What's the French Word for BBQ?

I will admit, that after 5 months of a carefree existence, today, we experienced a small dose of that pesky emotion - STRESS! After much dispute about the weight of our ski bag, we borrowed Liz's scales to confirm that it was indeed, hugely heavy at 34kg!! There was no question, unless we lightened the load, we would be paying excess luggage. Back again to Madame La Poste for 2 more boxes! Not quite what we had envisaged.

2/The French Get Together - a BBQ in the late Spring Sunshine

2/ Geraldine, Bertrand and their baby boy

This afternoon, Rick & Liz had kindly invited a few of our local french friends for a casual BBQ in the late afternoon spring sunshine. Joining us were Bertrand, Geraldine and their gorgeous baby boy, and Christophe and his young son - Taos, Gavin & Sue and their "fur baby" Winston.

It was a lovely relaxed afternoon as we enjoyed a delicious array of meats and salads. We're not quite sure whether our teacher, Liz was proud of efforts to speak french or cringing in her boots! Graeme and I find that we can generally get our message across with a bizarre mixture of language, charade actions and arm waving! At least Christophe was used to our tortured attempts at Franglish!!

We are still struggling to come to terms with the reality of going home. We keep saying it, but our time in France has just gone so quickly. In the blink of an eye, the wonderful winter we have enjoyed has disappeared and been replaced with a sunny and balmy spring. All around our village, the crocus, daffodils and tulips abound. There is a feeling of frenetic energy as all the building projects around the village spring to life after the dormancy of the long winter.

3/The "fur babies" - Winston and Biggles

As the BBQ discussion turns to visiting NZ, I wonder how many of our Araches friends will actually make the long journey. Only R&L have been there before and truly know how far away it is. We have observed in our short time that France has many attractions. Compared to so many other European countries, there is still a feeling of spaciousness here. With so many climates and different environments, it is easy to understand why the French are not renowned international travellers.

We'll have to wait and see!!

4/ The Gang - R+L, G&S at the end of the night!

Let the Packing Begin!

Hmmm, time to start the dreaded task of packing. It is amazing how much "bidule", "truc" and "machin" (our 3 favourite french words for STUFF), we have managed to accumulate over the last 5 months. The miserly economy class baggage limit was foremost in our minds today as we began the daunting task of clearing Le Refuge of our detritus.

After discovering that it would be cheaper to pay Marie to personally fly to NZ with our skis, we have decided to rely on the old fashioned solution. La Poste!! Still frightfully expensive, especially if you do the conversion to NZ $. Nevertheless a check of the Lufthansa website revealed that excess baggage was charged at E30/kg...making La Poste seem positively reasonable.

A typical morning of hilarity ensued at our local post office as we endeavoured to work out the most cost effective and secure solution to our postal problem. Our charming madam La Poste was wonderfully helpful, but as always our "..orrendous francais" presented the usual confusions.

Eventually, everyone queuing in the post office helped us with translation as we searched for the right box, mailing option and insurance decision. It will never cease to amaze us how often the wrongly maligned french have come to our assistance when we are making a huge botch of things. Contrary to the popular opinion, we have consistently found our french locals to be wonderfully patient and helpful. Everyone from the bank manager to the fromagereuse, the apothecary to the publican has been very kind and welcoming to us. We have been humbled by the amount of help we have received over the last 5 months. It will certainly give us pause for thought when we return to NZ and hear someone struggling to find their feet in our little town.

This evening we have been treated to a delicious "slap up" meal in Chamonix with the usual anglo suspects. Part farewell for us and Dave & Sue who leave Les Carroz for a new chalet in Les Gets, and part celebration to mark the end of the winter season, we enjoyed a delicious meal at the golf house restaurant in Chamonix. The food was totally delicious and for France (fairly reasonably priced). Joining us were R&L, welsh G&S, irish D&S and also english friends of R&L - Tania and Brian. Tania is a physio and Brian is a builder working with Rick in the summer. Keen ski tourers, it's a shame we didn't meet up with them at the beginning of the season rather than right at the end. But that's been the way of things as the reality of our imminent departure is really starting to sink in.

The Last Snow..and the World is a Very Small Place

1/ & 2/ Graeme enjoying the last powder run of the season. Not bad for 20 April?

