Skiing On Mount Ruapehu (An Active Volcano)

On The Chair Lift

So, on a Wednesday night, Harriet, myself, Pat and Steve took the 4 hour trip down south, heading out of Auckland, past Taupo to the Tongariro National Park. We were staying in a cool little town at the southern end of the national park called Ohakune. I had been here before. It reminds me of a small version of Queenstown, a proper little skiing town where folks come to sit in warm huts and drink mulled wine and beer around a warm fire, or bathe in geothermally heated pools after a hard days ski. The mountain that we would be skiing down is the tallest mountain in New Zealands North Island - Mount Ruapehu. It also happens to be an active volcano. It last erupted in 2007 although it was minor and last properly erupted in the mid 1990's. The mountain was also used for close up shots of Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings. There are three ski fields on Ruapehu, we would be skiing on the southern mountain slope - Turoa. They have volcano warning systems in place all around the mountain, although I hoped that they wouldn't be needed over the next few days as I don't quite feel my skiing is up to the experienced level of escaping from an erupting volcano!?!

We stayed in a cool little backpackers in town that had a large snow man outside, although it wasn't made of snow. On the first day we all spent chilling as the weather permitted us to ski that day. Pat and Steve like a drink or ten too, and that night we all went to the famous Powder Keg Bar where we drank ourselves stupid mainly on B52's as I vaguely remember. Harriet and I ended up a drunken mess and decided it was a good idea to steal the snow man's nose (which was a traffic cone). I don't know how long we were there trying to get this nose, but Pat and Steve found it hilarious as they took embarassing photographs of the whole event from the sideline. We all ended up crashing somewhere in a heaped state and woke up with hangovers that would make having Swine Flu seem pleasant. The weather cleared in the afternoon and we got a half day ski in. It was much better skiing on the mountain and I really improved the little skills that I began with. Harriet remained on the side, too hungover to continue with life itself. We took it easy that night, having just a few quiet drinks, bathing in the geothermal pools and eating a lot of beef.

We were joined by two friends of Pat and Steves - Shane and Christa, and were later followed by Leith and his French friend Yan. The second day was perfect skiing weather and we were on the slopes by 8.30am. With no hangovers and a mountain full of snow - we really had a great day skiing. By the end, Harriet and I had mastered the green runs with ease. That night however, everyone was back on the booze and as usual, Harriet and I were the last two standing - playing drinking games with three Kiwis we had just met. Earlier that night, in a pub, I had bumped into an old friends sister, who was now living in Auckland but who had also come down for a bit of skiing. It was Toby's sister, Zoe. I had not seen Toby since the first days of my travelling, where after two hours of landing in Bangkok, I bumped into him and his (now) wife Vicky. Zoe told me that Toby and his brother Ollie had gone on to the Dragons Den Tv Show and been given 100,000 pounds to help fund their idea. Good on them!!! I chatted to Zoe for a while before we all left to get drunk. It would be another messy night and I knew the next day would possibly kill me.

The final day started off slow for the two drunk ones. We eventually made it up on the mountain - a little later than the others in our party. In our still drunken state, we ended up taking the wrong ski lift and headed up to the top of the mountain. There, at the top were the black runs down, which we took one look at, realised that we couldn't take them on even if we were sober and ended up taking the ski lift back down to easier slopes. From anywhere on the mountain you do get the most incredible views. We were sat on Mount Ruapehu in the very middle of the North Island. From here you can easily see Mount Taranaki, which sits on the very south west coast of the North Island. Thats like standing on a mountain in Birmingham and seeing another in Devon (well very roughly). Eventually our skiing got going and we were back down the slopes.!?!

When your a skier, the main hazard when taking on the slopes is unquestionably - snowboarders. Beginner snowboarders really can't control their speed or direction in general, and one clip from a heavy snowboard and it's game over for a skier. Actually there wasn't too much clipping - they generally headed straight into Harriet and I, knocking us clean over and creating a white-out all the way down the slope. I believe that was the main reason we fell over. Of course I did manage to take a few people out myself. Once, I slightly clipped a kid's ski's causing him to perform the splits which then followed with crying in agony as his dad tried to bring him upright. I skied as fast away as I could so not to get blamed - a drive-by ski-knock as I have named it. I also gave the lightest of clips as me, Harriet and this kid tried to all get on the ski lift. The knock sent the kid spinning out of control and the ski lift bashed him on the arm as he tried to get on. We then had cries of pain the whole journey up as I just turned to Harriet, trying to hide my embarassment. Apart from all those minor incidents the skiing was very successful. We finished our last day, returned our gear and headed back home. Tomorrow my parents were arriving in New Zealand. I hadn't seen them for a year and a half - finally it was time...........