80s Day!

Last Saturday we had the annual 80s day at Ski Roundhill. It's tradition, and the whole staff, family and friends of the owners, and even many from the public come dressed in their best 80s gettup.

As staff, we have to go all-out of course, and the owners let us browse through their attic that was full of old 80s stuff. 

I managed to find some really tight spandex ski pants, a purple sparkly dress, and a pink satin jacket. John found a turtle neck and what I determined to be red swishy stripper pants as they completely unzipped and then unbuttoned from the sides. 

The night before, John and two of the other guys--Pete and Andrew--decided that they would go balls to the wall and cut their hair. Our friend Natalie went to hair dressing school in England so we all headed over to their place for a hair dressing party. She got the incriminating photos on her camera.

Natalie's boyfriend Pete got a mohawk, Andrew got a mullet, and John got a flat top with the side lines. They were fantastically bad. 

The next day it was hilarious to see everyone in their 80s costumes. Natalie and I ended up finding enough pink stuff that we decided to be the Pink Ladies from Grease. Yes, I know, as several people condescendingly pointed out, that the movie Grease takes place in the 50s. But the movie came out in the 80s and so it counts.

There is a group picture floating around (again on Natalie's camera I think) that I will have to find and post. However, here are some that I got in the meantime.

Another part of 80s day was a water jump competition. Every year they dig a small pool in the snow, cover it with a tarp and will it up with water. They build a small snow ramp right at the end and it's a competition to see who has the best jump. Very often, people don't make it across and fall in the frozen pool, or can't ski across it--so it's very funny to watch. John participated and so I got some good photos of his successful jump! 

At the end of the day a crazy townie guy, some local farmer, showed up in the car park--having towed with his old tractor an old, beat-up small SUV with no windshield sitting on a trailer--with some young guys and girls sitting on the roof. Not the safest thing in the world and apparently the owners know the guy and he is prone to such shenanigans. They were all completely wasted though, and had some weird mannequin sitting in the front. Last year he had just driven the SUV up and was told by the owners to never drive that up to their hill again (as obviously it wasn't safe). This newest concoction was his cheeky response. 

It was an accident waiting to happen and it didn't wait long. As the last van drove down at the end of the day we got to the bottom of the hill onto the flat road and looked ahead and saw that the van had completely turned on it's side on the side of the road and the tractor had lost it's tire. We immediately all got out to help and assess the situation. The mannequin freaked people out at first because it had been dressed in human clothing and was laying next to the car so it looked like a dead person. However, no one was killed (luckily--if they had turned over on the road down they all would have fallen down the cliff), but some of them were a bit banged up with bloody faces. Our van driver was a nice ski patrol guy named Johno and he was EMT certified so he automatically started helping the injured while I called the mountain manager, Simon. He flew down the road with the other two ski patrol/first aid guys and they all took care of the injured, shocked, and drunk of their ass people and eventually the other owners, Christian and Oscar,  fire trucks, ambulances, and the police came. It was probably the most exciting thing to happen in Lake Tekapo in quite a while. 

But let that be a lesson--don't drink and drive--even on a tractor--and especially down an unpaved mountain road. 

All in a days work at Ski Roundhill!