Day 1 through the eyes of Casey Douds, Year 11

 

The day started with alarms at 06:00. Despite having all slept deeply, we did not feel greatly revived from our 20 hours of traveling from the day before. At 06:45 sharp we met with the staff and other groups in the main lodge to have breakfast, all fully dressed and ready in our ski gear.

Breakfast was comprised of chocolate or cinnamon muffins (that were abnormally large), scrambled eggs, fried sausage, French toast, fruits and juice or water. It was certainly filling and when we exited the lodge to board the bus, we were all well fed and ready to hit the slopes. A 30 minute bus ride and we were at the ski resort, where we were greeted by highly enthusiastic staff. We first collected our boots and helmets, and then found our skis and met with instructors. We got separated into groups based on skiing capability and then set off. The skiing experience was excellent with the slopes quiet and no queues at any ski lifts. We skied for about 3 hours and then had a lunch break at the resort. It was quite expensive, with a burger and chips, muffin and bottle of water setting me back $21.00! We then skied for another couple of hours with small changes in the ski groups. The quality of snow was high with not a huge amount of ice. In my intermediate group we started off with green runs, but as the day progressed we went higher and higher up the mountain, mainly going on blue slopes. My group comprised of Oliver L, Jake H, Oscar, Daniel, Johnny, myself and instructor Susan. All us kids were of similar skill level which made for a fun and interesting experience.

After skiing, we left our boots and skis in the resort and boarded the bus back to our lodge. When we arrived at the lodge, we had a mad 5 minute rush in our residences to change from skiing gear into swimming gear! Some took longer than others and 15 minutes later we set off on the bus again, this time headed for the leisure centre. As I currently type there is a whirlwind of screaming, shouting and laughter from the other kids in the pool. Impressively, Miss Vales is still managing to get her laps in, up and down the pool. Some of us (such as me) have opted to not swim, and are either revising, in the arcade or simply chilling.