2019 TGS SKI Tour

Last night’s snowy gift kept on giving today with 10cm of powder sitting atop the Hutt. We raced through breakfast and hit the road by 7:50, avoiding the traffic and making it to the mountain before it even opened. As soon as the bus was parked, our resident snow experts Mario and Simon - who know exactly what a powder day means - took off towards the mountain making it to the front of the Summit Six chair lift queue and proving that on powder days, there’s no waiting for friends. Inspired by their contagious enthusiasm, the kids followed suit, lining up to be some of the first on the mountain in order to make ‘fresh tracks’ down the slopes. These are the diamond days and our kids made the absolute most them, testing their skills in the fresh powder and grinning from ear to ear, as their stacks became comfortable falls into feathery beds of fresh snow. By the afternoon lesson something quite extraordinary happened, all thirteen of our snowboarders, most of whom ha...

Yesterday afternoon’s predicted snow didn’t quite eventuate into the overnight dump of powder that we’d hoped for, and instead this morning the mountain greeted us with blue skies, chilly wind and plenty of “dust over crust”. Despite the coldest temperatures yet, the kids got straight back into it, getting as many runs in as they could before their 11am lessons. In fact, they were so pumped that, in the 5 minutes of waiting time before the start of the lesson, a massive snowball fight broke out and no one was safe, not the teachers, not the instructors, not even a couple of civilians who wondered a little too close to the action. Bobo proving to be one of the most ruthless snowball slingers, with a precision arm and wicked stealth mode which meant no one saw her coming.  The mood at lunch was energetic as we cracked open the good cheese to go on their car park barbeque hamburgers. They were all a chatter with their experiences and barely stuck around t...

We woke to a calm sunny day which meant one thing – Mountain time! The day started beautifully, with clear skies and keen kids. The second we pulled up in the car park they dispersed to grab their gear and catch the ski lifts up to the slopes. Being a Tuesday, the mountain was virtually empty and the kids were jumpy with anticipation.    They tried new ‘runs’, tested their skills on the jumps and helped each other along with words of encouragement. In rest times, they made snowmen on the hills and made friends in the cafeteria; always with smiles, energy and goals to get better and better. Felix Pountney Cameron Nicholas Phoebe Lavender  Owen Spanswick Around lunch-time, mother nature began to flex, rolling in the clouds and sending the snow flurrying in. An absolutely beautiful sight, especially for the few who have never seen snow before. The fog, snow and plummeting temperature didn’t deter them though; they continued u...

Despite the opinions of the ol’ mountain men, Mario – our fearless leader – predicted a weather change overnight and he read that mountain like a book! We woke to blustering winds and a report that instead of Mount Hutt, today it was Mount Shut. So, with our first ‘down’ day, we headed out for a different sort of adventure. We bused along the highway, to a delightful rendition of ‘home among the gum trees’ lead by Hayden. After much singing and chatting we arrived at Alpine Jet Thrills, donned our life jackets and waterproof clothing and boarded the jet boat. Zooming along the mighty Waimakariri River and through the majestic gorge, we were treated to the beauty of New Zealand’s landscape, not to mention the  80km/h speeds we reached and  360 degree, water-spraying, seat sliding spins we experienced. After drying off, we made our way up from the river to meet Chris, a sheep farmer, and his dogs Flynn and Dee. We were enthralled by the dogs’ trai...