27-28/07/2020
On a Monday morning in late July, we started our day by waking up at stupid o’clock, packing up the car, and beginning the 4 hour journey to the snow. It was a beautiful but ridiculously long drive. We were in high spirits, both very excited to hit the slopes with our brand-new snowboards on such a blue bird day.
We finally made it to Turoa, up the windy road (with thankfully no ice), to the base of the ski field. After a solid mission to find a parking spot, we purchased our tickets, strapped on our boards, and hopped on the chairlift. There were no lines, and though we were tired from our early morning and long drive, we were bubbling over with excitement. Amber was telling me about the jumps she would do, and I couldn’t wait to get up some speed. We made the decision to head up to the top straight off the bat.
Embarrassingly, I fell at the top of the lift (not a great start), but was still feeling good. We strapped in, and looked briefly at the map to plan an easy route. Off we went.
Well it turns out that the very top of the mountain was a bit icier than we had anticipated. Oopsie #1. The slippery slope did not feel like a blue run at all, as the steep iciness turned into icy narrow gullies. Then all of a sudden, we were avoiding rocks strewn about the slopes amidst the ice. This was not a good combination for us, as we were both a bit rusty. At this point, we were also heading down a very slippery metaphorical emotional slope as well.
I stopped to wait for Amber. I had become wrapped up trying to dodge the ice and rocks and had gotten way too far ahead of her. Oopsie #2. It turned out that her bindings weren’t quite right and it made it very challenging to flip from toe to heel, so she wasn’t exactly speedy gonzales, nor was it an easy and breezy ride. By the time she caught up, she was not a happy camper and ready to get to the bottom. I too was exhausted and didn’t know which way to go, so I consulted the not-so-helpful map again. I figured out what I thought was the way to get to the bottom, Amber tried to fix her bindings, and we set off. Little did we know that we were not at the bottom of the emotional slippery slope yet either.
Once again, it was a game of dodge the rocks and slide on the ice, while also trying to figure out which way was down. See they do this fun thing where they don’t actually label any of the runs, so you have no idea what/where the runs are, and the map doesn’t entirely make sense. So here I am, stepping into my detective shoes, trying to decipher where the runs really are, when I finally spotted it. The signpost with a green dot on it! Well that’ll make life a bit easier.
We followed the winding green run down, and the snow became much nicer. There was a clear path to follow, no detective work required. Of course, the top half of the run had taken it out of us to such a degree that even perfect conditions couldn’t bring us back up to cloud nine. And then, before we knew it, success! We made it to the bottom. We hit the cafe hard, Amber stocked up on food and immediately began to perk up. Amber had had enough, so after a break, I went back up and did one more run before we headed back to the car. We left the slopes exhausted, and ready to treat ourselves for our fantastical effort (gold stars to us).
Our night picked up from there, as we made it to the accommodation and found it to be extremely comfortable and exactly what we needed. They even had a sauna, to Amber’s delight. Amber hit the sauna and I had a shower. This lifted our spirits with much success, and we headed out for a nice dinner and drink on the town. After an amazing dinner at the Powderkeg Restaurant, we turned in early with happy hearts to prepare ourselves for a hefty second day.
The second day was not such a slippery slope, thank goodness. We started out by doing a 1hr 20min return hike to a waterfall on the mountain, called the Waitonga Falls, that had breathtaking views of the ski field. We enjoyed coffee and happy chit chat on the way. Then we made our way up to Turoa for take two.
We started out easy this time, just sticking to the good snow and the easy hills. We got into our groove and got some epic footage on the gopro. We slowly made our way up the hill and found our favourite runs. Amber even started throwing in some jumps, so that people would know that we are the cool kids on the mountain. Jokes. But they sure did look cool!
We had a full day on the slopes with much style and all the fun. We went home, completely shattered, but feeling good. Till next time, Turoa.
