Day 420 – Ricks broken elbow

Day 420 – 2nd August 2006 +11:00 GMT Total Miles 62920

Well we had been telling Rick who was staying at the hostel how wonderful the ice cream is at Kaffe Eis, so we finally persuaded him to go and get some Ice Cream. Unfortunately on route he slipped on some steps, missed the hand rail and landed with his full weight on his elbow, which incidentally shattered.


The X-Ray

Poor Rick spent 3 days in hospital. He was due to fly out the next day to Fiji and then onto New York to meet his father, but he was not allowed to fly with a cast.


Rick Asleep

A few days later we made Rick walk back to the spot he slipped so we could take a photo and he did then eventually get his ice cream.


Rick


Rick On His Birthday

Update

So I've been slacking on my blog as several people have pointed out. This is due to several reasons including the lack of internet access in New Zealand. Anyway have had free internet for the weekend so have updated my blog from Day 310 - 15th April 2006 to Day 409 - 22nd July 2006. Still have a few bits and pieces to add but that will have to wait ...
Take Care
Simon

Day 416 – Long Skiing Weekend

Day 416 – 419 – 29th July - 1st August +11:00 GMT Total Miles 62919

Finished work at 5pm and jumped straight into Simon 3’s car and we drove up to National Park. We arrived at Howard’s Lodge our usual accommodation around 11pm and watched some TV before getting a good nights sleep. Got up at at around 7am and hired some ski’s and clothing and drove up to Mount Ruapehu.


Mount Ruapehu

I bought a 3 days lift and ski pass and also decided to book a lesson. The snow was really nice and it was a boiling hot day. My lesson went well and I made a huge improvement on my parallel turns.


Skiing on Mount Ruapehu

The slope closed at 4pm so we skied back to the car and drove to the local village where we met one of Simon 3’s old friends and had a beer then headed back to the lodge for the evening. I spent the evening on the internet and playing games. The next morning was up again around 7am and back to the slopes for another full days skiing at Whakapapa resort. It was quite foggy and by late afternoon the cloud was so bad you could only see a few metres in front of you which made skiing very difficult especially when you do not know the mountain to well.


Mount Edgmont


View From Mount Ruapehu

So we called it a day early afternoon and went back to the lodge to cook and relax. In the morning we checked out and drove to Turoa resort. Here we met another of Simon 3’s friends Helen, who actually works on the mountain. The runs here were very very icy all morning so Simon 3 stuck to the junior slopes and Helen and I tackled the top half of the mountain. By the afternoon we had found some fantastic runs which took you through the gully’s. It was another great fun day of skiing and by 3:15pm we had to call it a day for the long drive back to Wellington.