A Brief Catch Up And A Welcome To The Off-Season

Taking the time to write this blog post is something that I have been struggling with. Even now, I'm having a great deal of difficulty figuring out what to say.

These last four months I have spent living here at Panorama have been surreal, I wouldn't trade them for anything. I'm not sure how to best explain it in order to give the experience justice, but the people I've met here have become like a second family to me. Moving out of the Jackpine unit with the knowledge that the 401 family were never going to live together again was slightly devastating; who would I have nighttime chats with if Courtney and I didn't share a room anymore? Who will use the whole house as a changing room if Nick and Caitlin aren't around anymore? And who is going to be my go to movie buddy if Dean is gone? Not being able to spend time with my 401 family everyday has been a hard concept to adjust to, even when I am safe in the knowledge that the majority of them will be back soon enough, but change is supposed to be healthy right?

Therefore, I must move on. Yes? Sticking around the resort for the off-season, while everyone went off on their glamorous holidays, may not have been the best way to do that...but instead, I decided to be sensible with my money (boooooring) and save all my travelling for the end of summer. This decision has resulted in me struggling to entertain myself in the ghost town that is Panorama during the off-season, while I am working every day for 3 weeks straight, it is still hard to keep busy.

In an attempt to find things to do, I have moved into a new place:

Although I now live with someone I barely know, the building is in a great location for work and a large number of my friends are living in the same building so it is unlikely that I will get lonely!

I've also attempted to keep active, mainly by just going for walks on the mornings that I don't have work. This, however, is apparently not the brightest idea I've ever had...I've been doing these walks alone which you are supposedly not meant to do, as the bears will not hear you coming.

I didn't really see this as a big issue as people had told me it is unlikely that I will see a bear, unless it is rummaging through garbage...not an idealistic image. Little did I know, the very next day after I took the above photos, my whole perspective on the subject would be flipped....

Yep. I saw a bear. I don't think I've ever been more ecstatic when coming across wildlife. He was the most beautiful animal I've ever seen, just ambling across the road from the river to the mountain side. I was in a car (thankfully) on the way down to town with two others and we all flipped out just a little bit. We pulled over to the side of the road to take photos, luckily he sat on the side of the mountain about 20 or 30m away from us and didn't move around too much which gave us ample time to take photos of him. I was devastated that I didn't have my real camera on me, my photos would have been much better if they weren't just off my iPhone.
All excitement aside, the bear situation has definitely become more real to me. I am now far more conscious of the fact that I should not be out in the wilderness alone, don't you worry.

So that was my welcome to the off-season. Now, here's a quick catch up on what has happened since I became to lazy to update my blog.

Caitlin celebrated her birthday which resulted in us throwing our one and only REAL party at the Jackpine unit. It was prefaced by a bathtub hot tub party, essentially a normal hot tub party but all participants must adorn shower caps and have a rubber duckie - as though you are taking a bath. I was apprehensive about the hot tub party, however it turned out to be a really good time. Then commenced the real party in our unit, followed up by a trip to the T Bar for Jam Night.

Up next came our overnight trip to Banff. Courtney, Caitlin, Rachel, Lucy and myself rented a car and got out of the Pano bubble for a short trip. We weren't really too interested in going there for the snow, we just wanted to go to a town with some real shops. Slightly too much money was spent, but we had a good time shopping and seeing the sights of Banff (basically just the Springs Hotel).

I'm fairly certain that trip happened prior to St Patty's day...I could be wrong. Anyway! Up next was St Patrick's Day. I'd never celebrated it before, so I was pretty keen to get some green stuff and dress up. It was a really fun night for us up at the T Bar and one I'll remember for a good while. I don't think I've ever danced to Irish music that vigorously before...

Nothing too exciting happened for a while after that really. We basically coasted along until we reached the last week of the season. That was when it all kicked off again. First up were the celebrations for Naomi and Sarah's birthday; the theme of the evening was initially just a mash up of all the past themes of the season and at the last minute a white t-shirt/graffiti them was added so we could sign each others shirts.

