Eight year association ends

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 12, 13 August 1985, Page 3

Eight year association ends

It was not difficult to detect a note of genuine regret at leaving behind so many firm friends and fond memories when they were interviewed by the Bulletin last week. Peter and Wendy (she was Wendy Guy) and unknown to each other then, arrived in Ohakune about the same time.....just as the Turoa Skifield was being developed in 1978. Peter, who is originally from Whangarei, had come to work on the construction of the new skifield after spending a number of years associated with the mountaineering and skiing industries both here in New Zealand and overseas. His main int'erest had always been in climbing and mountaineering and, quite ironically for someone who

ended up as the leader of Turoa's Ski Patrol, his first experience of skiing on Whakapapa as a school-boy in 1966 had been an unmitigated disaster. "I hated it," he said. After leaving school Peter worked in television in Auckland for four years before going overseas for another four. During this time, because of his love of the mountains, he spent two years in Switzerland's Saas Fe area and worked as a ski-lift operator during the winter. There he had to learn to ski as skifield staff were expected to make their own way down after the skifield had been cleared and the lifts had stopped operating. For the remaining two years he was in Europe Peter was able, thanks to the value

of the Swiss francs he had been earning, to travel widely. When he returned to New Zealand he joined Wally Romane's Venturetreks as a guide and was based in Taumarunui for four years from where he took parties of trampers into the Kaimanawas and the Wanganui River wilderness areas. He then worked as a lift operator for RAL on the Whakapapa Skifield during the 1977 ski season before joining Turoa. He joined the ski patrol in the winter of 1978 and became its leader in 1 979. For the past three years Peter has also been a member of the New Zealand Avalanche Control Committee whose job it is to assess and assist in avalanche awareness.

Wendy's arrival and subsequent 8-year sojourn on the local ski scene was far less predictable. She set out from semitropical Brisbane in 1978 on what was intended to be a world-wide overseas trip. As it turned out this has been her first and only stop on that proposed world trip! "I just love the place," she said last week. After working at Whakapapa for a couple of months Wendy moved round to the Ohakune side of Mt Ruapehu where she joined the newly-formed Turoa Skifield company. Turoa's 1978 ski season didn't start until August of that year because the preparatory work on the skifield had not been completed. Wendy worked first in the skifield cafeteria then with Turoa's caravan park when the cafeterias were let out to contract caterers. In 1981 she became the information officer and then the accommodation officer in 1982. Since 1983 she has , been Turoa Information Centre's office supervisor. Wendy and Peter certainly have mixed feelings about leaving Ohakune. "It's been the dominant feature of our adult lives but the prospect of tackling something new after 1 1 years association with the mountain and skiing industry is an exciting challenge," said Peter. "It's a wonderful little town,"added Wendy. "WeVe made a lot of very good friends here and we will miss them all terribly." Wendy and Peter — who have never skied together before — plan to spend three-and-a-half weeks in the South Island before taking up their new lives in Brisbane.