Ski Trip is one of those events that will occur annually in ICF, almost becoming a convention and a tradition. Mt Ruapehu was the destination, and mid-winter was the season. When I was asked by Esther to help Jeremy and Pek Yi in organising the Ski Trip, I've already had quite a bit on my plate, but I thought that helping out would be a good experience, and it was. I have learnt a lot from the trip.
I took the task of handling money. I was constantly yelling at other people to pay up and setting up deadlines and sending out e-mails that scream "If you don't pay you're not going." But thank God that everything worked out well in the end. I drew up a budget but the actual figures exceeded what I had planned. Lots of money was spent on food and petrol. Especially petrol. Prices have gone up. Scarcity and inflation are the culprits. For this trip, a little less than half of the people who signed up were not from ICF. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is yet to be evaluated. Most of the them joined this trip because it is the cheapest, (way cheaper than Victoria International Ski Trip) and we'll probably never going to see them again. However, we hope that there will be good follow-ups and ICFers will keep in contact with them, and encourage them to come for the Friday meetings. Frankly this is not an easy task. Some of us, especially me, find it hard to go up to our own friends of other faiths and say, "Hey, wanna come for ICF?". It takes guts.
We stayed at Raurimu School throughout the duration of the trip. We went skiing on Sunday. We brought the Wellington weather right up to the mountains. The weather was absolutely HORRIBLE. There was hail, rain, wet wet snow, and more hail. Everyone was drenched and soaked. I went skiing for the very first time. The evidence of my clumsiness and loss-of-balance are shown by the bruises on my knees. Before I started skiing, I've already fell down twice trying to stand still in my skis. When I started skiing, I fell down a couple more times. I fell down when I was skiing down Happy Valley. I fell down when I came of the chair lift. I fell down when I saw Fiona. I fell down when I saw Elvin. After falling down a couple of times, I managed to ski down Happy Valley without falling down. It was great!! I started screaming at Buz and Fiona: "I DIDN'T FALL DOWN!! I DIDN'T FALL DOWN!!!" All the little kids in pink and blue parkas were looking at me and probably thinking "Damn.. you look stupid." After skiing a couple more times, I went into the bistro and had hot chocolate and chips. I couldn't stop my body from shaking and shivering. I sat there and tried helplessly to warm my hands. It wasn't until I changed my shoes and pants that I felt warmer and better.
The trip also allowed everyone to have opportunities for bonding. It was fun laughing at other people's antics and making jokes and playing games (Mafia and Mahjong dominated us as always). Daniel Po was dressed up like an al-Qaeda terrorist, Vivy was dressed up like an eskimo, and I looked like a lobster. Everyone was envious of Peng when he took out his instant noodles and poured boiling hot water in it and started savouring that simple dish. I heard that some people even wanted to buy it off him. The gang from China who came with us were the most prepared of them all. They brought everything. Hot water bottles, thermoflask, sachets of hot drinks, snacks, pillows, extra thick sleeping bags, instant noodles etc. They were really well-prepared.
The trip was fantastic and all of us have learnt a few lessons that will definitely help us in the next ski trip. The lessons learnt are:
- Wear waterproof clothing. Make sure everything is waterproof. Waterproof ski jacket, waterproof pants, waterproof beanie, waterproof scarf, waterproof socks, and most importantly, waterproof underpants (Dan kept complaining about how badly soaked his underwear was, and how he seriously wanted to microwave it).
- Plastic bag helps. We're planning to wear that in our next ski trip so that we won't get wet.
- Ski goggles!! Hail kept going into my eyes because I didn't have goggles on.
- Bring thermoflasks, instant noodles and more plastic bags.
Till next winter...
