Italy!

I suppose I should start with welcome to the first blog post!?! The plan is to keep you updated on my 2022 northern hemisphere trip based in Europe. I’ll share parts of myself, stories, progress and plans… So, Kia Ora! Nau mai, haere mai. Hello! Welcome.

Currently, I’m in Livigno, an alpine town located in northern Italy, very close to Switzerland. I decided to start off my trip here because I’d been once before with the Finnish team in 2019 and had a great time. I thought it’d be a good place to get my ski legs back. It’s a beautiful place with multiple ski areas you can easily access in one small town.

As I begin to write this, I’m sitting in a self-service laundromat at 8 pm on the 28th of Feb doing a load of washing, cause that’s what adults do. I arrived in Livigno on the 16th of Feb and have absolutely loved it so far. Not to mention, getting to celebrate my 23rd birthday here was pretty special…

Leaving home was difficult, to say the least. I hadn’t traveled out of New Zealand since pre-Covid when I headed to Canada in March 2020 and returned within 5 days as the world completely shut down. What a wild ride that was. Things have continuously changed since then, and still do! What feels like daily. As someone who has struggled with asthma since birth, contracting covid has always been a risk and scary thought for me. But, as the pandemic has continued we’ve seen the rollout of vaccines (myself having 3 doses) which gives me a bit of peace to travel again. However, traveling by myself weighed heavily on me, choosing to leave my whānau was the hardest part as we are currently supporting my mum through chemotherapy for the 2nd time, having been re-diagnosed with cancer in July last year.

Since July, having physical access to people from my support system of family and friends has been crucial for us and me. During the NZ winter season, I didn’t see my family for almost 3 months due to lockdown and it was the time that everything was unfolding. It took a lot of strength to stay in Wānaka and continue training. Getting to be home for 2 months of summer was a blessing. And although I had hoped to leave the country in early January, with everything going on I couldn’t seem to leave. The thought of stepping out alone, on the other side of the world was massive.

I missed my flight on the 10th of Feb after an emotional breakdown occurred when it was time to leave the house… multiple panic attacks and lots of yucky feelings came forward in what felt like 2 minutes but was actually half an hour of distress and pain. Once I had calmed down, I processed everything in a counseling session which revealed that my anxiety had been harboring very negative thoughts, fears, lies, scenarios, guilt, and what if’s for weeks. These were in subconscious circulation and only came forward at crunch time, but once discussed, it clearly explained all the pressures & worries that were debilitating me.

I gave myself the weekend to relax with family and better prepare mentally and physically to leave the next week. We headed down to Ohakune, those who know me well know how much the maunga means to me and it’s a significantly grounding place for me.

I left Aotearoa on the 15th of Feb and flew Auckland to Singapore, Singapore to Zurich. A perk of the pandemic is not many people are traveling, especially from NZ so both flights were pretty empty! Managed to score a row to myself on each plane which was so nice. Apart from 2 movies I just slept a lot. Much needed after how emotionally and physically draining it was to leave home. But also traveling long distances is just exhausting ya know!?! Once in Zurich, I made my way across the country and down to Italy on 3 trains and a bus. I’d heard the rumours for years, but finally got to see for myself just how efficient their transport system is! Everything was spot on time and not a minute later, Auckland transport could never hahaha.

My apartment’s name was Cecilia and she was everything I needed. Bathroom, kitchenette, couch, bedroom, and a balcony with a beautiful view of the mountains and town. Not going to lie, jet lag was rough!! I woke up 3 or 4 times a night, struggled to stay up late, and woke up very early for the first week. My body was definitely confused and freaking out a little. Long travel + adjusting to a new time zone + acclimatising + anxiety = no appetite for a few days :( very sad and annoying cause heeellllooooo Italian food!?! Like, come on body!

My first day in town I did some errands to get myself sorted. Unpacked, figured out the bus system, got my ski pass, and did a supermarket shop. Let me tell you, the supermarket experience was a bit stressful… Next to nothing in English and I hadn’t learned the word for peanuts yet; Being anaphylactic, it’s not really in my best interest to buy and consume things with peanuts. That would result in a very short trip to Europe lol. The store was small and compact, a lot like your classic small town NZ Four Square. It also seemed to be the time of day when everyone does their shopping, to my fellow anxiety friends you can imagine how people pushed past and rushed around whilst I tried to work out what something is added to my stress! In the end, the easiest thing I could do was to buy products I knew in English and just double-check google translate ingredients once I was home. This meant a lot of fruit, veg, and pasta.

Getting back on snow with skis under my feet was awesome. Although, 3 months off snow definitely makes a difference…I hadn’t felt my quads and glutes burn like that in a while! Days of great skiing lead to mornings of stiff, sore muscles. There’s being ‘fit’ and then there’s being ‘snow fit’, my fellow winter sports enthusiasts will get where I’m coming from haha.

I don’t have a coach with me here and that’s been difficult. After being off snow for so long I feel like I’m relearning all my tricks again, which is fine, but not so much when you’ve got a bit of a small window trying to prepare for your first World Cup competition coming up in the 2nd week of March… I know I have the skills and determination to do what I need to, but doing it alone comes with challenges. In saying that I’ve been fortunate to have a few friends in town whilst I’ve been here. My gorgeous friend Mabel is training with the Australian development squad, she introduced me to the crew from across the ditch. And even had some familiar faces from home soil that I ski with in Wānaka come to Livigno for a week. Skiing and hanging out with them made me so happy and certainly assisted in me feeling settled here in Europe.

Celebrating my birthday on this side of the world was pretty cool, 48hrs of kind messages, phone calls and love from friends and family around the world was very comforting. It was also my 2nd time ever being able to ski on my birthday! The 1st time was in Finland on my 2019 northern hemisphere trip. This time round I skied at Mottolino with the kiwi crew and had a blast, I even got to do my first birthday backie!! Pretty self-explanatory; but for those not in the snow community, it’s basically a right of passage to do a backflip on your birthday!! It was also the first day I had my appetite back - THANK GOODNESS! I indulged accordingly of course with a proper breakfast, a pizza to myself for lunch followed by a night out in town with Mabel. We had a delicious pasta dinner (I had carbonara) and then a Nutella crepe to top it off. What a way to bring in 23.

Ngā mihi Itāria! Thank you, Italy for the great warm-up to this winter season. I feel blessed to be here, grateful for this opportunity and those to come. Maaann am I thankful to be in the cold too! Crazy to think when I left Auckland it was 30 degrees and now I’m waking up below zero most mornings.

Next up - I’m heading to Switzerland to meet up with Margaux for a few days before we go to Tignes in France for the slopestyle World Cup. Can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Hei konā mai - goodbye for now,

LMJW xx