The mountain is now open! There is more snow in the forecast ahead and lots of people who canât head overseas for winter breaks appear to be focusing on skiing. There are a record number of people at the mountain for this time of year and visiting the South Island ski fields. The biggest challenge to date is that the ski fields operators and their bankers have appear to have underestimated the demand. But to be fair, early on, no one could have predicted the effect of Covid-19 or that we could have a ski season, so for that Iâm certainly grateful.
In this newsletter, we cover bookings, a subscription reminder, accessing the Club, stores, rubbish removal, locking up when you leave, Covid-19, bookable parking, the AGM, the fundraising dinner, the website, rebranding and T- Shirts and hoodies.
Club Bookings are now open
If you wish to book, please do so through the website (www.wssc.co.nz). Gus and Lisa have done an amazing job on the design of the site. We are now open for bookings and have had a few people staying at the Club and enjoying skiing over the July school holidays.
The October school holiday bookings period will run from Sunday 27th of September until Sunday 11th of October. These weeks have been locked off and are initially open to those members who attended the work parties earlier this year. If you attended a work party, you can book your ski week from Friday 17th to Friday 24th July. The school holidays will then be opened to all other members from Friday 24th July from 6pm.
Annual subscriptions
Please remember to pay your annual subs. You can go to the website and pay online (see “Using the Website” below) or do a bank transfer. To book accommodation you must be a financial member, so if you have not paid your subs, unfortunately you will not be able to book, so please go the web page and become financial!
Accessing the Club
You will need to get a key as the Club is locked and we do not have a ski host this year. Please email bookings@wssc.co.nz for a key. Keys cost $25 each as they are a special security key and are expensive to cut. We are also going to get a lock box that will be placed outside but we are unsure how this will operate in freezing temperatures so I would suggest you get a key. You can buy a key when you are at the Club or we can send you one. On weekends (unless the weather is poor) and throughout the school holidays, a committee member or senior member will be on duty at the Club. If you have not been at the Club by yourself, do not to worry we will have an experienced member or Committee member on hand to show you the ropes on opening and closing the Club. In addition, Todd is also making a video for our website that shows the steps required to open and shut the Club.
Collecting Stores
The stores will be delivered by Bidfood to the Grocery Stores Room in the Iwikau Shelter building by the barrier arms at the Top of the Bruce, by midday on the delivery day. The food for the Club will be clearly labelled with âWhanganui Ski & Snowboard Clubâ. Please check with Bill Nichol for the orders and ensure you collect only the stores for our club! There is an invoice with each order, taped to the outside of one of our boxes of stores. Please check off what gets to the Club from this list, to ensure we get it all, and donât leave anything behind. Also, to check that we only pick up our stuff. The store-room door code is on the Club duties board. The stores must be collected within 24hrs of the food order arrival or they may be removed and disposed of due to the food service regulations. When you collect the stores please dispose of any surplus packaging in the recycling and rubbish building, next to the Iwikau Shelter building. Pease donât leave it in food store room for others to clean up.
Rubbish Removal
Please use a black plastic bin liner in a paper rubbish bag in the kitchen, if the plastic lined bin bags are not available. This is especially important when disposing of liquid or wet waste. Staple the bags to seal them and use the marker pen to note what type of rubbish they contain i.e general waste, glass, plastic. Please leave it by the front door and take it down (to the building next to the Iwikau Shelter) when you next ski or board down.
Leaving the Club
Please follow the instructions on the back of the front door. As a reminder if you are the last out please make sure the switch on the steriliser unit is in the off position and pull the drain plug. When the steriliser is not in use, it must be switched to the off position as it is very easy to burn the element out. Donât turn the switch off at the wall. If you donât know how to use it please get someone to show you first. Also, please ensure the toilet cisterns are emptied and that you add anti-freeze to the toilet bowls, as per the instructions on the back of the toilet doors.
Covid-19
We will also be undertaking a more rigorous cleaning regime of our shared spaces like the bathrooms and the bunk rooms. Everyone will be expected to do their bit. If you are sick – we love you, but please stay away. If you turn up sick, – we still love you, but you will be asked to leave. If you have booked accommodation and become ill, we will transfer your booking.
Bookable Parking
This year RAL has introduced bookable parking for no charge. The link is on our website (see here) and on the RAL website, and has been introduced to manage the flow of visitors. There are 400 parks spaces allocated for clubs which was determined by RAL counting the number of cars parked overnight on the busiest day of last season which was 350. Carpark One is no longer available for overnight parking. Importantly, you need to book through the RAL website if you intend to arrive on a Saturday or a Sunday between 7am and 10am. There is plenty of information on the RAL website. If the road is closed, you could catch a shuttle up (again I would book this) or you could wait until they let one car up, when one car goes down. The important thing is to plan your visit. Car park bookings open on the preceding Wednesday, half at 10am and half at 6pm. To book and get more information, please go to the RAL website.
The AGM Saturday 29th August
The AGM will be held at the Club this year on the Saturday 29th of August at 5pm. I would suggest if you wish to come, book some accommodation and stay overnight. We will also be voting to make Jacquie Goldsbury a life member of the Club. Jacquie did a wonderful job looking after club as the booking officer and organising all the stores over quite a number of years. There have only been four booking officers in the history of the club, Bill Nichol, our current Booking Officer and Vice President was made a life member at last yearâs AGM.
Fundraising Dinner Saturday 26th September
We will be holding a fundraising dinner at the club over on Saturday 26th of September. The dinner will be hosted by the Committee to raise additional funds to spruce up the lounge, get new carpet and complete some bathroom upgrades. The dinner was a great success last year. It will be lovingly prepared, by a world class French chef, Yann Robert, who creates gastronomic masterpieces for heads of state and royalty. The dinner will be limited to 28 places with non-members also welcome, so members can bring a friend along! The cost will be $250 each. This includes the nightâs accommodation, wine, four-course dinner, breakfast and lunch. More details to come soon, however, if you are keen to register your interest now, please email us at committee@wssc.co.nz
General Works
Thank you must go to Guy and Logan Cobcroft who recently did a one-day trip from Auckland to the mountain to look at new design for the chimney. Guy and Logan are developing a new cowling and flashing that will go around the chimney to prevent snow damage to the chimney stays which hold the chimney to the roof.
Duvet collection
There are 14 duvet covers that have been dry cleaned in Whanganui. If someone can please collect them from Dave Taylor (027 4858434 or taylor@actrix.co.nz) and bring them up to the club, that would be awesome. They are in bag which is 600mm x 300mm x 300m. Please contact Dave if you are able to fit them in when you come to the Club.