The following night saw Courtney and I at our staff party. As Jacob is the manager for The General Store and Mile High he had us all around to his place for drinks and a BBQ. It was a really fun evening just hanging out with everyone at Jacob's followed up again (anyone else sensing a theme) at the T Bar. Jacob was such a great boss to us over this winter, I doubt we could have asked for better.

After a very long weekend came the staff day. As the season had finished, the lifts were no longer running. But for one afternoon they opened up the Mile One Quad to give the staff some time on the mountain one last time. In addition to this there was a big staff lunch, free drinks, a staff photo and an awful attempt at the Harlem Shake. The day was capped off by a party at the T Bar, although some of us could only make it to about midnight after such a hard weekend.

And so that concludes my winter at Panorama. Hopefully the summer season at Greywolf Golf Course will bring just as much fun. If something exciting happens between now and then, I'll try to give you an update about it. If not, I'll see you in the summer.

Thanks for reading!

Parties, Departures, and Summit Trips.

Well, Madison's gone. That sucked. I had to work the night he left, although I later got sent home for being to sick, so he visited me at the General Store where we had a rather emotional goodbye consisting of multiple drawn out hugs. Caitlin was taking photos of his departure, but when she took a photo of us hugging I got distracted by the fact that he was actually hugging me and ended up smiling in the photo. So now, it looks like I was really happy that he was leaving. I sort of dropped the ball on that one.Oops.

Prior to this, I had the unique experience of celebrating Australia Day. Turns out, Aussies are even more crazy than I thought. Despite being sick and having work the next morning, I joined everyone at the T Bar for the celebrations. Although, I refused to dress up like an Aussie, despite many Canadians doing so. That was a line I was not willing to cross. Almost every single Australian I know in the resort was dressed up, drunk, and partying hard. Someone even had a giant inflatable jandal with the Australian flag printed on it, which was apparently used as a toboggan before they arrived at the party. The bar did well to celebrate the day, with a big flag behind the bar and some classic Australian songs such as hits from "Men At Work".

Next came Waitangi Day, definitely not as big of a party - I guess us Kiwis just don't care enough. But it did become the day that I did my first ever black run. Ever since the day of my horrifying experience into the wilderness I had become extremely cautious with where I went on the mountain, not venturing past the green runs. Yet on Waitangi Day, my friend Catherine (she's a gem) convinced me that it would be a good idea to test out a blue run, just start building my confidence back up. So I went, and it was great. WAY easier than I thought it would be, and I had a good time. So, that afternoon I went out boarding with my friend Haydn and suddenly became more adventurous that I had been previously. We went up the Champagne chair and on the way down happened to end up on a black run. While this experience was slightly more terrifying than my morning on the blue run, I got down it safe and sound. Suddenly I had come to the realisation that black runs AREN'T actually that bad, they are just a bit (a lot) steeper than what I was used to. While I may have been slightly tricked into going down the run, I was definitely not complaining and was more than ready to put on my All Blacks jersey for a good Kiwi party that night.

Coming off the high of my black run experience, I was apprehensive, but willing, to join a group of friends on an expedition to the summit. Susie and I were the newbies in the group, but everyone was really good and happy to go at a pace we were comfortable with which made the whole experience much more enjoyable. When we got to the summit, it was such a good feeling. We could see for miles, until a sudden snowstorm attacked us briefly, and had a good time taking some photos.

After finally experiencing the summit, I really don't know what I was so worried about. I had such a great time and I can't wait to go again.

The main focus for everyone now seems to be the off season and summer. Most of my friends and I have applied for summer jobs, although we have yet to hear anything on the matter, and our now trying to figure out what we will do for the off season. Its a long period of time in which we have to support ourselves, 12 weeks or something ridiculous. So I'm freaking out just a little. I'm doing my best to save as much money as I can, but I'm still stressing about how to do the travel I want to without running out of money completely. Should be interesting to see how that works out.

Thanks for reading!

It's Been A While

When I last left you, the New Years Eve celebrations were almost upon us. Now, well into January, not a great deal has come to pass.

