Crispy Soft Center

- Arrowtown hidden under partial cloud cover -

- as seen from Coronet Peak -

It wasn't one of my cleverest ideas to go out on the piss the night before an arranged 8 a.m. pick up to go skiing. But when a bunch of cheeky Tazzie Boys try to lure you into a drink round the pub, it's very hard to say no. It's the accent is what it is. It makes my knees buckle.

Suffolk Boy was responsible for the drunkest quote of the evening by stating that while the Brits may have lost their empire, they will have it back before too long as Brits are surreptitiously buying back land in the form of holiday homes abroad, everywhere. According to Suffolk Boy, it's really just a matter of time.

Today's skiing was probably the best ski day I've had in ages, but not for obvious reasons. I was on my way to one of the slopes from my guidebook, when a bunch of Kiwi's halted me and said: "You're not seriously going to follow all the Pommies onto those crap tourist slopes are you?? We'll show you where it's really at". I found out the hard way that when a Kiwi describes a slope as being "crisp" on the top and "soft" at the bottom, in sane-speak it really translates to: huge sheets of ice up top and muddy sludge at the bottom. By all accounts, the slopes were in the worst state imaginable. But quite paradoxically, I managed to get over my phobia of ice and skied like someone who's been skiing since she was 4-years old is supposed to ski. Nothing could throw me today and it was such a buzz. I am growing more confident on all grounds it seems, now that I'm forced to take charge of everything myself. When you stop desperately trying to control things and just try to ride it as it comes, you actually end up gaining more control. As paradoxical as that may seem.

Anyway. I'm about to retreat to my room for the night. Got an early ski day again tomorrow and a few of the boys are watching Family Guy in our room. Since watching all Ryan's DVDs three years ago, I've not kept up with the show. But as far as being knackered goes, crashing out alongside them in my sleeping bag doesn't sound like too bad an idea.