Skills revisited

So! We didn’t end up going away despite the temptation to sneak away to our friends’ bach. The main reason was that the weather forecast (and indeed, the weather outside our windows) was not nice at all – 150kmph winds, 200ml rain per day, cold, blerky conditions were forecast – not at all conducive to going out onto a snowy mountain. However, back home on the ranch (well, ok – at our wee villa), the weather actually wasn’t too bad all of the time. However, the webcams on Whakapapa and Turoa persuaded us that we’d made the right decision to stay home. There’s something ‘stay at home-ish’ when one sees a dark grey webcam picture with a shadowy promise of a ski lift partially visible through the fog….and lotsa raindrops on the lens….and a “Mountain Closed” sign….

But we did get 7 hours of skiing in on our first day – all indoors! It was actually quite a boon, since the boys needed to refresh their ski legs again after all those years. It wasn’t exactly Whistler, but it was a nice start! And we’ve been ice skating, and eating out, and climbing mountains, and ice skating, reading, playing boardgames, going on photo expeditions, and visiting….! It’s all been very nice really. The boys have commented that it’s been ‘better than going skiing….though we’d like to do that TOO!” Hmm.

One of the highlights for me, has been being in the middle of a whole grove of trees covered with cherry blossom, and then to get the preface to the strong winds. The unexpected huge gust of wind meant that we were surrounded by a blossom-storm. It was just beautiful. Getting hit by an elderly couple’s flying picnic lunch as well (felt like super heavy blossom!), was all part of the excitement! As was stepping ankle deep into a highly fragrant and fresh pile of cow dung. Warm, but definitely a low point in my photographic enterprise! But the best part was seeing the boys regaining some of their skiing and skating skills, after having not used them for over 3 years. That was really exciting.

Ange of the North, minutes after I received your text about yodelling on the mountaintops, we had a nasty surprise. We’d been having some very delicious pies on top of Mt Wellington, and enjoying the view. There were 2 cars parked close by to our car, and when we left our car to go for a walk around the crater edge, I felt distinctly uneasy about one of the cars and its inhabitants. However, we were able to see our car and the entire carpark from about 90% of our walk. There was only 1 small patch of about 2-3 minutes walk, which obscured us from the carpark. On our return to the carpark, I noticed that the car which had made me feel disquieted, had gone. I went to get something from our car, and noticed that the glove box was open and that there was glass all over the floor. The occupants of the remaining car in the carpark hadn’t even heard anything (probably because the car which had made me uneasy, had extremely loud rap music blasting from their speakers). They had, however, noticed the occupants of the Rap car behaving a little strangely. Anyway, the long and short of it is, that they took K’s bag which had credit cards, cash, all our good ski gloves that we’d bought in Vancouver, my new ski pants (the ones I bought when I was staying at your place – at least I got 1 day’s wear out of them!), my favourite Burton snowboarding leather wrist guards, the boys’ Epipen, and my spare spectacles. It was just SO brazen! Really, it was all just stuff - and it’s stuff that can be replaced. It’s just that it is so inconvenient and frustrating. The boys were quite upset. I was mad! I wish I’d left a verse or something in K’s bag – “Thou shalt not steal!!!” Grrrrrrrr!!!!

Anyway, I guess I’ve been putting off getting some spectacles for ages, and now I get to have some new ones! And at least, we’d gotten our skiing and skating in first. It’ll be nice to have some new gloves & pants too – I don’t even have to wash this season’s ones! K will get a new bag and cellphone – he’ll be happy to have an updated toy! Might have to give up on the skateboarding till I get some new wrist protectors though…..