Turoa's woman driver talks story

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 454, 22 September 1992, Page 12 (Supplement)

Turoa's woman driver talks story

From page 8 That was back in 1965 when New Zealand probably was all those things. Mary's plan was accelerated 13 years later when she became good friends with an AFS student from Palmerston North who was staying with the Eich family.

She had intended to work ski patrolling down in the South Island but the job wasn't going to start for some weeks and in the meantime she had found a job in one of the Turoa cafes. On patrol She didn't last in the cafe too long before getting a job as a liftie then a ski patroller that season, and she continued patrolling in the northern and southern hemispheres until 1985. The Eich family lived near Snow Valley, Southern California's largest ski area in the San Bernadino mountains, where Mary was on the ski race team. "I was coaching kids on the ski racing programme at Snow Valley but I gave up racing myself when I came here because I wasn't competitive enough." Her parents, both now in their seventies and still skiing, were very outdoors people and encouraged their five sons and two daughters to ski, surf, fish and hunt from an early age. After graduating from high school Mary spent a year studying Biology at the University of San

Diego. She gained a full scholarship from the university so took up her studies again in the 1990, '91 and '92 northern winters and graduated with a bachelor degree this year. Now Mary wants to learn to fly so she can accompany her father, who flies but doesn't like to do it on his own. She's not stopping there. Going to medical school is something she really wants to do but said it's not viable with seasonal work, so she's going to get her teaching credentials. "I'd like to teach wood work and some science and P.E. to the physically disabled." There's a ten month high school teaching course in the U.S. aimed at people who are working which runs on a month to month basis that would work in well with her job. Life quest The inspiration for this vigourous quest for life experience has been her sister Nancy who died last year. Nancy, who was four and a half years older than Mary, had cerebral palsy

and hydrocephalus, commonly known as water on the brain, and when Mary talks about her it is with feelings of love and awe. "Her bravery and courage was amazing, she had been dealt a raw deal but chose to make the most out of life." "When we were younger we used to fight all the time, like physically and people used to say why do you pick on your disabled sister, but she was strong and she could pull hair and bite just as good as me !" Nancy was the third person to ever receive an extra-cranial shunt; a surgically implanted device for the purpose of absorbing and expelling the cerebral spinal fluid which accumulated in her skull. Her disabilities stopped her from doing very little and she graduated with a degree from college. "It was undoubtedly her approach to life as a woman that made me realise life is too precious to squander ." Mary's mother is a quarter Cherokee Indian and she says that's where she gets her inexhaustible capacity to "talk story", a

colourful way to paint the j whole picture. Mary is married to fellow cat driver Chip McCavana who has been grooming for thirteen sea- 1 sons. They own a house in between Ohakune and Raetihi which they built themselves in 1988. Mary loves her job, and says she never gets lonely grooming by herself at night. "It's a lovely opportunity to be amongst nature," she said, "the weather can be really awful and its pleasant to know you're are inside this great machine." Cat adventure "Cat driving it's an adventure and never the sametwice." Her grooming days haven't been without their moments, she tells of one night when there was whiteout conditions at Turoa and she was grooming near the Jumbo T-Bar. "I knew the boss was at the Giant having a cup of coffee so I couldn't wimp out so I conned myself into grooming." "This really weird sensation came over me and I stopped the cat straight

away, I thought 'god how many laps have I done?' "I crawled out the passenger door and walked back counting the number of mats I had done and I worked out I was right on the edge of Clay's Leap." Clay's Leap is a gully about 60 feet deep in between the Jumbo and High Noon T-Bars. "My guardian angel was looking out for me that night."

"You've really got to know where you're going without being able to see, it's not my own life I've got to think about sometimes I've got twelve lifties on the back of my cat as well." This season's bulk snow has been good because it means the groomers can go almost anywhere on the skifield as most rocks are covered.