Last ski at Les Grand Montets, Chamonix today. To celebrate the occasion, Hughie ("the weather god") turned on some boot-top powder for us. Actually it was a day of 2 seasons, winter at 3300m - 2800m and spring below 2800m.

When skiing in Chamonix, never forget to pack the goggles! It might be fine and sunny and positively hot at the valley floor. But as we experienced today, at the top of the LGM cable car (3300m) it was still winter with driving snow and a strong easterly wind. But what a treat! Once off the windblasted top lift station we enjoyed about 500m boot-top powder before the mountain remembered it was April and the snow turned heavy and wet. What a way to end our skiing in Chamonix! Thanks Hughie!!

2/ Andy getting amongst it. Aaaha..that's what I do with the right leg?

But the classic Oxley moment came during our 3rd visit to the top of the LGM cable car. After climbing down the steep stairs to begin our ski, we were approached by an older English chap who started to make conversation with us. Edward was skiing on his own and asked whether he could join us for the run down the glacier. Warning him that we were no speed freaks ( I suspect he knew that already and he'd picked his targets well) we invited him to join us.

The Pointe de Vue (and our Oxley variation) is a huge glacial run. With a few rests along the way it usually takes us about 30 - 40 minutes. Ed, a Chamonix local, was keen to show us a couple of his variations. As we made our way down the mountain, we learned that his daughter was currently on her way to NZ and later that his sister was also a "kiwiphile" and have visited many times, with Wanaka being her favourite place.

We also learned that he was friends with Ken & Pat from Ireland who we had met on one of our first trips to Chamonix.

4/ Andy & Ed...what are the chances?

One more stop along the mountain and the circle of coincidence continued to close. Ed, explained that his niece, Stephanie had done a winter of cross-country training in Wanaka, and that his sister, an Alexander Technique teacher, had seriously contemplated moving to Wanaka. Alarm bells started to ring in my head. I knew this lady. "Your sister wouldn't happen to be Hilary Cook would it?" Mouth agape, Ed couldn't believe the coincidence. I explained that Hilary Cook used to stay with us Te Wanaka Lodge.

How small is this planet?

A Sad Day and A Change of Plans

R -L - Nicholas, Uncle Rob, Michael, Andrew, Phil & his sons.

It's been a sad day and a quiet one as we recover from the news that we have lost another friend.

Uncle Rob, although not an uncle by birth, has was truly an uncle to Graeme in terms of the part he has played in the Oxley family life. For for nearly sixty years, Uncle Rob and Auntie June ("the Turnbulls") have been friends with Graeme's parents. And Graeme has had a friendship with their son Andrew, ever since his mother took him to meet the newborn Andrew when Graeme was only 18 months old.

There are so many stories, long standing tales and family legends which include Uncle Rob. Sharing a passion for cars, particularly MG's and Jag's, Graeme and his father always had a strong connection with Rob and his son Andrew. Uncle Rob, was a dynamic man. Life was to be lived at full pace, whether at work in his professional life or behind the wheel of a car.

Graeme will miss Uncle Rob dearly. As, of course, will his parents who have lost one of their dearest and closest friends.

Rest in peace, Uncle Rob. May the dear lord have a nice shiny MG TF awaiting you!

********

Today, was also a day to make some changes to our plans. There is no question in our minds that we would like to be back in Melbourne to support Andrew, Auntie June and Graeme's parents through this time. Fingers crossed that we will be able to change our flights and arrangements easily.

A Fabulous Last Day and Evening in Livigno

1/ Farewell to our "height challenged Zini Apartment!"

Isn't it always the way? The last day of a visit is often the best?

The morning was spent saying farewell to the Zini Family and our comfy but "height challenged" apartment. Loading the car with our gear, we set out on foot to explore the streets of Livigno in depth. Our room at the B&B -"Chalet Moon" will not be ready until mid morning.

My husband is a very lucky man. Not only do I share his passion for skiing, but I suspect that I'm the only woman in the world not enthralled by "retail therapy". Mind you, if I was going to change my "spots", Livigno might just be the place that could tempt me. The shopping is mind blowing. A tax-free haven, the shops are bristling with all the best brands. Clothing, shoes, jewellery, stylish homewares and of course ski, bike and outdoor equipment from all corners of the globe. All at very reasonable tax free prices.

