On Sunday morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day in Queenstown. Jamie went to the airport at 8.30 a.m. to pick up Davie and Chanel and soon we were all having a celebratory breakfast together. It was so great to see them!
We decided to get the ski hire sorted out straight away. This involved the usual footering about, but the people in the hire shop were very efficient and soon we were loading six sets of skis, boots etc into the car. And off we set to nearby Coronet Peak for our first afternoon of skiing in the Southern Hemisphere! James, Jamie, Aisling and Davie took off to the high slopes, and Chanel and I booked ourselves on a lesson for two. This was very much following the successful strategy I used when Cat was learning to ski with instructor Jeremie in Belle Plagne two years ago; it's more companionable to have two people taking a lesson together, and I find it useful to brush up on my technique. It worked well this time too. Our instructor was Michelle, a very friendly lady of about my age, and while she didn't have Jeremie's boyish charm, she was kind and experienced and quickly picked up on what we were looking for. Chanel was a star, she learned to turn very quickly and Michelle responded to that by teaching her more techniques. Meanwhile she gave me other things to practise. It all went so well that we booked another lesson for the next day. We skied until the lifts closed at 4, then back to the apartment where we had a convivial evening of pizza, chat, and a film (The Man from Uncle.)
No comments:
Post a Comment