1980 School Magazine

SKI TRIP REPORT On August Bth of this year, 36 excited girls (accom- panied by three cool, calm and collected adults) arrived at the TAA terminal ready to endure a week at the Snowy Mountains. We arrived at Canberra Airport exhausted, only to discover that we had a21/z hour bus trip ahead of us before we arrived at our hotel in Berridale. However the bus trip was made more enjoyable by the "har- monious" singing that erupted, (including everyone's favourite tune, "Three Blind Jellyf ish"). We were all too tired to do anything but sleep on that first night, but this was not to be the case on future n ig hts. It was up nice and early the next morning to be f itted with our ski boots and skis before setting out on the long bus trip to the snow fields at Smiggins Holes. lt was hard enough learning how to stand on our skis let alone come down a mountain on them. But that was not our only pro- blem, we had yet to learn how difficult it was to get up to the top of the mountain. Many of us fell off the ski lift numerous times before f inally reaching the top. The ski instructors lived up to all our expectations, few of us arrived late to a lesson. We soon learned to come down a mountain (standing up) and more importantly how to stop, so as to avoid the many trees, that always seem to be in just the wrong places. The nights were no less active than the days, and few (including Mrs McPheat and the Thornquists) managed to escape from the phantom bed stripper or bed wetter (with water). The week passed with only a few mishaps, including rip- ped clothing (due to the odd positions that some of us managed to get ourselves into) and skis arriving at the bottom of the hill, by themselves. We were all sad to leave on the Friday, especially as this was the first day it had snowed since we had been there. It was 36 sunburnt and bruised kids that arrived back at Brisbane Airport late on Friday night, all carrying bottles of water, that had once been soft, white snow. P. Gerber, 12G.