But we were on a mission. Not only were my gloves worn out, somehow I managed to lose them the day before yesterday. I have memories of putting them down in the carpark before our ski tour. I can't honestly remember picking them up again!! Fortunately, the weather has been positively balmy and I have been surviving on some spare fleece gloves, but given it will be winter again in NZ, I really do need a new pair. The feature list was very specific. My gloves needed - 1/A Goretex outer and removable inners. 2/ They have to be long and reach over my wrist with an adjustable wrist strap. Should be easy enough to find?

After searching the length and breadth of Livigno ski shops, we learned that finding the perfect combination of all these features, was severely limited. I was seriously losing interest after our 3rd ski shop. Luckily for me, Graeme comes from a long line of professional shoppers and took over the task. Somehow along the way, I was distracted by the most beautiful pair of patent leather black boots you ever did see. A pair of utilitarian gloves no longer held any appeal once I had tried on the "Cinderella boots"- their soft shiny leather was all I could think about. But alas, the budget could only stretch to one choice...the gloves or the boots....sigh!! What to do?

By late morning we had made our purchase and returned to meet Roberta at Chalet Moon. As expected (given Genni's glowing recommendation) our room was perfect. We didn't have much time to spare however, we were due to meet an English bloke called Philip at the top of the Carosella gondola. We made it and met up again with Fritz the swiss mountain guide and some german guys, Franz and Christian for some more ...you guessed it ...telemarking!

2/ An unusual position for Fritz - he is normally an outstanding telemark skier.. but those misery sticks can catch out even the professionals!!

I can't say that I shared the blokes passion for this form of skiing, but it was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon and it was fun to be out on the hill. Suddenly, when I let go all the "instructions" and just kept up with the boys, something seemed to "click". Finally, I was making it down the slope without the usual thigh burn. Maybe I was getting the hang of this telemark skiing? A small glimmer of hope wedged in my brain and was growing bigger after each run. I was getting good at this....at least until I tripped over my new telemark ego and landed in a messy pile of skis mid-way through our last run. I managed to skewer my left buttock on a ski tip. I can't even begin to imagine the yoga pose I had to perform in mid air to achieve this feat!! I will surely be sporting a good bruise on my bottom over the next few days.

3/ In true telemark tradition - it was soon "Beer O'Clock"

The end of the day was drawing near, and in true La Skieda fashion, free pasta and a band were on offer at one of the mountain cafes. Well, it would be rude not to accept such hospitality. N'est pas?

The band was another classic Italian music experience. Headed up by one of the most unkempt Italian's we've seen so far, it was a repertoire of heavy metal classics, ZZ-Top, Kiss, AC-DC, Lynard Skynard... the list went on. He couldn't sing for nuts, but his guitar playing was great and he really had the Angus Young, ZZ-Top hair flick thing going!

But the true highlight of the afternoon on the bar terrace was the masterful skiing of Luigi Martinelli - largely credited as the founding father of La Skieda. Hurtling down the heavily moguled slope above the bar on his tele's, he stopped abruptly to send a huge wave of spring snow cascading over the band. Not content with his first trick, he then continued to ski down at warp speed, launch off a snow bank, land on a table, jump off that and arrive on stage to join the chorus. John Falkiner in his Jame Bond stuntman mode couldn't have done better! The crowd roared approval!

3/ Check out that hair!!

The afternoon's entertainment was hard to beat, but we wound up the day with a great pasta meal in the evening with the Blokes!

One of the most memorable stories of the evening was of course from Fritz the Swiss Mountain guide. Despite being of more mature years (he's 57) and his conservative Swiss demeanour, he was sporting an unusual earring in his left ear. It was a small gold cow. I couldn't resist asking him about it. His story was a good one.

Fritz's passion is ice-climbing and it turns out that one day he was out friendly climbing with two german women. Arriving at their first pitch there was much debate about the integrity of a very beautiful looking ice column. The women were adamant that the column was broken and shouldn't be climbed. Fritz was equally adamant that it was fine. The debate continued for some time until finally "bets were laid". The bet was that whoever was wrong had to get a "body piercing". The mind boggles how on earth a bet involving "piercing" came about at the bottom of an ice-climb? But there you go....I'm not a climber?

