pretty epic fall. I was exploring this black diamond only to find this insanely steep section of the trail interspersed with rocks and moguls. I was fairly certain I wouldn't make it down in one piece but I had not choice, so I slowly carved my skis along the mountain's snowy crevices. As expected, I hit a snag and tumbled down a good portion of the trail although I managed to keep my skis and poles with me. Once I realized that I was in no immediate danger, I sort of just let my body glide down the slope, smiling all the way down, until I could regain control. Besides that minor mishap, my skiing was pretty decent. I worked on jumping and at one point, I even jumped off a rock (it was incredible...sort of like one of those things you see on a ski brochure or in an action movie...only toned down slightly). This was by far some of the best skiing I have ever done in my life and I am lamenting the fact that I do not think I can get back to Queenstown before the end of the ski season.
When we returned from the slopes, Chloe and I did some souvenir shopping. You will be delighted to hear that in the course of this shopping spree, I purchased my first postcards and on the bus ride home, I filled them in with lovely stories of my trip. I will not reveal who the lucky few are but, four unsuspecting members of the Postcard Club will shortly be able to collect their prize (once I buy postage that is). Of course, I also purchased a few things for myself. Chloe and I walked into a shop and noticed that their tall UGG-like boots were on sale. It wasn't until I arrived in NZ that I realized I should look into buying these boots here, after all UGGS are Australian. So, I convinced myself that the sale was a sign and I splurged on the boots I have been secretly wanting since high school. They are not UGGS but, they are ten times better as they're made from official Canterbury NZ sheep skin. While this has certainly not been one of my long term goals (believe me, I am aspiring slightly higher), it was definitely fulfilling to finally make this purchase that was years in the making. I also bought a $6 NZD tote bag with pastel colored kiwis on the front. After shopping and dinner at a tapas restaurant, Chloe and I briefly returned to the hostel where I took a quick sauna break. We then treated ourselves to gelatto which we had been looking forward to all weekend long. Chloe and I decided to indulge our taste buds one last time that weekend as we both purchased a cocktail at Skybar, simply because we could. While I see how cocktails can become addictive, I am not sure how particular Sex and the City characters managed to pay rent on top of all the cocktails they consumed.
We departed Queenstown on a 7:45AM bus on Monday and arrived home just in time for me to make it to my Plant Ecology lab (joy).
Back to reality. I found out my hellish exam timetable this week. We have an entire month for exams and yet this is my schedule: Maori October 29th, Classics Nov. 2nd morning, Plant Ecology Nov. 2nd afternoon, and Animal Biology Nov. 3rd. Is that not rotten luck? I am going to fail for sure. Let's just say I am missing self scheduled exams right about now. Alright, I should not be thinking about finals when I have midterms next week (yes, that's right, I said midterms for all of you guys just about to start your semester back home). As this seems to be the bad news paragraph, our washing machine broke this week, a fact I did not realize until after I stuffed all of my clothes and liquid detergent into the machine. However, we now have a temporary washer which means I now have clean clothes temporarily I suppose.
To get away from the gloomy news, let me add something super exciting. Chloe and I officially booked our summer break trip. On November 10th, we leave for our 17 day trip to Australia and the Rarotonga! I'll fill you in on the details once we get in the vicinity of November (if I start telling you now, I'll get all depressed that I still have a few more months of school left between then and now). Oh, I also got a wonderful letter from my cousin the other day which cheered me up immensely (look, I am sort of equating snail mail to a Australia/Pacific Islands vacation which means you should all write me).
Alright then. I hope you are enjoying your own mountain scenery! If not, get yourself to New Zealand or just keep reading my blog!
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