It's Snow-Time!

The snow just keeps on coming! We are experiencing some of the best snow we've had in years and couldn’t be happier as the Winter Games have been such a hit because of it!

But having all this snow does create a logistical problem or two.

Recently I was planning a trip to Invercargill for the weekend. Lucky for me I had early warning from our General Manger John that I shouldn’t be leaving there any later than lunch time on Sunday. I might have pushed those ‘guidelines’ to 1pm.

On my drive back home when I was getting close to Winton the snow has started settling. By the time I got to Lumsden I was the only person left heading in the direction of Queenstown – everyone else was getting out while they still had the chance! What was normally a two hour trip had stretched to three and a half hours.

Coming into Kingston the road was full of graders and trucks spreading grit on the road, so I drove extra-carefully on the windy roads surrounding the Devil’s Staircase before finally arriving home to Queenstown. I was so excited to get my snowboarding gear out, which still hasn’t been used to its full potential this season, even if it was only so I could walk around in my snowboarding boots. Twenty centimetres of snow is going to result in cold and wet feet if you’re not careful!

John was nominated on Sunday night for giving stranded employees a ride to work. Being stranded as well, I had to walk up steep hill to catch my ride over at Kelvin Heights. There was no chance of getting my car up the hill in thirty centimetres of snow and even more still coming!

Thanks to a bit of organisation and team work, most of our staff made it to work both days during the snow storm, apart from a couple of people that live down in Kingston. That road was closed and they had snow half way up their doors!

There are always lots of mixed emotions around the hotel during a snowstorm. Personally, I get super excited about it all and love dressing up in my snowboarding gear, getting Rydgee out in the snow and making snowmen.

The guests who are there for snowboarding absolutely love it too, the thirty centimetre powder base is making for perfect skiing and snowboarding conditions – the temperatures can be a different story though! For other guests that are meant to be on flights out of Queenstown, they can get very frustrated as when the Queenstown airport is closed, there are very few options left for them to get home. Most just have to wait it out.

Another awesome event to benefit from all that snow was the Rail Jam. It was yet another success throughout one of our best winters yet and was a great warm up to the Winter Games, which wrapped up on Monday. It was great to see Queenstown-born, alpine ski racer Taylor Rapley take out the 'womens high-speed super G race' for the Kiwi team.