Fritz admitted to me, that while he was pretty sure about the ice-column, he thought he'd put in a bit of rock protection too...just in case! He's very proud of his earring. He reckons the bet saved his life. About 20 m up, the whole ice-column collapsed leaving him dangling from the rock! He was more than happy to get the piercing but baulked at the initial suggested location by the girls! Understandable...he is Swiss and married after all.

Swapping email addresses, we were sad to being saying good-bye to Livigno, La Skieda and all the wonderful people we have met this week. Perhaps with the power of the internet we'll manage to stay in touch. Fritz, Franz, Philip and Christian are all very keen for us to create a NZ version of La Skieda....hmmmm?

Not the Best Day for a Ski Tour!

1/ Daniela & Luciano. Sure they're smiling now...but it's only the beginning.

Somehow we managed to struggle out of bed this morning after the mountain top dinner last night. We were meeting Daniela and Luciano for one of the organised ski tours being held each day during the festival. Sensibly D&L didn't go to the party last night. The were bright eyed and bushy tailed. A sharp contrast to our own bleary eyes and sagging tails!! Nevertheless we made it to the cable car on time and the morning cappucino at the top helped start our engines.

2/ A busy day for the ski tour!!

It was not the best day for a ski tour. The weather has changed. It was warm and foggy today and the powder snow at the beginning of the week is now only a distant memory. The excursion turned out really to be an endurance event, travelling in a dense fog, with 70 or so other telemarkers up and down the ridge-line separating Italy and Switzerland. Ordinarily the views are really quite something, so it was disappointing to have only the view of Graeme's bottom wiggling in front of me as he shuffled along on his skins. Ordinarily a good view in itself, but I have seen rather a lot of it over the recent months!

I had learnt my lesson from the last ski tour and today I donned my "normal" skis rather than try and pretend that I was anything else other than a very ordinary intermediate telemark skier. Nobody seemed to mind and I wasn't immediately ostrascised from the telemark community. Such is the relaxed attitude of these kind people.

About half way into the tour, I am sooooooo relieved that I didn't use the telemark skis. After a 2.5 hour skin up to the ridgeline in a white out, we had to back track to find a safe skiable slope back to the resort. With such poor visability, the original tour plan was abandoned. As is often the way with ski touring, the snow was heinous. Either heavy and wet or diabolical breakable crust. It would have been impossible for me to ski this on telemarks. I had enough trouble on my alpine skis! Graeme seemed to have no trouble at all and made a wonderful job of skiing in such difficult conditions. He received a terrific tip from John on our last tour and it was reinforced in the lesson we had yesterday. Graeme has been able to apply the "Cat Step" to very useful effect in the breakable crust conditions.

3/ Luciano loves his cake!! And cheese too!!

The "Ski Tour from Hell" as Daniela termed it, culminated in a final steep climb back to the ski resort. The final skin required about 10 or so kick-turns, so if you were not able to perform these easily, it was extremely hard going. The technique for a telemark kick-turn is actually very tricky and Daniela found it almost impossible. She was totally exhausted when she finally made it back to the ski resort.

Nothing a good bowl of pasta and a delicious cake couldn't fix however! We waited for D&L and joined them for lunch. Sadly, they are leaving this afternoon, as Daniela has to be back at work on Friday. But we've swapped emails and hopefully we'll have time to nip over to Italy and the Aosta valley before we leave France.

Late afternoon, we stopped by to see some ski films submitted to the Livigno Mountain Film Festival that is being held concurrently with La Skieda. We were especially interested to see a telemark film from Australia. A low-budget film, it nevertheless had some fantastic footage of skiing in the snowy mountains and around Hotham and Falls Creek. I am not sure that the European crowd was really that impressed by the skiing footage. I mean to say, skiing around on windswept hard packed slab snow understandably doesn't push their buttons. But there was some footage of a Val D'Isere patroller who spent a winter at Thredbo. His observations about our intense sun, blue sky and lovely snow gums went over well with the audience.

By early evening, we are back in our little apartment and I am busy blogging away, trying desperately to catch up. Graeme has left me to it, heading off to see another film or theatre production as part of the festival. I can't blog and socialise I'm afraid. But now I am back to the general silence of long term marriage!! ...I should hopefully make some progress.

4/ I love European villages. The view from our apartment window.
A horse stabled next door being fed for the evening.

