I went snowboarding at Mount Ruapehu again this weekend. This time, I went up for a whole weekend with my friend Angela from work, her flatmate Scotty and their three Irish friends.
We got out of work quite early and were on the road by 4pm. I was driving so was glad to cover quite a lot of the route in daylight and to have the time to stop for food and breaks. We cruised up without too much effort and arrived at our Bach (holiday cottage) about 9 in the evening. It was freezing cold when we arrived, but there was a wood stove in the sitting room that we soon got lit. With that fired up and a cold beer in hand we were pretty sorted for the evening.
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| Inside our bach |
The next morning we got up to beautiful sunshine. After a nice cooked breakfast we set off for the 30 minute drive to the slopes. Well that was the plan, we hit a queue at the start of the 16km road up to the base of the ski resort. because of ice they were getting everyone to put on snow chains, which was taking ages at the one spot to fit them. After a very slow 2 1/2 hours (!) inching along, some very random conversations and a bit of luck we were at the snow chain area. Just as we were fitting our chains they announced the road had improved and we didn't need them. Pretty soon we were parked, kitted up and on the chair lift. Conditions were really good and despite the slopes being busy I had a good afternoon on boarding.
We got down into town at the end of the day and went for some food in a bar restaurant with a big open fire in the middle of it. One of the guys recommended trying the Big Burger. The components I remember are - beef patty, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, hash browns and onion rings...oh, and loads of chips. For those in the know, it's knocked the Tocade burger off the top of my list of top-ski-resort-burgers-with-hash-browns list.
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| Dinner in Ohakune |
On Sunday we had a quicker drive to the slopes. We even randomly got waved all the way through to get to park right by the bottom of the chair lift, avoiding a long walk. It was sunny again and conditions were good.
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| Crazy looking cloud as we drove up to the ski field |
I found my snowboarding really clicking as the day went on. I felt really in control and was hitting everything I wanted to including little pop-ups I've never really nailed before.
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| Happy on the chair lifts |
In the afternoon four of us headed right to the top of the slopes and started to explore off-piste. We found some steep drop-ins and great snow and had the most amazing run all the way down to the base camp. The first time down was the most fun I've had since I began snowboarding. We went back up just before the lifts shut and although I was getting knackered it was almost as good the second time round.
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| View down to the slopes from our off-piste vantage point |
This is my first attempt at embedding a video. One of the guys showing how a drop-in should be done...and another showing how it shouldn't! It's Scotty getting up at the bottom after his own wipe out.
We loaded up with big flat whites to help keep me awake for the drive back to Wellington, which took until about 10:30pm. We even christened my car LaFayundai on the journey back.
This morning I felt pretty tired dragging myself out of bed for work, but it was totally worth it.
