The last two months of my ski season have most definitely not been boring (my feeble excuse for the lack of posts).

The beginning of September was filled with birthday and ski celebrations. My birthday spreading nearly a week, firstly with a joint outdoor birthday party with one of my friends involving a fire bin, the traditional burning of skis, and ridiculously large speakers.

Birthday girls

The countdown to my actual birthday was celebrated with an impromptu party lasting until the early hours, leaving us all disappointed when the weather wasn’t bad enough to warrant the close day on the mountain we had been hoping for and thus seeing us arrive to work in a rather disheveled state.

Just before my birthday I reached my skiing goal of the season, a milestone for beginners on the mountain. I made my way from the Knoll Ridge cafe (famously the highest cafe in New Zealand) back to base level, successfully navigating a number of low to medium level intermediate slopes and staying upright the entire way down!

My skiing ability improved from there with my newly found confidence allowing me to daringly increase my speed. This resulted in my turning becoming more and more successful, but also in me falling flat on my back one day and needing to be driven away to safety by ski patrol (on the mountain first aiders). This curbed my moving ability for a fair few weeks but not my new love of skiing!

Getting driven to safety following my fall!

Before I knew it the final week for most people on the mountain arrived. I will be staying until 26th October when Mt Ruapehu officially closes, but most left on the 11th. Their final day was celebrated at one of the lodges up the mountain, providing a beautiful view over landscape below alongside a final party for our rental family.

The following day I was part of my first ever Thanksgiving celebration, Canadian style. One of our group is a local kiwi who grew up in the next town over. His aunt was good enough to offer her home for all 17 of us to cook, eat and sleep. It was a wonderful way for us to spend one final day together before heading separate ways on new adventures.

Canadian Thanksgiving

So it is now less than a week until I will be leaving and starting anew. I am more than ready to get back on the road and explore more that New Zealand has to offer. I have cultivated many ideas over the last few weeks and look forward to sharing as they come into fruition over the coming months!