Ski Touring with an old Aussie Bloke

1/ Ski Touring out from Livigno this morning.

Each morning of the La Skieda Telemark Festival, there is an excursion led by professional guides to one of the surrounding peaks or valleys. With the bright sunshine and the hope that there was still some powder to be found on the north facing aspects, we organised to go out for a ski tour with John Falkiner. John, originally from Geelong, Melbourne, now lives in Verbier, Switzerland.


John is most famous for the stunt skiing in James Bond films but his involvement in the ski industry over the last 30 years is legendery. He knows a lot of the guides in Wanaka, but the funniest coincidence is that Graeme remembers taking a ski lesson from him way back in the 70's at Mt Buller! Graeme wore his Mt Buller beanie and giggle sun-hat (donated by his patroller brother) today especially for John!

2/ Graeme putting in some nice turns!

I was very relieved that our tri-lingual group (3 English speakers, one Italian and 2 French) were intermediate skiers and we were going to take an easier line down the mountain. I had elected to use the "misery sticks" (telemark skis), figuring that, after all, it was a telemark festival and it would've been rude to turn up for the tour with alpine gear!! A bit like arriving at an AA meeting with a bottle of wine!

As expected, John had a good eye for the easiest skin line and where to find the best snow. But I can't say I excelled in the telemark department, I think I managed 3 telemark turns for the whole morning! But the snow was too good to waste with ugly tele-turns and in the end I just wanted to put in a nice set of parallel turns. This telemark skiing thing is going to take some serious persistence and leg endurance on my part!

3/ John & my tracks! Hardly "figure of 8" are they?

Graeme was easily the best skier of the group. The french and italian women were very tentative. This excursion was obviously one of their first ventures skiing off-piste or away from the comfort of the resort. As a consequence, there were many stops and breaks in the journey while skis were collected, sunglasses cleared of snow and confidence restored. As a credit to our guide, we all managed to make it down in one piece!! But there was no pressure. We assured John that we were more than happy with the pace. We enjoy just getting out in the mountains and the weather was glorious!

4/ John Falkiner -"Probably wondering why he had been stuck
with a bunch of beginners this morning!!?"

Joining us on the tour, was Andy, from Edinburgh who was learning to telemark. John and his partner, Kathy, have been to the last three La Skieda festivals and we can see why they keep coming back. Where else do you get free ski guiding and lessons everyday from some of the top professionals in the business?

There was some serious incentive to get down the hill. Below us in the valley, a fantastic La Skieda luncheon awaited us!

Back in Araches, but still pining for Mario!

1/ A delicious curry with David and Georgina in Les Carroz.
Forget the date - something wrong with their camera!!

Somehow, we actually managed to make it back to Araches after our long day of ski touring in Italy, shower, shave and change into clean clothes in time to join Lucy Sellick's sister (Georgina) and husband, David, for a casual curry dinner. G&D have rented an apartment in Les Carroz, just up the hill from us. Sans les enfants, they have enjoyed a tremendous week of good snow and glorious sunshine.

We must have been running on over-drive! Limbs aching and noses glowing from 3 days of snow & sunshine, we wolfed down Dave's delicious curry. G&D must have wondered "who" or rather "what creatures" they had invited to dinner!

As the night wore on, there was some vague plan hatched over the second bottle of wine about catching up for a ski with G&D around mid-morning in Les Carroz. At the time we must have felt invincible to make this suggestion. I certainly must have forgotten all about the grinding ache in my knees, blisters on my feet and a general light-headedness from too much the sun. Of course, that's what did it...too much sun!

Needless to say that by daybreak next morning, our grand plans of the night before had evaporated, leaving only the aforementioned sore knees, feet and heads! Not only that, but my feet were so badly blistered I couldn't put on normal shoes, let alone ski boots! We feel a little badly that we didn't get more of an opportunity to ski with G & D. We hope they will forgive us!!

So our day was spent with the usual domestics and a very early night. But all through the day we reminisced about our trip to the Mario Bezzi Refuge. Here's some more reflections on the trip!

2/ How cool! Mario Bezzi has his own monogrammed crockery!!
The funniest thing is that, Mario, does, actually look a bit like a marmot!

