Queenstown

New Zealand's finest sparkling wine is kindly sponsoring PL and the NZ Course. The times for celebration in New Zealand will be even greater! Thanks Lindauer and Pernod-Ricard .

Firstly, I wanted to say thanks to everyone at Peak Leaders who had anything to do with the course. It was a great time and something I'll never forget; and I passed so that was the best way to top it off! I'm not really one for feedback forms and rating the experience with numbers so I just wanted to say a few things about the trip.  

The team out there who ran it were just great. Ed and Lucie were a big help getting out there and always on hand around the hosteria to sort out any problems. The local team (Alvar, Ivan and the instructors) were incredible. In particular Alvar, who seemed to be able to solve absolutely anything, no matter how trivial or big. I think a great deal of credit should go to him for the success of the trip; I spoke to nobody who at some stage didn't require his help and he always went the extra mile to make sure we got what we needed. His knowledge of the way things worked out there was invaluable. It takes a while before you realise how differently people operate out there; we called it T.I.A (This Is Argentina!), a phrase most people used several times a day. Alvar knows what the score is so he was great to have around.

The Hosteria El Retorno was top as well. What a location! The food at night wasn't that great but I can live with that when there was so much other stuff to keep my mind off it. The transport every day was pretty well organised and it was no hassle getting to and from the resort.

Our Argentinian instructors were great fun to ski with and also really friendly and, importantly, cared about us. They got involved with all the events and activities and it was nice having them around the hosteria for breakfast and dinner.

Bariloche is an awesome town, especially at night. I think if you really want to sell the trip better, mention that every week the vast number of clubs are filled with thousands of gorgeous Argentinian and Brazillian students all partying like crazy. That was definately a bonus :-)

It was a fantastic 9 weeks in a beautiful country. I'm definately going back there as soon as I can. I'm working as a guide in Les Arcs this winter, then I'm off to teach in New Zealand in the summer but I'm going to squeeze in a trip to Bariloche in between the two. I've made friends for life over the last 10 weeks! Please pass on my thanks to everyone involved; the course was better than I could have imagined and clearly very well thought out and operated.

Thanks a lot.