The greatly anticipated staff New Years party was, unfortunately, a slight let down. By the time I made it there, post work, everyone was spectacularly trashed and crammed into the "party room". While it was clear that the majority of people were having a good time,  I found it slightly unpleasant and much like a high school party.
This disappointing celebration was followed, two days later, by the dreaded departure of one of our beloved flatmates. Despite being forewarned of Jacob's leaving for Europe, seeing him off at the bus stop was something we didn't  want to have to do. The next week or so was spent in painful anticipation of who would be forced upon us as our new room mate. We figured that it would be just our luck to have an awesome room mate replaced with some weirdo no one wanted to hang out with. Luckily for us we were presented with Nick, a fellow kiwi who is not only from Tauranga, but went to Otumoetai College as well! There is a slight chance that I became irrationally excited by this news...but I'm over it now. He fits in well, so that's all that matters.

Around the same time as all this happened, we got a large (to us) snowfall over the course of a couple of days - 50cm in 72hours or something like that. This created great excitement within the village, although it unfortunately resulted in an unpleasant experience on my part.
The first day of the big snowfall started out great, I went to a really good snowboard lesson with some friends and had a lot of fun. 

After lunch though, that was when it happened. I let myself be talked into going up the Champagne chair lift, one higher than I was used to, and was told that it would be "so much fun". However, a certain member of our group led us down the mountain the wrong way. Instead of heading down the Champagne run, we headed down the other side which mainly consists of cat tracks - narrow runs that force you to go straight for an extended period of time, something I was far from comfortable with. Due to my lack of experience, I was soon left behind by the rest of the group except for another kiwi girl - Rebecca - who was kind enough to stick with me the whole way down. Unfortunately, as it was taking me so long to get down, it got to the point where the lifts were going to be closing and Rebecca wasn't sure how to get out of where we were without using the lifts. Luckily, the lifties started doing their sweep of the mountain to make sure no one was left and they were able to help us out. If they hadn't turned up, I was fairly certain we would get stuck out there and end up getting eaten by a Cougar.
All in all, it was definitely the worst experience I have had over here.

Onto more cheerful matters!

About a week ago we had a staff trip to Lake Louise, another ski resort about 2 hours away in Alberta. There had been another staff trip prior to this, but due to work I was unable to go, so I was pretty pumped for this one.
On the bus at 7am - when its still completely dark - followed by a quick snooze, we were at the resort. It was quite a different experience to Panorama, the resort itself is very very small, only a couple of buildings, but the variety of runs the had were great. 

There was a big gondola that we took up the mountain, when we were having a break, so we could get some good photos of the surrounding mountains. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon on one of the green runs which was slightly more interesting than the green runs we have here at Panorama, once we could force ourselves outside again after a cosy lunch inside that is.
We had a really good day, and were back on the bus by 4pm. We attempted to go to the pub that night, but due to general exhaustion it was a bit of a bust.

So now we get to spend the next two weeks dreading the departure of another flatmate, Madison. But hopefully events like Australia Day will help keep our mind off it.

Thanks for reading!

Christmastime

Being away from home at the holidays was something that I had always assumed would be strange. I was in Toronto for Christmas last year, but my family was with me there too so it still felt fairly normal. This year, however, was vastly different.

Despite the obvious weather difference, Christmas over here just isn't quite the same. Back in New Zealand it's almost as though the whole country comes to a stand still while we celebrate Christmas and New Years, not here though. I don't really know how to explain it properly, but even though its a winter wonderland over here, it doesn't really feel like Christmas.

So, sure, I was missing home to the extreme, but we still managed to have a good time. As Christmas Eve here was Christmas Day at home, we celebrated that night with a big dinner. Courtney and Dean did pretty much all the cooking and organising for the night, and they did a great job.  There was way too much food, standard for Christmas, although it didn't last that long during the next few days as the boys eat like its going out of style. We had heaps of fun, followed up by an "ugly sweater party" up at the bar. Some of us didn't have sweaters though so we just wore tinsel and Santa hats, but it was pretty much the same.

