Ski Trip 2008

Let's talk about the Ski Trip. The Ski Trip was on 5th September to 7th September, but I only ski on the 5th September afternoon, so practically it's a relax trip for me rather than a ski trip. As usual, I didn't take camera nor photos, so I am going to use André's, Juliana's, Helen's and Shakeel's photos to fill this space with a bit of pictures.

Day 1
We met at the office 7:00 a.m., yes, early in the morning. André's target is to get to the mountain afternoon to have ahalf a day ski. On the way down south, I had been sleeping most of the time. Actually I needed to sleep most of them time since I get car sick easily if I am not driving or sitting at the front. To me the way down was quite quick since when I opened my eyes we were at the National Park already. See the photo below for proof. Due to the bad experience I had last year on snowboarding, I had chosen the safer option again, i.e. skiing. See I was happily at the Happy Valley (yes, yes), no problem at all!
That night I went to sleep around 9ish. Man, skiing is a tiring sport!!! (I surely have improved though, surely I have!)

Day 2
There were 8 of us decided not going up to the mountain. Unfortunately Hafiz car can only fit 7 people, but Joseph won't wake up unless we wake him up anyway. So the seven of us decided to drive to Wanhanui and muck around instead. On the way to Wanganui we stopped by Rakaka falls, and our photographer Helen took an artistic photo of the flowers in chilling weather. In Wanganui we saw the tram in progress. Actually, we went onto the tram and I rang the bell. Later the day we went to Countdown to get some food for the night. We had some problem with Hafiz car when we were to start our way back, but all sorted by Shakeel and Hafiz. Again on the way I was just sleeping and sleeping to prevent getting car sick. I went straight to the spa on my own when we arrived the lodge. Very comfy. :)
At night we had a full on BBQ with beef, chicken, mushroom, corns, bread... everyone was satisfied (since there were no pork?!). Since I didn't go skiing, I was not tire at all. André, Joseph,Tahseen, Shakeel and I played Compatibility, Poker and Scrabble till nearly 2 a.m. - I know we were naughty, haha.

Day 3
I woke up at 7:30 a.m. because André said that's the latest time we should be up although after I woke up I discovered that a lot of people were still in bed, anyway. Strange that I wasn't sleepy at all. So we had breakfast, packed up, and ready to go. I was in another car on the return trip and I insisted that I have to sit at the front. Tahseen nicely gave me the shotgun seat. Joseph was the one driving us back. It was the first time I stopped on the dessert road, it was the first time I stopped at Lake Taupo, and it was the first time I stooped at Huka Falls. Then we went for the luge and it was the first time I attempted all three tracks! Ivy and Helen went to Rainbow Springs while we are up there doing luge - remarkably André nearly "killed" Pedro's wife on the luge (well a bit exaggerated I guess...)!
I didn't (have to) sleep at all on the way back from the south because I got my front seat, which was cool because I didn't want to sleep in the car anyway. The trip was good, quite relaxing and lots of fun.

The only sad thing was Bhagya's message. When we were at around Bombay, i.e. the edge of Auckland, Bhagya sent a message to André's phone saying that Sasanka's dad just passed away in Sri Lanka and they were flying back that night. Sasanka and Bhagya went to ski trip with us as well but on day 3 they went back to Auckland straight without stopping at Taupo and Rototura. The bad news came after they were back home. André was very upset about it. I was quite upset too. That was New Zealand's Father's Day. When my dad came to pick me up from the office, I expressed my sadness and felt glad to see him on the Father's Day.