When I was very young I spent a lot of time in the deep snow in Austria. Back home in England I loved building Snowmen and generally messing about with the snow so when the opportunity arose in New Zealand to go up Ruapehu I jumped at the chance.
My companion and I went to the mountain by bus. We admired the beautiful Chateau but we decided that we would stay in one of the small huts.
I looked forward to learning how to ski and so we hired skis from the shop on the mountain and then went up to the ski field in a chair lift and joined our skiing instructor's class.
Full of bravado I put on my skis and imagined myself flying down the mountain. Turned out I was a complete failure! I couldn't even stand up once I had put on my skis. My companion, a young man in his teens as I was also, helped me to my feet and I warily tried moving forward only to land flat on my back!
Needless to say my skiing ambitions were very quickly over. I went back to just messing about in the snow which I thought in any case was a lot better fun!
We stayed on the Mountain for a week.
On the journey back down the Desert Road the weather was not so good. I am prone to Motion Sickness and I was feeling very queasy. There was standing room only and I desperately needed a seat but alas no-one was willing to offer me one. I clung to my companion in a pitiful state however the journey down the Desert Road finished just in time for me. It was not until I had dismounted the bus that I was actually sick.
My face was badly snow-burned but for all of that I had a wonderful time on the mountain and thoroughly enjoyed my adventure although I concede that I have no desire to repeat it!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.