Racing at Roundhill

Saturday 15th August: Today dawned clear except for a low level of cloud lingering over the surface of the lake (first photo, view from the motorhome when we woke up). We got up and sorted and drove up to Roundhill Skifield. We have driven the lakeside road so may times now but the immense beauty and the incredible scale of the scenery continues to amaze and entrance us. It would be even more enjoyable if I wasn't hanging on to the door handle while Steve throws the truck around the bends of the narrow gravel track at 100kph!
We were up and skiing just after 9am and conditions were great. Today Roundhill was hosting a junior ski race. The 4 big skifields around Queenstown each host a race as part of a series, and this year Roundhill and Dobson (near Fairlie) were added to the list. All the junior ski teams turned up in their lycra outfits plus the Japanese junior team was there to compete. We decided to enter the three boys as independents although we thought later that we could name them the "Fish Alpine Race Team" - FART for short! The race bibs looked huge on the boys. The second photo is of Jonathan (looking round at the camera) and Edward (106) in the T-bar queue. Unfortunately the organisation at Roundhill had some problems and so the start was delayed, but the racers got to go down the course with their coaches, so Steve took our three down. The photo looks like Daddy Duck with his three ducklings following him.
The boys all did well and didn't miss any of the gates. Because it was running late we managed to get lunch done while the course was changed for the second run, but then it began raining and it was a long wait on the hill for the children until their turn. This time the organisers put something on the snow around the gates that made it much more icy and tricky, but again the boys did well and we were really proud of them. Jonathan got on with racing on the steep slopes eventhough this season he has been unwilling to leave the learner slopes; Peter has a natural ability to ski and showed good control not to miss gates; and Edward showed good perseverance to wait in yucky conditions for his turn which was much later as he was in an older group.
The rain continued after they had raced so we all skied a little while longer and then returned to the campsite. We got changed and headed for the Godley Hotel for the race results and prize-giving. All the competitiors got a certificate and goody-bag, but we were delighted to find that Peter had finished 4th! He was sooooo pleased with his medal and wanted to wear it to bed!
We got some take-away pizzas from Pepes and ate them in the tv room at the campsite, then it was off to bed for the boys. I finished a PD James book while Steve watched a movie.