BYE BYE OHAKUNE!!

11/10/2010
Wow! I Think this is going to be my last blog from Ohakune! Its gone by so fast, the season is so short but looking back there have been some sucky times, but there have also been some incredibly fun good memories. I am massively looking forward to driving around New Zealand with my family. The only real issue with that is I havent figured out an itinerary! So I need to do that before they arrive this week! The plan is for them to arrive on the 15th – I pick them up and we start the trip. As I have been so busy with my Ski Level 1 and work and training I havent had a chance to speak to them so really need to do that too!

It has been a fair while since I last blogged and a little bit has been going on! The highlight has been me be able to ski my heart out to get to the standard. My Level one started on the 5/10/2010 and ended on the 8/10/2010, up until those days I was spending every minute with ski instructors and skiing on my own to get more time and experience on the ski’s. The actual course itself was quite fun, but I don’t really like the exam situations – they stress me out and during that period I think of nothing else, so I am never at ease. Day 1 was spent going through the skier beginner progression as well as some skiing and wedge turn practise. Day 2 was going through more of the progression, more wedge turns and skiing, Day 3 was wedge turn demo evaluation day, skiing evaluation and practise teach. Day 4 was the teaching exam and I was assigned one of the harder technical lessons to deliver. I managed to JUST pass, but it was pretty stressful on the last day. I spent the night before preparing for my exam teach and then had to wait until mid day to deliver it. Hanging around waiting whilst others were getting their lessons done was painful. Then once I had done it I had to wait 6 hrs to get the results. In those 6 hours I was soo nervous to the point where I convinced myself I failed even though my lesson content was all in. The delivery wasn’t great! But that evening I received the results passed and got drunk for the first time in ages. It was mad fun!
This weekend has been one of the benderish nature, given my last day of work was yesterday! Its been fun working for the snow school and really like the idea of coming back and working in a full time role. The staff and management team are really dedicated and focused on making sure we deliver good customer service and develop us into better instructors. The snow school barbeque was a lot of fun and during the awards I got a shout out for being a GC. I am not going to say what it means but its good! It was fun getting a shout out and the whole event was awesome. Its a shame it was during my ski exam otherwise I could have gotten pretty loose!
There was an overall barbeque for the entire workforce of Mt Ruapehu and the feed was incredible. It was good to catch up and say bye to everyone.
I am definitely looking forward to travelling around New Zealand Ill be happier when I have a plan, which is what Ill be working on my last few days in Kune. We are then off to Oz for a week which should be awesome too! Then off home!! Need to start getting my mind focused on NZ and back to studying for my CASI 3 and looking into doing the CSIA Level 2.
Other things I have been upto have mainly been helping people get work. Tony is 90% coming with me and working for the same company as me in Japan. He is currently doing his NZSIA Snowboard Level 2 exams so he is pretty busy! I have also helped Chloe get an interview with a Japanese snow school in Hakuba called evergreen outdoor centre. Hopefully she will get that and come travel around Tokyo with me!
Overall Ohkaune and Mt Ruapehu has been an incredible unique experience. Working at a snow school initially was tricky and I found it quite difficult, but once I got to know a lot of people it worked out to be a great place to work for sure. Training for my Level 3 has been tough and at time I havent enjoyed it at all – a lot of fun was taken out of snowboarding for me then and felt a little bit gutted about missing a couple of days of training and not getting as much outdoor practise I would have liked. I definitely don’t feel ready and thats what the point if the course was...but who knows maybe I am and am just being harsh on myself. I still have my CASI Level 3 training bible to finish – currently ½ way through all the notes I wrote for my training and written 10,000 words. Its getting pretty rididuclous but hope it helps me pass.
Thats about it...ill post up some more fun from my travels with my folks – peace and love people

God bless Mt Ruapehu and Ohakune!