Skiing beats smoking
I like smoking. I still like smoking (or at least I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy it if I chose to smoke). I'm not especially worried about my health - family history suggests I'd live to a ripe old age without suffering any of the ill effects.
This is why I kept smoking in the face of public disapproval: I enjoy doing it, I'll probably get off scot-free and the rebel in me doesn't like the puritan politically correct holier-than-thou preachiness of the anti-smoking lobby. Besides lack of desire there was also the fact that I live in a house full of smokers and I work with smokers too, giving me easy access to tobacco at all hours.
So what changed my mind so completely that I had the conviction to go cold turkey in the face of direct and continuous temptation with easy gratification?
It's all about motivation. One evening I was sitting on the front steps having a cigar and a coffee. It was the last one in the packet. Thinking about getting another packet, I checked my watch and found that it was so late I would be forced to buy from the 7-11, which charges sixteen dollars a packet. I had cashflow issues more severe than usual so as part of my mental grumble I multiplied 7 x 365 (I get through a packet every two days) and got $2555
Now, something you have to understand about me is that I love to ski. Hell, I live to ski. And when it dawned on me that if I gave away the smokes I'd be able to go skiing every single year, and I'd missed skiing five years running in favour of bloody smoking, there was a moment of horrified decision. I didn't put out the one I was smoking. I'm not against smoking as such. But buy another packet? Not likely. That's my skiing money!
I suppose I'll have to take steps to ensure it doesn't just bleed into other things. Open a new account at the bank, and transfer $70 every payday, something like that.
I'm over the moon about this. Esme (Trish's mum) loves having us stay with her, and she lives in a ski-town. This lowers our costs so much that $2555 is an adequate budget for one person for four weeks. This is without any attempt at saving. So if I make a diligent and sustained attempt to save up for the trip I'll be able to afford new boots, poles and planks.
It gets even better: no kit rental, which is about $25/day, and no standing in queues fitting second-rate boots and having bindings adjusted and tensioned etc. Because I can leave them in Esme's garage, they won't form part of my luggage. I won't need a boot bag or a ski bag, which means less kit to buy.
No kit rental is more important than it seems: over four weeks we'll ski probably twenty days. That's $500 I won't have to spend. I might get a boot bag anyway - someone has to drive, which means I can't wear my boots in the car, and a boot bag gives me somewhere to stash goggles and balaclavas and all the accessories you don't always use but carry against need.
Nobody in the southern hemisphere seems to do a fortnight or month lift pass (probably because people in the southern hemisphere don't generally ski for more than a week) but Cardrona has a "club card" that's good for a $15/daylift pass discount. You have to pay $35 to get one, but this is worthwhile over twenty days.
I wrote to ask whether it remains valid across seasons. No dice. Can't even make snide comments about tight-ass kiwis - Cardrona is operated by an Australian company.