I had to work on Christmas Eve and Day, so Boxing Day was a full day of snowboarding.  We progressed up from the beginners hill, to the T Bar,  finishing up on Mile 1 (a real life chair lift run!!) before our afternoon break. That evening we hit the slopes again for a touch of night boarding. It was a little scary at first, but the mountain was really well lit so we just went for it. It was going really well, at first, but on my second run down I took a turn to strongly which caused me to fly backwards and smash my head onto the snow. It was a little awful. Everyone stopped to make sure I was ok, which was nice, but, as I had to lie still to make sure I hadn't broken anything, they thought I was knocked out. Oops. All I can say, is that I am so thankful that I was wearing a helmet. That snow is solid.

Well, Christmas is over, a snowboard has been purchased, and we are now prepping for the madness that will occur on New Year's Eve. Should be fun. The resort is going to be so packed that none of the staff are allowed in the bars. Not to worry though, a party is being thrown for us in the staff accommodation down the mountain. Although, most of us have to work. Ugh.

Happy holidays!

Thanks for reading!

All Work, Little Play.

Holy moly! I feel as though I have been working non stop this past week. I can't even comprehend that I've been in Canada for only 3 weeks, it's madness. My job is really great, but it's making my time here fly by and has resulted in me having very little time to snowboard.

I've had one lesson so far, with my flatmate Caitlin. We are both as terrible as each other so it was a very useful lesson. Although, Caitlin did fall a little bit in love with our instructor so it may not have been as beneficial for her. 

When we first started out it felt like the weirdest thing ever, we could barely even stand up with our boards strapped to one foot, let alone both feet. But by the end of it we were absolute pros. To an extent. We could go down the hill with minimal difficulty, and that was enough for us. The next day was a touch rough on the body though. Since then I haven't had much of an opportunity to go again - I was made to work on my day off - so I'm slightly worried that I will have forgotten everything and just fall on my face a million times. Ah well.

In other news, we went to an ice hockey game the other night! It was just a low league game at the local rink in Invermere, but it was super fun. 20 bucks got us a bus ride, ticket and drink, and it was totally worth it. There about five fights, a few falls, and countless wall smashes. Even one of the refs, who was not young, got rammed into the wall. He recovered fairly well though, later doing a pretty sweet jump. A couple of the guys who came with us added to the entertainment but doing some pretty spectacular heckling during the game, it was mainly towards the players with four letter names they could actually pronounce, but it was still pretty hilarious.

Other than that, I'm basically just having a great time hanging out with my flatmates (even the Aussie ones) and the other cool kids around the resort.

Ok. Cool.

Thanks for reading!

First Week Down

So. It's been a week since we arrived here in Panorama, and it's going great so far. The resort is beautiful, I've never seen so much snow in my life, and the people here are fantastic! Almost all the staff are travellers so they're all super friendly which makes for a really good time.

During our first weekend here the resort threw us a "Disorientation Party" as a welcome for all the staff. The party was massive, taking up the T-Bar and the Wildfire restaurant next door. After some pre-party times at our place, we arrived at the T-Bar a little too late to get in where the band was playing so we moved next door to where the DJ was. The whole night was really great, when the restaurant had its last call we moved to the bar and danced to this great band called Shred Kelly. They sort of reminded me of Mumford and Sons, only a touch more upbeat, I would definitely recommend them.

For a little while everyone sort of ran out of things to do around here, and that, combined with it constantly snowing, kept us all inside for about two days straight. A little sad, I know. But our apartment is just so warm! You try leaving it for an extended period of time and see how it feels!
But then Tuesday rolled around, so Courtney and I started our first day of work. I was a little bit, completely, terrified to be starting the job - convinced I was going to screw everything up. But it wasn't actually that bad. We started at 7:30am, which was a little bit awful, but the girl who was training us (Sif, she is from Denmark) is really nice and the store was actually pretty quiet so we had a lot of time to get used to using the computer system. Thankfully all the customers were extremely understanding and lovely when we were a touch slow.
That night our boss (Jacob, also from Denmark) had all the staff (there are five of us) around for dinner at his place here in the village. There are some wines at the store he wants us to promote to customers so we had a bit of a wine tasting at the same time. Jacob and his girlfriend cooked a delicious roast for us, and it was probably the best meal we have had since we got here. Plus, it was free, so that's always great too.

