Drive south from Franz Josef, we came into the village of beauty, mini size of Queenstown, Wanaka. Although the whole journey took more than 6 hours, there are 2 point worth to take a rest:

Lake Matheson a.k.a Mirror Lake. You can see the prefect reflection of Mt. Cook if you follow the track to reflection island. I strongly suggest to take a stop at this place!

Blue Pool is a crystal blue river which have saturated blue colour.
Its colour is stunning and the walk is only 10min.
It’s really worth to take this short walk while have rest after long drive.

Wanaka is a village surrounded by snow mountain, which famous with ski field during winter. There are 4 ski field around wanaka area. Beside, the sky diving at Wanaka is awesome with the plenty of mountain view. There are also quite a lot of track around the lake

However, we only have time for skiing.

For local Kiwi, ski is a winter sport and also an extreme sport. For Malaysian Kiwi, ski one of the MUST DO activities in NZ.

This time, We chose Treble Cone Ski Field (TC) as Treble Cone only 30km from Wanaka which provide a comprehensive package and easy arrangement.

 

The package included 2 hours lesson, board rental, 1 time lift pass and beginner area whole day lift pass.
Price: 99 NZD/pax

Beside, there is transport provided if you book from i-site
Price: 12 NZD/pax/return trip (From the mountain base)

The night before that, we have to rent some clothing in the town. A Full set water proof cloth is required for us if we didn’t want to get wet and cold whole day
Price: 20 NZD/pax

During the day, we wait the shuttle bus at the base of the mountain. They will deliver us to the top by using the dangerous mountain road. Never get up the hill by yourself if you don’t have any experience and snow chain.

After registration, we received an ID for whole day use.

Then, we had to chose our board to learn, there are 2 types:

Ski, with 2 board and 2 stick, easy to learn hard to master
Snowboard, with only a board, hard to learn easy to master

Because I’m not good in sport, I chose Ski.

Next, we’re divided into 2 groups, ski and snowboard for our 2 hours lesson. The lesson included forward, break and turn.

Forward – the trick to ski forward without expanding your leg.
Break –  a MUST learn skill, it’ll save your life and the 2 stick you hold no breaking purpose.
Turn – It’s simple turn, not drifting on the snow.
For this three, the only tips is use the frictional force provided by the board side(break pad) to achieve speed different.

Lastly we able to perform the 3 trick after many fall, thanks to our coach.

Actually falling on snow is soft is falling on sponge, but it can be serious if you go too fast. After lesson, we’re free to play around the beginner area. We also have to learn how to use the stick to pull us up the beginner hill

A beginner hill is a little slope which have 4 stage. Angel for each of them is around 2, 3, 4, 5 degree. It seem small but the 2 degree slope can send you down the mountain if you didn’t break well.

And that’s the reason ski is also an extreme sport. Afternoon, we take the lift to the top of the mountain which located 1000m higher and the starting point for intermediate and expert area.
I believe no beginner can ski down back safely because the slope over here is around 20-80 degree.

Can you imagine the speed when you skiing at 20 degree slope when 2 degree have the power to send you down the mountain?

However, the view over the mountain top is amazing!

At the end of the day, thanks God I able to ski from the final stage in beginner area. I also successful perform a ski jump and drifting. At least I do pretty well for this life time experience. Aside skiing, we also visited the Puzzling World.

There are 2 areas in Puzzling world, illusion room and mae illusion room for people like sight seeing, maze for people energetic. Both of them require entrance fee but cheaper if combo.

Due to time limitation, we only visited the illustion room
Price: 14 NZD/pax

I think the greatest attraction point is the Ames Room which is more interactive. Most of the others we can found it online. With that price, I suggested you go for combo if possible.

After Puzzle House, we’ll be the pearl of south island, Queenstown!