Oh! A kune...

WARNING: massive post - you might want to take a couple of goes at it.

[click on the pics if you like]

Many Wellingtonians seem to be happy to see the back of the snow we had a few weeks ago, but not us.

I have a season pass, so I've already been up a few times this year. The first time I went, I took Ella and Betty with me. Ella went from strength to strength, her lesson teaching her how to turn better, as well as ride the (platters? pommers? Whatever those beginner disc things are called).

Betty was another story, though - she had a beginner lesson, where she was probably the youngest and smallest, and didn't enjoy it at all, despite being able to do all the technical stuff she was taught. She's never that keen on things she can't already do, so needed a bit of time to come to grips with it by herself - I certainly didn't want to put her off by forcing her into it.

So, we booked a few days off for all of us to go to Ohakune, and hopefully get some skiing in.

I searched around for a while to find a place to stay, and decided to go with novelty - an old railway carriage at Rimu Park. Bethan was a bit puzzled about where we'd sleep - I think she was picturing something like the inside of the J'ville trains we go into the city on, with all the seats and everything.

Here's what it looked like:


Yes, we took the Horrolla - partly because it's 4WD, but mainly because it has a working stereo at the moment.

I should backtrack a bit and describe the trip up to Ohakune first, even thought there aren't any photos for some reason. We knew the weather on the mountain was likely to be pretty shit, so we didn't rush too much. Although, with the "Are We There Yet?", "This Is Taking Ages," "I'm BOOOOORED" girls in the back, there was never much chance of doing it all in one go.

We stopped at the Levin Adventure Park:

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This is a free playground, although calling it that is a bit like calling the Taj Mahal a bach. It is MASSIVE. Dozens of things to play on, including not one, but two of those big barrell-roll things that you get inside and run around like a hamster and make yourself feel sick on (based on a true story), and a loooong flying fox.

As if all this wasn't enough, there's also a miniature train on the weekends, and an indoor picnic area with a microwave and boiling water, and a coffee truck with nice coffee, and, and...

This may not be a widely-held opinion, but this playground, plus a roast shop and a noodle shop next door to each other make Levin a great place.

Our other long stop was just up the road at Foxton. Ever since I first moved down to Wellington, I've wanted to check out the de Molen Windmill. Follow the link to read about it, it's amazing, a working windmill that actually produces flour.

Back to our carriage in Ohakune - the inside looked like this:


Through the door at the far end is a room with two bunks, a toilet and bathroom, and beyond that, a bedroom. It was great - not so flash that we worried about destroying it either.

Friday was again too crappy to go skiing, so we drove to the Tokaanu Thermal Pools for a hot swim instead, which was, as always, awesome.

Saturday also looked a bit useless up the mountain, but we thought, "bugger it," and went up there anyway. Glad we did.

Rach and Betty headed into Alpine Meadow (the learner's bit), while Ella and I headed up the Parklane chairlift for her lesson. It was her first time on a chairlift on skis, but was no problem.

Here's Betty getting her little skis - her face kinda sums up her attitude to skiing at this point:


As you can see, Ella's more relaxed about the whole thing:


Nobody else turned up for Ella's group lesson, so she got a personalised, individual one. I abandoned her with her French-Canadian instructor for an hour and went up the mountain, where I found some great snow in between bouts of bad visibility.

I returned to find Ella even more confident than before - so much so that she was able to ski with me all the way back down Clarry's Track to the bottom:


Betty had had enough of skiing by this point, so I went up for a bit more, while the three girls made a snowchair:




slid down a hill on their bums:




and Ella did a little bit more skiing in Alpine Meadow:


On the way back down the mountain, we had to stop to take care of Bethan's obssession about making a snow angel:




Ella had a go too:




A quick beautiful scenic shot:


...and then briefly back to our train, then out to OCR Cafe for dinner, which was cheap and delicious. Highly recommended.

Sunday was our last day, and we were determined to go skiing again, so it was straight up the mountain after checking out of our train.

