More snowboarding at TC

"TC" as everyone calls Treble Cone, is again today separated from Wanaka below by another inversion layer, which means gliding is unlikely. Paul and I repeat the process of getting up early and cruising up the mountain to get perfectly clear skies above the cloud layer. Once Paul goes up the lift I never see him on the slopes til the end of the day. He's an expert skier that ventures around to all the advanced areas around the mountain. He's also expert at getting the best deal in town for ski lift pass. He's from Sydney and this isn't his first ski holiday over here. He's learnt from last season that if you hire a "Jucy" car rental and ask for the ski pack for an extra $12 per day, it includes snow chains, ski rack and..... a ski lift pass for the driver! (a daily ski lift pass costs around $100/day). So his total cost per day for renting the car is $45/day which is cheaper than the ski lift pass (yes ... he had to repeat this to me twice before I got it!) I have seen some other good deals around such as buying early in the season etc, but this one will be tough to beat.

Meanwhile.. I'm starting to get the hang of going down the mountain on the "toe - heel" doing the "S turns" most of the way down, but still lacking some fluidity. I'm making progress though. The first day it took me near enough to an hour to get down, but now I'm doing it in about 10-15min.. albeit on the easiest way down, and I haven't even had a look at most of the slopes on the mountain yet.