Year 2000
Start of the year was difficult. Regular walks and some exercises with ski poles was everything I could do. At the beginning of April, I managed to start jogging. In May, I could run regularly. I signed up for Hoppet. I felt some void for not racing so long, European winter already passed. What about skiing in New Zealand before Hoppet? Ania agreed to be my company. We decided to spend 3 days in Queenstown, 3 days in Snow Farm and 3 days in Wanaka.
Firstly, we were very impressed by organisers of our stay in Queenstown. The plane came few hours late due to some technical problems in the airport.
When we landed, we were immediately approached by tourist bureau representative:
- If you do not want to waste a day, take your ski gear and go to Coronet Peak, we will take care of the rest of your luggage.
But there was a problem, I had to hire skis.
- No problem, we will drive to the shop. When you will be ready, just take any car, whatever. We will reimburse you for the cost of the ride.
So we were driven to the mountain in a dry cleaning deliveries van. For 3 days, we skied downhill on Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, then we moved to the Snow Farm. Located on a top of a bare mountain, it looked like some Antarctic base. Accommodation and quality of ski trails were excellent, but scenery was for me too monotonous.
Merino Muster. Snow was not too good and the main race was shortened to 35 km. We had to zigzag twice from the bottom, to the top of the mountain. It was so depressing to see skiers on the track just 5 meters above, but you needed to ski 500 m to get to this point, then turn 180 degrees and ski half a kilometre to gain next few metres of altitude. Ania did a shorter distance, zigzagging only once. Additional attraction was presence of New Zealand Prime Minister - Mrs Helen Clarke, who participated in the shorter distance race.
Next stage was Wanaka, downhill again. We skied at Treble Cone and Cardrona. On the last day, dense
fog came. We skied in white milk, I had troubles in keeping balance as I had no idea how steep or flat terrain was. During lunch break, we both felt dizzy. At night, Ania felt very, very sick. We boarded plane, asked for a good supply of safety bags and patiently travelled back home.
Hoppet. In Melbourne, Ania was diagnosed with glandular fever. So she stayed at home and Peter replaced her in Birkebeiner. Snow condition were excellent. I was also hit a bit by a bug and skied very slowly. Michael kept his usual pace and beat me by 1 hour.
Peter's début was very promising, third in his age group. He became regular "Hoppeter" since then.
And finally Hotham to Falls. Actually, only to Dinner Plain. This year I wore a headdress imitating Pole 333 - the highlight of the proper course of this race.
In memory of my previous year's title of best lost person, I received a special bib, which helped me this year.
