Skiing New Zealand 2009

28 July – 2 August

Hello again. Due to the nature of skiing in New Zealand and the fact that my shoulder, although I can ski with it, is tender we have basically stopped skiing here. The weather has been helpful in making that decision with lots of cloud cover and plenty of rain down here in Queenstown.

We have been spoilt by the skiing in Italy and although we have been here last year, the difference in the set up between Europe and New Zealand is decades apart.

The thing we found probably the most annoying is the transport arrangements. Kiwi Discovery (the travel company we were with for this trip) only have 1 bus up to the Remarkables or Cardrona, and 2 to Cornet Peak each day. You have to book the night before and if you miss that bus, too late, there isn’t another one. On the return trip they start running back at 4pm, when the lifts close. They may run one at 3, but only if they have a full bus. VERY restrictive. If you want to start a bit later or finish a bit earlier, you can’t. When we go skiing we like to do the first couple or 3 days ‘light’, and not push ourselves to hard, so we like to be able to return ‘home’ at a time of our choosing, not a bus company’s.

One of the other things I found restrictive is the café/restaurant. At each on the fields here there is one base building with a café/restaurant, with very overpriced and poor quality food. One of the things we found so enjoyable about Italy was the fact that at the start of the day you started out skiing to a destination, like another town, and stopped along the way for a hot coffee or a snack at any one of the dozens of cafes scattered over the entire skiing region. You can even ski into a town, park the skis at the restaurant door and go in for a tasty, meal. How good is that? In New Zealand there are 3 or 4 lifts from the bottom of the mountain to the top, and you ski back down to the bottom again. No trees to ski through, no long paths that take you somewhere different, no sense of ‘exploring’.

On the drive back to Christchurch we made the decision that we will save our money and spend 4 weeks in Europe and not bother with New Zealand again. Interestingly when I checked the finance difference it isn’t that much. Air fares to New Zealand were about $1200 each, to Italy we got a special deal (off season) at $1400 each. The lift passes in New Zealand are $85 a day, each. In Italy we had a 20 day pass for €500 ($1000) each. The only thing that blew the cost out a bit in Italy was the hotel we stayed at. Next year we’ll stay in an apartment. We may also look at doing 2 weeks in Austria and 2 weeks in the Dolomites, rather than all 4 weeks in one place.

So that was our New Zealand skiing holiday for 2009. I hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I did writing.

The follow up to my shoulder injury is that I went to my doc and he sent me for an ultrasound. That showed up a torn Supraspinatus tendon, and an inflamed subacromial bursa. The treatment for the bursa was an injection of steroids directly into it, guided by ultrasound imaging. Sounds worst than it was. The treatment for the torn tendon is rest and more physio, and the diving trip to the Barrier Reef is off. Bugger!!! But it could easily have been a lot worst. The pain I was experiencing I though for sure it would require surgery… oh well, you have to get lucky sometimes.

Cheers and stay safe.

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