Andrew and I awoke early, grabbed our #1 priority (leftover sandwiches), and then our #2 priority being our bundles of ski clothes we had set out the night before. We basically got dressed outside the RV because we knew with that bulky of clothes, our stumbling around would wake Emily and Jason. The Holiday Park had organized the tour to the mountain so we were picked up by a big bus with driver Carl around 7:15AM. The bus made its ways towards the mountain which was back towards Wanaka up the switchback road the RV company told us not to go on. Let me tell you - Carl is a champion bus driver. If they had a competition in large bus driving, Carl would crush all competition.
A little over an hour after our departure with a few more pick ups, we arrived at the base of Cardrona Alpine Resort and worked out some confusion with our ski passes and got our rentals. The employees helping us with our rentals (and metric conversions) kept mentioning how they hope it will clear up for us, but we assumed it was only a little cloudy. We were too excited by the fact we were going to both ski in August and on the Southern Hemisphere.
FALSE.
We took our first ski lift up to the top and it was white out. I'm talking - the only thing I can see is Andrew's red coat right next to me. No slope markers, no horizon, no ropes, no cliffs, no walls, no nothing. We were both a little skeptical and annoyed but made the most of it by using a guess and check method. If you've never skied or boarded before, never do this. We almost felt like we were in a video game because every now and then you would see an orange flag on a pole but we had no idea if it indicated the middle or the edge of the slope - we guessed middle and kept moving towards orange flags.
We both took a tumble not having a clue which way was up on the mountain which sort of just causes you to fall over standing up. Andrew got a little raspberry on his face but nothing life changing. We decided to take a break around 10:30 not because we were tired, but more because its exhausting skiing blind with only the treads underneath your skis indicating if you are on a groomed path or not.
So we went into this lodge called the Captain's Cafe and I was immediately in heaven because all of the staff was singing songs from FROZEN! I decided if I was going to move to New Zealand this would be where I would work. The musically medley continued with all of my Disney favorites as I ordered us a flat white and hot chocolate as we sat and ate our backpack sandwiches.
We ventured back out on the mountain hoping for a little more clarity and realized the lower we went, the more visibility we gained. We liked the higher stuff, but trade offs. Thankfully with the clarity , we were able to pick up a little more speed and do some more challenging runs since we could see. Andrew's snowboard binding broke at one point so we had to take a quick detour down to base to swap that out.
So the best thing about the horrible visibility is there was no one on the mountain. It was getting to be the tail end of their ski season but we waited in zero lines the entire day. Literally flew down a slope and straight onto the next lift. If I had to guess we probably knocked out 30 runs at the minimum. Andrew and I both grew up taking family ski trips so it's fun to be able to just pick a direction on the mountain and go instead of having to sort through and be concerned about level of difficulty or skill level. Just flying all over the place!
We skied our hearts out until around 3PM and then went down to return our gear, find some souvenirs and grab a meat pie and coffee before our shuttle back to Queenstown. We were one of the first few to the bus so we sat up front and talked to Carl all the way down about how much New Zealand has changed with tourism over the past 30 years. It was really cool to get a local perspective.
The bus made it back to town before schedule but we still had to rush and get ready in order to meet Emily, Jason, Ian and Lauren at Roaring Megs Restaurant for dinner. Ian, Lauren and another friend of Ian's had taken a quick tour of the North Island before heading south and meeting up with us in Queenstown. Emily had a 40% off coupon for booking an early table at this restaurant so we were basically the only ones there - which was great since our stereotypical American table was quite loud.
We had a great spread of cauliflower soup and garlic bread to start before the mains. I ordered the Confit of Lamb Shoulder with Lamb Jus and Herb Crusted Canterbury Lamb Cutlets which had won the Central Otago Lamb Dish of the Year twice. I have no idea what the means but it was BOMB. Other people were graciously sharing their lamb, hare, and venison while I was quietly hoarding my amazing dish at the end of the table. This trend continued as I quietly ordered and scarfed down their fruit cobbler for dessert without even a thought about offering anyone a bite. I love cobbler.
We continued the party post dinner at a bar where the noise level of our group was a little more appropriate - an Irish Pub. We found ourselves a booth at Pog Mahone's and promised everyone I would have one drink before considering leaving. The bartenders were disgusted by my American mixing of Guinness and Cider but begrudgingly made me my drink. I tried my best to hang in there but after a long day of skiing decided to tap out and head back to the RV to shower and go to bed. The rest of the group got back around 1AM as quietly as possible.
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