This time, Rach got some skis, so she and Ella went up a bit higher, while Betty and I hung out in Alpine Meadow. At first, she was pretty tentative, but then something just seemed to click, and she was suddenly a whole lot more confident. Still wanted me to stick around, particularly to help her on the Magic Carpet (a conveyor belt for humans, here Ella demonstrates:

)

I even took Betty up on the Parklane lift (which she managed to get on and off while wearing skis) to do a run down Clarry's Track, which might have been a bit ambitious, as we had to stop halfway down for quite a long rest:


This time, Rach had had enough of skiing, so Ella and I went back up to go to her last lesson, with the same teacher as the previous day. Again, I abandoned her for the hour, getting in some of the best runs of the year, and then we made our way down to Betty and Rach.

Betty was now completely self-sufficient, and in her usual style, unstoppable. Ella and I went up for another run down Clarry's Track; Betty was still skiing when we got back. I went right up the top for a few more runs; Betty was still skiing when I got back. She'd progressed to getting on and off the Magic Carpet by herself - "I don't NEED you, dad" - I stayed with her while it started to snow, and Ella went back and returned her skis.

The only reason Betty stopped in the end is that the lift itself closed for the day at 4pm.

I couldn't be more proud of my daughters, and pleased that they both seem to love skiing at least as much as I do. Just got to get Rach a bit more time up there and we'll be set.

Here's a video of first Betty (in the pink jacket), then Ella (then a loud unknown snowboarder) skiing past the camera:

(available right up to 720p resolution).

Check out the amount of snow that ended up on the Horrolla - I don't know the measurement, but it wasn't enough to stop Betty, that's for sure:


The girls wrote what they thought of the mountain:


...and then we drove home, pausing only at OCR again for some coffee, and then Levin once more for KFC (15% off for season pass holders!)

Snow! [1400km final]

At last, I'm going to finish writing about our trip, and it hasn't even been a year since it happened!

Last time, we were just about to leave Wellington, on a freezing, windy Tuesday morning. We could have just driven straight home along State Highway One (i.e. the way we came), which would have got us back home easily within the day.

However, we're more adventurous stupid than that, so we decided to drive through Upper and Lower The Hutt, over the Rimutakas and through the Wairarapa instead.

Mostly we did this because I've never really been over there before, and I wanted to give it a look.

I should also point out that large parts of the central North Island (which we'd need to drive through to get home), including the Desert Road, had been closed due to unprecedented and slightly unseasonal snowfalls. So, there was even the possibility of getting stranded somewhere. Exciting!

The Rimutakas surprised me with their unexpected size (seemed a lot bigger than the Kaimais) and unrelenting expanses of gorse (or was it broom? Yellow flowers anyway).

Featherston's the first town once you get over the hill. It's nice enough, but seems a bit like Wellington's version of Tirau - I wanted to see the real Wairarapa.

Greytown and Carterton were getting closer to what I wanted to see, but it wasn't until we got to Masterton that I found what I was looking for. It was great, reminded me of the good bits of Tokoroa, although it's a hell of a lot bigger. It's the sort of place I reckon I could live in, for a while anyway.

After some local delicacies McDonalds, we continued on. Somewhere along the road, we suddenly noticed the looming Tararuas in the distance - and they had SNOW on them! We had to take a photo, there was no way we'd see that much snow again on the way home:


(if you click on the photo to make it big, you might just be able to make out the mountains, sandwiched between the hills and the clouds)

Next stop, Eketahuna, where we continued the "photos with oversized roadside objects" theme:





This last one was immediately prior to a major meltdown about something I can't remember, probably the only tantrum of the whole trip, and it was all over in about three minutes:



Eketahuna's another one of those little places I love - a town that seems truly represenative of its region, unpretentious in the extreme.

Pahiatua's another one of those, but it has the benefit of a massive and incredible playground:



Betty is sideways as usual; hopefully this is some indication of how she will drive a car:



They even have what appears to be a real plane:



Plane nerds, please let me know what it is - this emblem on the side may assist with identification:



I'm not sure that any of those photos convey just how bitterly cold it was. Ah, here's one that does:



We travelled on.

