The weekend with a great ski day a road trip and a return to Wellington with surprises

 Hi,

I am back in Wellington.  I'd like to thank my guest blogger from last week.  :-)  Thanks Mike.  For always being there for me.  Virtually - and in reality too.

Saturday I was surprised to see both skifields open for business after heavy, warmish rain overnight in Wanaka.  We decided my body would prefer to tackle the fresh 15 cms of powder at Cardrona rather than the steeper terrain at Treble.  So we checked out and headed up. Left Wanaka at 7.30am - so a nice early get away.

Got to the base of the mountain and 2WD cars needed chains due to mud.  But the van is mighty.  And all wheel drive.  So up we went.  Got to the Valley View car park road - and drove right by the sign saying 4WD only.  The van made short work of the steep, muddy, rutted road.  Found a car park spot on really soft looking mud, not far from the chairlift.

We sat around in the van, keeping warm. It was only 8am.  And the lift didn't open until 8.30am.  Eventually we got out, and got ready.  Saw the first punters go up - and we were not long behind them.

Cardona magic on Saturday

Look at that snow behind me

What a superb day.  The powder up top was pretty skied up by the time we got there.  But still found plenty of pockets of goodness on our first few runs.  We did about 4 runs (busy queues) before a toilet and hot chocolate break.  My Strava decided to stop then - and I didn't realise for a few hours.  So most of my runs from 10 - 1pm weren't recorded.  Sigh!

Blue sky

Mountains between us and Queenstown in the background

Queenstown Return trail

I was still pretty tentative with my skiing.  Skiing well within my limits as I did not want to fall over.  Had such fun.  Went down some cool runs with Kara.  Loved it.

Did Valley View a few times and then called it at 3pm.  Jumped in the van and headed north for our road trip back to Chc. As I backed out of the soft park where we'd sat all day, I used low gear.  And I took the easiest path to the road through the parked cars that remained. As we approached thge steep downhill, a sign said to use low gear. And Kara said:  use low gear.  Hahah.  I could not have got to this point in the usual Drive gear and said I was already in low gear.  The ruts in the slippery mud loomed below us and Kara said at this point that she was very glad I was driving and not her. Game face on, I grunted assent. And we went down the hill like a boss. No worries.  We bottomed out a bit on the ruts.  But nothing slid anywhere. Car behind me didn't seem to back off.  Hahah.

Geraldine Motels - here we come!  I sang a lot on the way - some awesome playlist on Spotify.  Might have been one of my playlists.  :-p 

What a great wee place that was Geraldine Motors. We got there around 8pm. I had accidentally booked a double but the people at the motels jumped into action and split the bed into two singles before our very eyes.  Wow!  Thank you.

Geraldine Motels - would recommend!

Had a good sleep.  My body was even better - and I could sleep on my back for a short period of time.  Progress!

Up early - 5am!  The ski week has programmed me well.  Read for a bit until Kara woke just after 6.  Got ready - checked out.  And found a cafe called The Running Duck for some brekkie.

The flowers go on a road trip

Ready to check out Sunday morning

The Running Duck iced latte #1

The Running Duck iced latte #2

Left Geraldine around 11am ish and popped into Rakaia Gorge to see it.  I do like that river.  I used to go there with Toby a lot on our ski week trips to Mt Hutt.  It was wide, brown and fast.  And we could see it had been higher not too long ago.

The road by Rakaia was really washed out.  They had one way systems in the middle of the road where water had taken half the uphill lane away.

Rakaia Gorge

Down with the kids at the "gorge-ous" gorge

I was disappointed last night to get a text from Toby saying he couldn't meet me in Chc on Sunday.  But we got to Chc and filled in a bit of time shopping.  And checking out C1 cafe.

C1 iced latte in Chc

Left the van outside Toby's flat - along with our food leftovers.  We tried for an earlier flight, but just missed the 4.30pm one.  And the 5.30pm one was full.

So, 6.30pm it was.  Landed just after 7 at Wellington, and as I spotted Mike in the distance and told Kara, she said:  he has someone with him.

Chc departure gate

Guess who was in Wellington and that was why I couldn't see him in Chc?  That Toby!  I was so happy to see him.

Surprise in Wellington

Mum - I can whistle really well now!

I recognised the tune he whistled!

Look what the cheeky two of them sent me from Wellington airport before I got on my flight in Chc!

Mike sent a selfie of him at the burger place in Wellington.  And that is Toby, hiding in plain sight behind him!  Hahahah.

I had seen a 2.30am doorbell video of someone walking very weirdly to our front door on Saturday morning. In fact, I showed Kara as I said it looks awfully like Toby.  I asked Mike, and he said he was prancing to the door.  So I just left it.  But now I know it was Toby!  Hahahah.

Happy to see Mike too.  Toby's flight back to Chc was at 8.30pm - so we said goodbye to Kara.  She trotted out to find Neil.  And we all sat in the terminal, chatting before Toby's flight boarded.

Saw him off.  And Mike took me home.  He pampered me with clean sheets and lots of iced coffee in the fridge.  Mmmmm.

Went to bed and was asleep super fast.  Possibly my best sleep all week - I think my body is much better and I do not have to always sleep on my left.  I don't wake myself when I move.  :-)  Yay!

Caught up with some news here in Wellington.  Helen is not well - she caught covid down south.  She's okay for now and Andrew is there to check on her.  We've had landslips all over the place here too.  Cars squashed.  Houses evacuated.  It is all happening.

I hope you have a great week ahead.  Take care.

Love,

Angela