How Was Your Wednesday?

So, it’s the middle of the week, hump day if you will. All of your classes have gotten mysteriously canceled or just prerecorded so you really don’t have any time commitments for the day. What do you do? Go to the gym, watch some Netflix, maybe cook up a nice meal for yourself? Plot twist: you live in New Zealand.

When I was confronted with this wonderful situation, my friends and I decided to leave the UC campus far behind and go on an adventure. Luckily, one of my ski-savvy friends had an idea. Don’t ask me how or why, but apparently at the beginning of the ski season, the folks at the Mount Hutt ski field decided that it would be a cool idea to strap a hot tub to a helicopter and drop it on the summit of the mountain. Whoever came up with that idea deserves a massive promotion.

It didn’t take much to convince me to join, so we headed about an hour and fifteen minutes towards the mountains. We had to get a scenic lift ticket which only came up to about $20 USD and it came with some very spaceman-like boots with chains on the bottoms, so we didn’t accidentally slip down the mountain without any skis on.

When we got up to the top, the view was absolutely amazing. If you turned one direction, there were snowcapped mountains as far as the eye could see, but if you turned the other way, you saw expanses of green fields and even could see all the way to the ocean and Banks Peninsula. Even if there was no hot tub on top of this mountain, I would have gone up just for those views.

There was a little hut that we all changed into our bathing suits in, and then we had to slide barefoot in the snow for about 50 feet, which was extremely cold but 100% worth it for the nice warm hot tub water. We ended up meeting a guy who has been skiing all over the world and actually WALKED UP THE MOUNTAIN to get to this hot tub. Let me just emphasize, this is a ski mountain, meaning it is designed to be steep and easy to slide down. We had some interesting conversations, meaning I said I am a political communication major and he asked me my opinions on several topics as I do with most kiwis who ask what I am studying.

We hung out in the hot tub and took in the views for about a half-hour until all of our fingers and toes looked like raisins. Can’t say it was a bad Wednesday by any means.

Cheers!

Lexi