Arriving on sunny Saturday morning the place was full of activity. The annual Dog Sled festival was just wrapping up so we got to meet a few of the husky dogs who had been racing for a week and the winter kite festival was just beginning. (It's like kite surfing, but with a snowboard instead of a surf board).
Once we got fitted for our ski boots and nordic ski's, we perused the trail map and set off on our way. As we looked around we felt like we had been taken back in time, we were surrounded by more mature folk in their 60's and 70's in neon and retro lycra pants and wooly jumpers it was like an advert from ski mag from the 1980's. We falsely assumed this would be an easy sport to pick up if people in their 70s we're still at it!
As we lined up our ski's in to the neatly cut grooves of the trail, we pushed off in a gliding motion along the snow. It was as easy along the flat, then came the steep downhill parts when the smooth gliding sensation was quickly transformed in to what felt like being slotted in to a Scalextric car track. Picking up speed, getting faster and faster downhill we both quickly lost control. We crashed in to fences, fell down ditches, went headfirst down the snow all awhile the old folk continued to glide smoothly down hill and run circles round us!
Whilst we normally love racing down hill on our normal ski's, the difference with nordic ski's is that they're so much thinner with no edges, so it is very hard to turn or stop. After several comedy style falls, crashes and one incident where the track split so Rob had one ski on one track and one ski on the other, we finally arrived 6km later at the Bob Lee Hut.
Perched on top of the brow of the hill with awe inspiring views of Mount Aspiring and the Southern Alps we clipped off our skis and sat on the deck with a sense of pride that we had made it to our destination. We were joined at the hut by several other visitors that day who also stayed the night, including a couple from Tasmania who had met Rob's old land lady from Llanberis, a guy Neil from Manchester, a foreign exchange student from Montreal and a group of people from New Zealand and America. It was a fun night sharing stories from around the world, listening to music and star gazing.
Looking back across the valley under a billion stars towards Cardona we could see the headlights of the night groomers busy smoothing out the slopes for the next day's skiing.
Next morning we found ourselves stranded in a remote hut with only our comedy skis to get us back. After a slow start to avoid calamity, we got into the swing and the glide and returned along the grooves to the snowfarm HQ in full spring sunshine.
Lunched at the old cardrona hotel, which looks like a wild-west saloon, but was of course built in that same era of gold rush and pioneering colonies.
