27 Looks Good on You, Evan!

Happy Birthday Evan! For Ev’s birthday, we decided to do his favourite New Zealand winter activity (maybe one of his favourite all-time activities): Snow Skiing! Along with 7 friends, we took off work on Friday and drove 5 hours (Thurs night) to Wanaka. We had rented a house for the weekend overlooking the beautiful hills!

On Friday (Ev’s actual birthday), we went skiing at Cardrona. We heard this was the easier of the two closest ski fields. Since I am still brushing up on my skills, I needed a little confidence booster. We LOVED Cardrona! It was perfect for our (my) skill level…plenty of blues and greens! We had decent weather…fog and clouds moved in and out all day, but we had fantastic runs. It wasn’t too terribly crowded and I didn’t fall once! Later, we celebrated Ev’s 27th by going out to a pizza dinner downtown at “The Cow”. We played games and ate cake back at home too. Thankfully, Hilde (my ski buddy) was almost the exact same ability level as me, so I had company this time when Evan raced off to do advanced steep runs!

Photos from Friday at Cardrona:

Shouldn't those be on our feet?! — Shouldn’t those be on our feet?! Hmmm, maybe that’s the key to good skiing!

On the chair lift riding to the top! Evan is sporting his new goggles…these were one of his presents!

Almost 27 candles...almost enough to start a fire!! Yikes! We're getting up there in age! — Almost 27 candles…still almost enough to start a fire!! Yikes! We’re getting up there in age!

Saturday, we went skiing at Treble Cone. We were really disappointed on our first two runs because the ski field was sitting in the middle of a cloud. We couldn’t even see 15 feet in from of us!! We were only on a beginner run but didn’t know the course…it was a complete white-out! We couldn’t “read” the snow in front of us and were falling all over the place. I began to think I wouldn’t be able to ski and the day was a waste! I could have flown right off the cliff!! Evan convinced me to try the same run once more…and God had answered our prayers! With every switchback down the mountain, out visibility improved more and more. By the time we made it to the bottom, we could see the run and the gorgeous view perfectly! Visibility came and went throughout the rest of the day, but we still managed to get a full day in. Ev LOVED this place because of its challenging runs…although he later admitted that he tumbled about 40 meters head over foot and lost a ski at one point…ouch!

Photos from Saturday at Treble Cone: