I have been kinda glum the last couple of years, that winter has come and gone, but I've only had 3 days skiing in the whole two winter ski seasons here in New Zealand.
However, El chimed up the other day "lets go to the snow!". I almost fell over with excitement.
We'd managed to book some time in a fair way in advance, so I was hugely excited in the week running up to our planned weekend, when it started to snow in Wellington. In fact, the whole of Aotearoa/New Zealand copped one of the heaviest snow falls in 40 years; snow in Wellington and Auckland is almost unheard of!
Here's a great little video of some of the excited people!
Snow on Cuba Mall in central Wellington (HD) from Ro Tierney on Vimeo.
Thursday night rolled around, and whilst the snow had receded from the side of the road here in Wellington, we knew we were in for a treat up at the volcanic ski area of Tongariro. Will (one of our friends & my Bucky Box colleague) had kindly lent us his campervan whilst away in Germany - so we loaded up "Noble not George", hit the accelerator and pootled up north.
The closer we got to the ski area, the more the weather closed in, until I was reduced to 40km/h with the "star trek warp speed" effect in the headlight-lit darkness. Thankfully we'd booked a spot near Turoa, whereby we could just pull up, pop the top of the campervan, and bed down for the night.
Our eyes immediately wrinkled as we stepped out into the bright light of the morning - snow lay in abundance around us. We were in a winter wonderland, and one of the best things was - there were heated floors in the shower blocks!!
This really was El'd first proper experience of snow - even though she'd been up to the high country in Oz, it was really wonderful to see her delighting, like we all do, in a truly child-like state, at the surrounding snow.
We decided to head into the forest on a 'waterfall walk' which was a fairly short 1hr20 kind of length. We probably spent about that amount of time simply at the trail head, taking photos, looking at the patterns of the snow in the trees, and wearing snow as face packs.
There were truly some beautiful sights to behold - icicles everywhere we looked, frozen rivers, leaves & sticks poking out, and we even made a new friend - "Sir Percival Battlethrop"
The time ticked on, and we slowly made our way up the valley through knee-to-thigh deep snow; eventually we came across a signpost which read "45 mins to Waterfall". We'd already been on the trail for 2hr30! Still, we pressed on, and were glad to break out of the trees at one point, to an open section which our housemate, Mel, had told us about - a boardwalk over alpine swamp, had become a perfect snowy expanse. No sign of boardwalk, no sign of shallow ponds. Only one person had been on the trail ahead of us that day, and they'd left a trail for us to follow - which we took up, and soon found ourselves, every other footstep, missing the boardwalk and delving to thigh depth into the snow. With big grins on our faces, and snow in all sorts of places, we paused by the only evidence of what Mel had mentioned to us. I got a little excited by snow at that point too....
Eventually, we knew the waterfall was too far for us to reach, as the snow pushed in again, and we acknowledged that no one knew where we were, and that we were tiring despite the childish glee. It was time to head back out, and get ourselves to our next anchorage for the night - Whakakapapa Village; the bottom of the north island's primary ski field.
The roads were open and easy driving, and we began to meet many of the people coming back down the mountain after a full day's delights. I was keen to peruse where we were heading to carve up some snow the next day - so we headed through Whakakapapa Village, where the chateau stands looking out over the plains. The mountain's peaks were shrouded in cloud, and the sun was dropping as we urged 'Noble not George' up the slopes toward the summit.
We were greeted with truly beautiful views as the late winter sun sloped lazily across the tussocks of the mountainside, and long shadows were cast by our trusted steed.
The day was done, except for a last ditch dinner & vino back at the campsite, with snow on the ground and in the trees all around us, and happy chatterings of neighbouring campers who were talking excitedly about the day that had been, and the day that would be tomorrow. El seemed to be getting the ski buzz, and I was itching to pull on the ski pants & jacket the next day.
What a day greeted us; we skipped to the front of the queues to the top, and hastily pulled on boots, jackets, gloves & googles, and trekked to the ticket office. A great deal awaited Elinor for the learners package; gear rental, a lesson, a learners lift pass, and a ticket to the 2000m mark. For me, well I learned I should just buy an early bird season pass - but that didn't dampen my excitement for the slopes! So once El was all sorted to get gear and find a class, I jumped straight on the express to the top ~ about 4 lifts later, several chats with strangers, I arrived at the Knoll - 2245m.
What a luxurious position to find myself in - great snow, blue skies, and views out to several snowy volcanoes around the north island of New Zealand. I really do love life sometimes!
After half a day or so skiing on my own, I ventured back down the slopes to find my lovely Elinor, to see how she was doing. I was half expecting to find a bambi-legged Elinor finding her way down the slopes (much like I had been when I first started), but instead I found a young lady who was ready to carve up the slopes!
Here's the result of El's first full ride on her own down the slopes - I'm sure you'll agree, it's a pretty amazing effort!
After a trip to 2000m and a G&T at that height, we decided to come back down and have a good hack in Happy Valley until the slopes & lifts closed for the day. El was going great guns, so thought I would get another video of her carving it up;
We felt replete after a full day in the snow, and whilst we were scuppered on our plan to ski half a day on the sunday (due to a blown out culvert at Turoa) it was a hugely wonderful trip up to the snow all the same.
El's since grabbed herself some bargains online; ski pants, goggles, and soon a jacket too I'm sure. We're all set, and can't wait for our next trip! Huzzah!
Photos coming soon - link to be uploaded here!
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