New Zealand Exam Prep and Lodge Run Down

Its been a pretty interesting few weeks here in New Zealand, our groups have been rolling along well with the training towards the level 1 NZSIA exams. With the school holidays behind us we have the slopes back to ourselves again. Just like most of the basecamp resorts, Mt Ruapehu is uncrowned midweek meaning you can get lap after lap without waiting in lines. Not that it matters though, one of the perks of rolling with the trainers of the Turoa snow school is that the groups get to jump straight to the front on busy days, win-win!

 Mother nature has been playing tricks with us lately, we have had a huge storm roll in that started with rain to cause a bit of commotion but fear not, it has switched over to snow and it should hang around the mountain for a few days, hopefully giving us some pow this week.

         
 With the weather rolling in it was the prime time to do some off snow training. The groups have been running through the NZSIA reference guides, going over movement analysis videos and running through practice teaching scenarios. The word is everyone is getting closer and with two weeks until the exam we have high hopes for everyone.

We have also been rolling out some cool off snow activities. The other night we headed in to SLR climbing gym to make the most of the local climbing special. I love a bit of a challenge so I offered up a bar tab to anyone on the course who could beat me on the speed wall. Tom came close but he was still about 4 seconds off, no luck this week but the challenge still stands. We went for a bit of a hike after training today, Mt Ruapehu site in the middle of Tongariro National Park so there are endless track running around the mountain and through the bush. Today we went for a short hour hike into Waitonga falls and it was pumping!

 
Have a look through the video for all of this and an overview of the basecamp accommodation LKNZ lodge in Ohakune.
 
-Andrew