History is not written on a gold plated paper...with a gold pen!

Bad hair day, day 3

Today is the day in the life of Maya that will be marked as history. History is about to happen and it's right here, right in front of my eyes. I'm going skiing!! I'm gonna touch the snow!! History is about to be made. I've waited for this moment all my life, as a little girl who wanted to build a snowman, and as a more stylish adult that thinks, If I'm gonna touch the snow, I'm gonna do it in style! Skiing sounds good though...yeah, I'll do that one day.

So, here I am, in queue with hundreds other skier and snowboarder, waiting for our shuttle to take us up the mountain. This small town is crazy about snow. Everywhere you see, especially by the end of the day, around 5-6pm, are people carrying their ski gear or snowboard. It's like a cult, it's like they're all born with built-in winter sport radar in their brain, it's like they don't know what to do if there's no such thing as skiing. Wicked...!

Yesterday, I circled the town in search for the best deal in skiing package. The busiest place was Snow Centre. They're always full of people who wanted to get their lift pass, shuttle pass and other passes related. Also gear rental, of course. Very important! I decided to go with majority, I've no experince in skiing, so whatever looks crowded, that's the place that people trust the most. I booked for a one day ski lesson package (almost go for 2-3 days, but luckily I didn't) and the next day I'm all set to go to Coronet Peak.

Coronet Peak is the closest ski resort to Queenstown. Take half an hour to get there and apparently it's the trendiest ski place in town because it's the only place where you can do night skiing, under the blanket of stars (or whatever other advertisement flyer say). Looks like other people had the same idea and as a result, we are all stuffed inside the shuttle to go to Coronet Peak.

I was watching other people while on the shuttle. Some are wearing gloves, some aren't. I tried to predict how cold can being in the snow get. But the closer we get to the mountain, more people were seen putting on their gloves. Once again, just go with the flow.

Then, here we are. In Coronet Peak. I felt lost though. There were places for clothing hire, gear hire, etc. I got the whole package, so which one should I go first? After a few wrong turn, we were finally on the right track. I have to queue to get my pants and jacket, I have to queue to get my feet measured (to get the correct ski shoes) and I have to queue to get my ski...and my poles...and get scanned as well. Can't they provide a conveyor belt like a supermarket cashier so I don't have to walk around carrying all the stuff that's getting heavier all the time. Then there was another drama with the locker as well and I began to think, I had to go to all this trouble just for skiing, it better be worth it!

We were told to wait near the Ski lesson meet here sign. After a few more people joined in, the instructor arrived. We get divided into groups and we all set to start our first lesson ever.

I was watching other groups when we get our lesson and I was thinking, we are moving too fast! There's another group who start its lesson a few minutes earlier and suddenly they were behind us. Our instructor seems impatient and wanted to finish the whole lesson as soon as possible. She wasn't watching when we perform our ski technique and without waiting for the whole group to finish its lesson, she moved on to the next lesson quickly. When we were dismished to play around by ourselves and were told to come back for the next lesson, I've made up my mind not to go. There's no point.

I keep going up and down the hill and the worst part of all was waiting for the lift. There are hundreds others who wanted to go up too. That's the number one ridiculous. Number two ridiculous was I still haven't mastered the technique to stop and I wasn't in a private mountain where there was no one's around. I'm in the public mountain and barriers are everywhere (in the form of people). So here I am, sliding down the hill, knocking people off the ground. But what can I do? Stop skiing? I'm not that crazy....Worst part were the shoes. It's killing me! I've never been in so much pain before in my life. I was thinking, people who ski regularly must be mad. I wouldn't call it winter sport but pain sport and how can anyone enjoy a sport with so much pain in their ankle and feet. Second worst part, every time I fell, I saw my legs were twisted and bended in a way they've never been before. That doesn't mean I'm flexible, because it hurts like hell. It still surprise me that I didn't come home to Australia with broken leg.

During lunch time, I wanted to take off these shoes from hell when I remember that my own shoes is in the locker and my sister got the key (We were separated). Omigosh...I so wanna scream! So I tried to forget the pain in my leg and eat my lunch. Well, it wasn't easy when you have this bear trap strapped around your ankle, tearing your feet apart. Walking was hell and going up and down the stairs was super hell. And it suppose to be the most anticipated day of my life....very nice!

After a few more round, I decided that enough is enough, got change and was so relieved that I was able to take these bear traps from my feet. I found my sister so I can get access to my own comfortable shoes again. We were on time to catch the last shuttle to leave the place. In the hotel, I check my ankle and not surprisingly found blisters all over them. They look so bad, like someone literally scratch my ankle with barb wire. Gosh, it hurts! There's only one thing in my mind, if I can't master skiing, there's only snowboarding left to do. Either I can do that or I'm not made for winter sport. Geez, am I not glad I live in a place where it's sunny most of the time, even in winter...