Wanaka and the Snowfields
We stayed in Wanaka rather then Queenstown while we were skiing so that we could try Cadrona and Treble Cone which I hadn’t been to before. Wanaka was a lovely town, much quieter then Queenstown but still reasonably touristy with lots of restaurants. Our hotel was okay but it didn’t have a drying room, which was weird, and 2/3 of the reception staff were snobby and unfriendly. All the food places we went to were good, and there was even a burger place trying to steal Fergburgers glory.
The winter games were on while we were there and so they had bands playing down but the lake front at night after the awards ceremony from that days competition.
Our first day skiing (or snowboarding in my case) we went to Treble Cone as everyone in town said it was awesome. The bus ride up was pretty hairy and Rachael wasn’t a fan. The views were spectacular though and the weather was sublime. I thought the runs were pretty good but it was a bit too steep for everyone else and so we went to Cardona for the rest of the days.
Cadrona was a lot flatter and varied and so everyone else was much happier with the beginner runs. The runs were pretty good but the snow was pretty hard as it had been a while since it last snowed. We did have perfect visibility though, except for the last day where it snowed in the morning before clearing up again.The winter games were crazy to watch. There was a fun park built for the games with truly mental jumps where they would go up this massive grind bar then do some back flips. They had TVs where you could watch as well and it didn’t do it justice. I kept to the Lil' Bucks Park and Rachael even did a small jump. On the afternoon of the last day I tried to hit one of the jumps as hard as I could and stacked it, breaking the board binding and hurting my butt and hand. They still hurt today (almost 2 weeks later). Dad and I swapped for one day also and I had fun on the ski’s. I think next time I might ski as it was way easier when you are standing around waiting for people at the bottom of the lift.