Christophe our Guide

Christophe is an excellent guide. He pushes us just enough to make us feel that we have achieved something without taking us beyond our limits. He is very safety conscious and explains why he is making a particular decision at a particular time. He is keen to share information with us but even more admirably he readily seeks out information from others he respects. His interaction with the Mario Bezzi, an old man of the mountains, was delightful.

He has a wicked sense of humour and the patience of a saint. Apart from having to nurse me up some of the more exposed parts of the mountain, he was also forced to listen to my tortured attempts at the French language. I figured, since we were going to be spending 3 days in close quarters, I had a perfect French tutor on hand.

However, Christophe quickly developed two very effective techniques to encourage silence from me. First, if my attempt at french conversation was getting too long, he would subtly increase the pace of skinning, slowly pulling further and further away from me. To keep up, I would have to markedly increase my leg speed, by which time I was huffing and puffing so much there was no chance of any further witty repartee.

His second technique was a lot less subtle. As I struggled to find the correct words or pronounciation he would initially feign interest and then suddenly drop his head making loud snoring noises. Hint taken!!

3/ A Christophe speciality: Crushed Crisps for lunch?

Another Christophe classic, was his choice of touring food. He had endless supply of pototo crips and would offer them to us at every opportunity. Take it from us, pototo crisps are not ideal ski touring food!! OK, I will concede that they're light, but if the packet doesn't burst from the reduced air pressure, the contents resemble oatmeal by the time they have been shoved repeatedly into a pack.

And the very last observation about our fearless leader, Christophe, is his habit of donating head torches to Refuges throughout the alps. At the Colle di Giasson, he was rummaging through his pack to discover that yet again he had left his head torch at Refuge Mario Bezzi. I am not completely sure about the exact translation, but I did understand that over the years, he has left 36 head torches at various refuges and mountain bivvies around the alps. He used to be sponsored by Petzl which covered the first 20 or so, but obviously (given the level of swear words) the "freebie days" are long gone!!

But all jokes and observations aside, we would seriously rate Christophe as a guide. He has a "nose for the snow" and we've thoroughly enjoyed our touring with him on this trip and also our first trip closer to home. We have been lucky to have found him as our guide.

4/ Our handsome guide - Christophe!!

Meeting Mirielle in Megeve!

1/ "So that's what Megeve looks like!!"

Today we were re-visiting Megeve. In contrast to our first trip to this resort way back in December, today the sun was shining and the whole of the resort was open. No thigh deep powder snow or snorkels required this time, but the resort has obviously benefited from the good recent snowfall.

Our re-visit to this ski area was due to contact with a favourite Te Wanaka guest, Mirielle and her two delightful daughters, Clemence and Violette. Mirielle lives in Marseille and is staying in Megeve with her cousin Bernard. We have kept in contact with Mirielle and her family, ever since they first stayed with us at Te Wanaka. Mirielle is a lovely lady and it was terrific to meet up with her and hear her news. She is an adventurous soul and not afraid to try new things. She was excited to tell us about her horse-riding lessons and her new horse called Mustang.

We spent a couple of hours luxuriating in conversation during a delicious mountain lunch. Poor Bernard suffered our extremely bad french and extensive english conversations with good humour. He is a dental surgeon from Normandy, with a perfect smile (what else would you expect). He is wonderful with Mirielle's daughters and they just love him. Bernard is also the owner of a true "Daniel Boone" style hat! We all had great fun trying it on over lunch. But there was no question that Violette looked the best in it!

Tomorrow we pick up Mike & Leanne Barton off the TGV from Paris tomorrow afternoon. The Wanaka takeover of Araches begins!!

2/ The 2 cutest girls on the hill - Clemence & Violette and that hat!!

3/ Bernard, Mirielle and the girls at lunch!

4/ That Hat!!

Sadly we leave Slovakia!

1/ Finally the mysterious Tatras are revealed!!

Typical!!! For the first time in a week the sun has come out and we can see the High Tatras from Dana and Tibor's house!!! And today we have to begin the long drive back to France! Bother, bother and double bother!!

Originally the plan was to go skiing with all the Hmoradka family and stay the night in their ski resort on our way home, but Mischa awoke with a high temperature and Tomi was feeling a little worse for wear. Dana was very disappointed as she loves to ski and was really looking forward to a day out. Sadly, Plan B, was a walk around their village, Stola.

