We managed to get an extended check out this morning and 3 days of internet use for the price of one, on the basis that it had been a bit hit and miss! Good one Simon. He has been researching the local ski fields avidly for the past few days and we have decided the one that will suit us best is Cardrona which is about an hour from Queenstown and half an hour from Wanaka where we plan to stay.

None of us have skied before and we did think about snow boarding instead as Ali thinks its cooler. After talking to some guy in a shop who told us “skiing is the new snow boarding” we decide initially to try skiing and then change to boarding if we want once we’re on the slopes. We leave Queenstown; a bit sadly as it’s a great place and we’ve really had a good time here and drive over the mountains towards Cardrona. All the reports suggest it will snow on Saturday night which will be good timing for us.

We arrive at Wanaka and check into the Alpine Motel, it has everything the lovely apartment in Queenstown had but not nearly as nice and a bit bleak looking. Still we will be spending all day at the ski resort so it’s not a problem. We are going to arrange a 3 day learner package which includes lift pass, ski and boot hire and 4 lessons. It will cost us in total a bit over 400 hundred quid which doesn’t sound too pricy but we still have to hire ski pants and jackets. In the end we also buy thermal glove linings, socks and lip balm and I give up adding up the cost as it’s too scary!

Well I always wanted to try skiing but have to be the least prepared person ever, have just been looking up skiing tips on the internet and deciding its all over exaggeration I reckon blissful ignorance is the best policy. I probably should be a little more concerned as everyone I know always seems to go into some kind of boot-camp training for at least 6 weeks before their ski trip but on the other hand we’re only going for 3 days, I’ve learnt a bit of ski lingo and how hard can it be?