This New Year's Eve there wasn't an option to just pack the car with a tent, a sleeping bag, mozzie repellent and a few boxes of food from Pak'N'Save (unless we wanted to die of hypothermia somewhere in the British countryside) so an alternative form of entertainment was required. Despite the outrageous (insert high pitched sounds of disproval here) increase in cost between a NYE ski holiday and one later in the year, the timing was right.
After much miserly deliberation, we found a package holiday in La Plagne 1800 (France) for nine days including all accommodation, return travel, food, lift passes, ski hire, and 12 hours of guiding for about £600. While it is an horrendous amount once translated back into NZ$, in pounds it didn't seem too bad so we jumped at it. We convinced Lisa, Duncan and Devin (friends from NZ and Amelia's NSEP class) to come with and so on the 29th of December all met up at the Hatton Cross tube station just outside of Heathrow. Little did we know the horrors that awaited us... The 17 hour (no, that's not a typo) bus ride from London to the French Alps via a ferry over the Channel started off ok, but after several hours without heating and absolutely freezing our bollocks off while our crazy drivers got lost trying to find our accommodation, the fun had somewhat worn off.
But, onwards and upwards. We were in France! The sun was shining, the birds were singing and Amelia got brand new rental boots and a practically new board to play with so it was all good. The place we were staying (UCPA) was extremely generous with the food (I reckon we all put on weight despite the constant activity!), and despite the tiny rooms, it was great fun to people watch the other (French) group there - particularly when some of them decided to strip down to their undies for a particularly raucous demonstration of the Macarena!! We also played several (read, A LOT) of games of 500, which Devin took to like a duck to water. Just as long as Duncan didn't play too many hands of misere!
But, onto the most important part - the skiing/snowboarding! Lisa and Duncan were tentative, in the advanced beginners group, and fortunately only ended the week with a cracked rib and massively bruised elbow between them. Devin and I were in the advanced snowboarding group and Adrian was in the expert ski group. Fortunately, I still remembered enough of what to do to go exploring with Adrian after our guiding, although I had to leave him and Devin to the rope tows which were at crazy vicious angles and would have only ended in total and utter disaster (not to mention tantrums) had I tried to partake!
We had lovely sunny weather for the whole trip, apart from NYE itself where it snowed pretty heavily all day and night, meaning New Year's Day itself was stunning with blue sky and between 5-10cm of fresh powder. Devin and my guide was qualified to take us off-piste and we spent the whole morning just carving fresh tracks through the pow-pow. It was well worth the 8am wake-up after the night before!
Speaking of the night before, NYE night itself was unexpectedly great fun. We went to Belle Plagne where they had cleared an area at the bottom of the chair lifts and in front of the shops/hotels for a big outdoor nightclub. They had a DJ/VJ set-up with fireworks and an ice bar and there were thousands of people partying the night away while the fresh snow rained on down. It was quite surreal being outside dancing while it was snowing and definitely made it a memorable evening.
Later in the holiday Adrian tried his luck at a slalom event - it took a bit of persuading for him to take part, but my (increasingly rusty) French came in handy and he got a number in the end and raced down the hill in a very respectable time of 51.17 seconds, earning him 103rd place out of nearly 200 and a 'bronze' level qualification (whatever that means!). We also went and checked out the Olympic bobsleigh course. Adrian unfortunately missed out on having a go due to a booking error, but we still got an up-close-and-personal look at what it would be like to race down an ice track at speeds approaching 100km/hr.
And then it was over. We somehow survived the return bus journey (again with the dodgy heating!) and made it back to Oxford for a well deserved sleep and a chance to rest our aching bones. Seven days straight snowboarding without hot pool access (France really doesn't know what it's missing on that front) isn't something I think I could do again without a bit of training first that's for sure!
Lots more photos here.
After much miserly deliberation, we found a package holiday in La Plagne 1800 (France) for nine days including all accommodation, return travel, food, lift passes, ski hire, and 12 hours of guiding for about £600. While it is an horrendous amount once translated back into NZ$, in pounds it didn't seem too bad so we jumped at it. We convinced Lisa, Duncan and Devin (friends from NZ and Amelia's NSEP class) to come with and so on the 29th of December all met up at the Hatton Cross tube station just outside of Heathrow. Little did we know the horrors that awaited us... The 17 hour (no, that's not a typo) bus ride from London to the French Alps via a ferry over the Channel started off ok, but after several hours without heating and absolutely freezing our bollocks off while our crazy drivers got lost trying to find our accommodation, the fun had somewhat worn off.
But, onwards and upwards. We were in France! The sun was shining, the birds were singing and Amelia got brand new rental boots and a practically new board to play with so it was all good. The place we were staying (UCPA) was extremely generous with the food (I reckon we all put on weight despite the constant activity!), and despite the tiny rooms, it was great fun to people watch the other (French) group there - particularly when some of them decided to strip down to their undies for a particularly raucous demonstration of the Macarena!! We also played several (read, A LOT) of games of 500, which Devin took to like a duck to water. Just as long as Duncan didn't play too many hands of misere!
But, onto the most important part - the skiing/snowboarding! Lisa and Duncan were tentative, in the advanced beginners group, and fortunately only ended the week with a cracked rib and massively bruised elbow between them. Devin and I were in the advanced snowboarding group and Adrian was in the expert ski group. Fortunately, I still remembered enough of what to do to go exploring with Adrian after our guiding, although I had to leave him and Devin to the rope tows which were at crazy vicious angles and would have only ended in total and utter disaster (not to mention tantrums) had I tried to partake!
We had lovely sunny weather for the whole trip, apart from NYE itself where it snowed pretty heavily all day and night, meaning New Year's Day itself was stunning with blue sky and between 5-10cm of fresh powder. Devin and my guide was qualified to take us off-piste and we spent the whole morning just carving fresh tracks through the pow-pow. It was well worth the 8am wake-up after the night before!
Speaking of the night before, NYE night itself was unexpectedly great fun. We went to Belle Plagne where they had cleared an area at the bottom of the chair lifts and in front of the shops/hotels for a big outdoor nightclub. They had a DJ/VJ set-up with fireworks and an ice bar and there were thousands of people partying the night away while the fresh snow rained on down. It was quite surreal being outside dancing while it was snowing and definitely made it a memorable evening.
Later in the holiday Adrian tried his luck at a slalom event - it took a bit of persuading for him to take part, but my (increasingly rusty) French came in handy and he got a number in the end and raced down the hill in a very respectable time of 51.17 seconds, earning him 103rd place out of nearly 200 and a 'bronze' level qualification (whatever that means!). We also went and checked out the Olympic bobsleigh course. Adrian unfortunately missed out on having a go due to a booking error, but we still got an up-close-and-personal look at what it would be like to race down an ice track at speeds approaching 100km/hr.
And then it was over. We somehow survived the return bus journey (again with the dodgy heating!) and made it back to Oxford for a well deserved sleep and a chance to rest our aching bones. Seven days straight snowboarding without hot pool access (France really doesn't know what it's missing on that front) isn't something I think I could do again without a bit of training first that's for sure!
Lots more photos here.
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