The village is a lot bigger than expected. Bisected by the main road to the High Tatras National Park, the main street is littered with abandoned and crumbling soviet style buildings. First impressions are not good. But two streets back, the village is full of quaint wooden holiday chalets. With the bad weather and our action-packed programme, we had not had time to go for a wander earlier.

2/Dana & I go for a wander up one of the main side streets.

3/ A cute Stola holiday chalet

Many of the beautifully restored chalets are owned by Slovakians living in Bratislava or overseas. Unfortunately this means that, like Wanaka, out of the summer tourist season, the village is very quiet. It is also hard for Mischa and Tomi as there are very few children of their age living in the village. All their friends are at school.

We have had such a wonderful time with Dana & Tibor we are sad to say goodbye! But hopefully it will be "Au revoir" and not good-bye.

They should be very proud of their children and all that they have achieved with their business. The High Tatras is truly a special part of the world and we feel privileged to have visited the mountains and forest with such a pair of wonderful guides.

With a last hug, we're back in the car heading west to Vienna.

4/ And so...we say goodbye to Stola.

Going for a "Walk" - Hmoradka Style!!

1/ Going for a "walk" with Dana & Tibor is a whole new experience!!

Today, Tibor & Dana took us to Slovak National Park where we climbed up the Sucha Bela Gorge. Tibor and Dana don’t really do walks! Not even tramping or hiking really. Certainly not as the ordinary person would define the terms! They do adventures! The words – “commando course, waterfall climbing and gorge scrambling” would better define their idea of a “walk”.

2/ Check out the ladder system up this gorge!!

3/ Those "freaky" wooden ladders!!

As we began the walk, all the fir trees were still covered in their dusting of snow and every now and then, when the breeze blew, soft white crystals floated down from the trees on us like snow flakes. The National Park is riddled with deep gorges that end on a high flat plateau and the park is very busy in the summer with tourists making the climb up to the plateau. The gorges are all fitted with a network of wooden and metal step-ladders to help people climb up the river and waterfalls. I found it quite difficult. I have a terrible fear of slipping and the ice and snow covered wooden ladder walkways suspended above the river really played havoc with my mind. Not only were the wooden rungs covered in ice and snow, the icy river was flowing, in some places, 3 – 4 metres below. Like walking on balance beam, I was fine when the ladders were only 1 or 2 metres off the ground, but as soon as they got higher, the adrenaline started to flow.

Dana has regularly taken her children and friends for a “walk” up this gorge, but she has never made such a slow trip! For me, each step on these horizontal ladders was torture. But eventually, after we had crossed many metres of these walkways, I gritted my teeth and calmed down enough to make a little faster progress. This system of ladders and platforms is truly amazing. It is something we will probably never see in NZ due partly to the wild floods that sweep down all our rivers, and also, I suspect, because NZ OHS laws would say that this system is too dangerous. What a shame!

4/ Hmmm..a walk? Really?

On the way up, Tibor regaled us with many of his climbing stories. He has been on expedition in the Himalayas to Kanchenjunga (the world’s third highest mountain) he has climbed El Capitain in the US, as well as many of the technical European Peaks. As he was describing to Graeme, a particularly harrowing climb in the Dolomites, I couldn’t help but think how lucky it was that I got the same adrenaline rush from doing this walk, which for Tibor was about as exciting as strolling along a suburban footpath. If I slipped and fell, I could twist an ankle or at the very worst break a limb. A mistake by Tibor at his level of adventure has entirely different consequences. Dana is remarkably pragmatic about Tibor’s thirst for adventure. But she is also a good climber and knows Tibor’s abilities. They make a good team.

It goes without saying that it was cold. Probably –2 or –3C for the whole day and probably even colder in the shadows of the gorge, so lunch was a fairly quick bite before we headed down the access track back to the car. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to find out that, for safety reasons, you are only allowed to climb up the gorges not down!

Back into Poprad for what Dana assured me was the “worlds best hot chocolate”! She wasn’t kidding! A cup filled with molten chocolate and topped with whipped cream it was absolutely delicious and easily the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted. And while the boys headed off to do some shopping in an interesting role reversal situation, we delved into the pastry selection. Well, it would have been positively rude to sit there in the café without ordering one! Wouldn’t it?