Sunday, November 20, 2011

Skiing (indoor)

I've just realized this blog entry has been saved as a draft for weeks and it isn't published...
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Friends and I went skiing in Snowplanet recently. My only skiing experience before this was a trip to Mt Ruapehu two years ago. That time, I felt it took a lot of effort and time just to have a short time on the mountain. I found it difficult to move on the snow. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go skiing again.

This time, we cut most of the hassle. We went to Snowplanet, an indoor skiing and snowboarding venue north of Auckland. No 6-hour drive to the ski town, yay! We purely went there for skiing this time. It's a smaller and more controlled environment than the mountain. Maybe that was why I found it easier to ski this time. I still didn't have good control over the downhill motion. But the slopes were quite smooth and short so I reached the bottom without falling most of the time.

We then watched an All Blacks game in the restaurant and occasionally watch other people on the side of the window ski and snowboard.

In the end, I skied more this time than on the mountain. However, I still find skiing to be a lot of hassle. All the gear is cumbersome. It's quite expensive too. So I guess I'll stay with other activities which I can wear light clothes under the sun. Maybe I'll try snowboarding next time. But I'd say it won't be sometime soon. If I do go up the mountain, I'll probably admire the scenery rather than spending an hour just to rent all the gear.