Saturday, Oct 16: Stephanie and I had such an epic day at Mt. Hutt! We woke up at 6 am to catch the "Snowman" bus that took care of our transportation, rentals, and all day lift pass. I was super excited for my first time snowboarding and what a place to begin - the largest and most popular ski/snowboard mountain in New Zealand. Its summit is 2190 metres above sea level!! The drive up to the mountain along the narrow and steep access road was stunning and the final view from the top took my breath away. It was a clear day so I could see all the way across the patch-worked Canterbury Plains out to the Pacific Ocean.
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| View from Mt. Hutt |
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| Magic carpet hill, right before my fist snowboard run ever |
The first funny thing that happened was my sunscreen exploded all over me. The elevation was too much for the bottle to handle! Stephanie and I just stood in the middle of the lodge laughing so loud. Finally we got all our gear together and headed out into the snow. Stephanie had only gone snowboarding once in her life and I was completely new. However we decided against lessons to see if we could figure it out ourselves. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It was so awkward in the beginning - I didn't even know how to walk with a snowboard attached to one foot! Some guy suggested we start at the beginner's "magic carpet" hill. We were supposed to pay extra for a magic carpet ticket this but a nice guy let us on for free. As I was thanking him, I stepped into the tunnel that we had to go through to get to the top of the hill. It felt like I stepped on something slippery, my feet were taken out from underneath me, and I completely WIPED OUT!!!! I was so stunned! What just happened?? Then I realized that the "magic carpet" was a moving walkway. Hahahahaha. Stephanie was crying laughing by this point and I was just sitting on the moving walkway confused and laughing. The guy didn't know what to do so he stopped the walkway for me as I stood up awkwardly. I couldn't believe I wiped out before I even put my snowboard on both feet. SO HILARIOUS! My ride down the small hill was a complete fail since I had absolutely no idea how to snowboard but we decided to venture up the chairlift anyway.
We somehow awkwardly mounted the chairlift and enjoyed the scenic ride. I was so nervous to get off. I basically rolled off haha. The first run down the long hill was horrible. I fell soooooo many times and it hurt so bad! Once we finally made it down we took a break to relax and eat lunch. Then we got out there again. Something clicked on my second run and I didn't fall as much. It was actually pretty fun! The third run down I got really fast and then we stopped halfway down to take pictures of the epic view. I felt so legit the rest of the way down, I hardly fell at all and built up more speed! Unfortunately it started getting super windy so the chairlift had to be shut down. But that's ok because my body was tired and I felt very accomplished. I've always wanted to learn how to snowboard and there is no better place to learn than New Zealand! I am the sorest I have ever been - I have too many bruises, my butt hurts to sit down, and my wrists and arms feel sprained. But it was so worth it.
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| Mt. Hutt |
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