Yesterday was the big Christmas party (themed 'wild west' for some reason) in the Great Hall. Turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie - it was fantastic. There was a raffle, not that we came close to winning anything, and some pretty cool costumes. Two guys came dressed as cacti and one girl came as a bale of hay. While the rest of us tried to fit in by wearing checked shirts, I found mine at the thrift store for $2. Bargain.
After the dinner, we all moved to the bar again. The DJ this time, however, was not quite as good. As one of the boys pointed out, he was just a guy with a Mac. But we still had a good time all the same.

Anyway, as you can see, not a lot of exciting stuff has been happening. But my sister sent me a fairly intense message asking for an update so I thought I better.
The resort officially opens tomorrow though, so hopefully I'll have something more interesting to say next time.

Thanks for reading!

Kelowna to Panorama and more

We have arrived!

Our night of ten pin bowling in Kelowna turned out to actually be FIVE pin bowling. Quite a different experience indeed. The concept is much the same, however, the bowling balls are about the size of softballs which you basically just throw down the lane. It was a lot more difficult than expected, although we got the hang of it eventfully (but I still came last in my team...ah well).
Next morning we were up at the crack of dawn, well it felt like that since the sun doesn't get up properly until about 9am, to start the final leg of our bus tour. It was a good day, our first stop was a look out point over Coldstream Valley - very beautiful - later we played with some calves (although I don't really know why we stopped there...) and visited the end point of Canada's first ocean to ocean train track. The rest of our bus ride was fairly uneventful, mainly spent on the bus watching movies and taking advantage of the free wifi. However, we did drive through the Rockies and have a picnic in the snow which was fairly interesting.

We arrived at Panorama in the dark, but very excited. Courtney, Dean and myself all live together in the lower village in a place called Horsetheif, so we were given a lift up to our "condominium" by one of the resort staff. Two of our flatmates were already settled in, two boys from Sydney - Madison and Jacob - so we had a little time hanging out with them before heading to bed. Unfortunately our bedding was not supplied for us, so we got to spend the night sleeping on a bare mattress, using couch cushions as pillows and jackets as blankets. Luckily, Canada is big on central heating so we were still fairly warm. The best thing, though, was being able to unpack! Finally!! I've never been so happy to unpack, living out of a bag is definitely not something I am good at.
Waking up to a silent, snow covered village was magical. But extremely disorientating. Thankfully, one of the staff was kind enough to give us a ride up to the staff shuttle when we desperately asked for directions. The shuttle took us down into the town, Invermere, where we spent several hours buying everything we needed. Carrying about ten plastic bags of bedding and food turned out to be much more difficult than we initially thought. Two of my bags had the audacity to break as we were struggling down the hill upon returning to the resort. Even with the help of a couple of friends I still managed to lose feeling in most of my fingers, and the tip of one of then is still tingling (but no frostbite to speak of!).
That night, after a well deserved rest, we checked out the resort nightlife. As the pub situated under our building is not yet open, we headed off to the T Bar in the upper village to see what the situation was. The bar is fantastic. The staff are lovely, checking on you every 10 minutes or so and just being generally great. A lot of the other staff were in the bar so it was nice and rowdy, especially when what seemed like half of Melbourne turned up and started playing pool. The great thing about a place like this though, is that almost everyone is a traveller so they are all keen to meet new people and have a good time together. So, a good night was had by all.

Nothing of great note happened today, so I won't bother boring you with that. But tomorrow is the big staff "Disorientation Party" up at the T Bar with a live band, so good things are still to come for us.

Right. I'll just leave you with that.

Thanks for reading!