These pictures are from a place called Stormy Point Lookout. You've no idea how hard it was to figure out where the hell I took them - GPS may be a requirement on the next camera.



It lived up to its name, anyway, by being unfeasibly windy, but also providing a fairly spectacular view:





Again, I'll let Rach demonstrate just how cold and windy it was:



We joined up with State Highway One again at the humorously-named Vinegar Hill. (if you follow that link, you'll find out why it's called that, as well as why camp really means Camp there)

We got very very excited when we started to see snow at the side of the road, so took lots and lots of pictures, assuming it would be all we'd see. After all, we'd just traveled south on the same road a few days earlier, and there wasn't really anything then.

Here's a few of the sort of pictures I'm talking about:







However, when we rounded this corner:



BOOOOOOM, Winter Wonderland:





Probably not so impressive if you're used to living somewhere that gets snow all the time. And yes, this area does generally have a snowfall or two every year BUT not in October, and not this amount.

I kinda wish I'd stopped, climbed up a hill with my skis (THEY WERE IN THE CAR) and had an impromptu ski. Something like this would've been brilliant:



Still, we made up for not doing this by stopping in Waiouru and going mental in the fresh snow, as only non-snow-dwellers can:









It was hard to get back in the car and keep going, but we thought we'd better. The Desert Road through to Turangi was still closed, so we detoured through Ohakune. By this time we were getting hungry again, so rather than going the quick, sensible way, we went back across to Taupo to get food.

Luckily, this meant we were able to get one last roadside statue photo in; the Turangi Trout:



Despite going the long way round more than once, we had a really really good trip, and it hasn't even put me off driving long distances with small children. As a side benefit, I now know the High School Musical 3 soundtrack off by heart.

Since we had a whole day to spare before going back to drudgery, the girls did this:



Comments please about what they are making (and anything else you want to say).

1400km III

The third part of our trip, at last I write about it! Click for big on the photos.

You won't remember, because the last post about it was so long ago, but at the end of that, we'd just left Palmerston North (or New Plymouth, as a surprising number of people call it).

The drive to Wellington was pretty uneventful, despite the continuous High School Musical 3 soundtrack.

My cousin (once removed) Toby, his wife Hilary, and their three children Tom, Emily and Leandra were kind enough to let us stay at their place, despite being away in the South Island when we arrived.

Like the time we stayed there earlier in the year, we were made to feel incredibly welcome by very nice people. Of course, we barely took any photos, but here are some of the few we did take:

Two girls in a shower:



The same two girls in their bed, specially located in a magical under-stair area:



Here's the only picture of (two of) our hosts - Emily reclining, Hilary obscured by Ella Big Head:



MUST TRY HARDER

. . . and here's Wellington through their dining-room window:





The next day, we went to Te Papa for the Formula One exhibition. We forgot to take the camera, but here are some photos off the iphone:

Betty does her (great-) Grandad impression in front of a 60s McLaren:



Ella is a bit more impressed with a more modern McLaren:



The F1 exhibit wasn't bad, but not as good as I'd hoped. Formula One cars are not really the sort of thing that should be shown in static form - they need to be moving.

The rest of Te Papa was fantastic as usual though, and kept us all occupied for hours.

That afternoon we went to the City Gallery to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition. No cameras allowed in this one, so no photos by us.

It was absolutely incredible though, to get a tiny idea of what it was like, click on this link.

We had a late lunch of $5 all-day breakfast at a cafe hidden up the back of a mall that off the side of Cuba Street somewhere. I highly recommend this place - if only I could remember what it's called . . .

The next day was hometime, but before that we went and parked at the Rose Gardens, then walked through the Bolton Cemetery to town.

We didn't have a lot of time, and it was freezing, but this is another highly recommended place to visit in Wellington.

We were on our way to what turned out to be another hidden gem - the Reserve Bank Museum. It's free, doesn't take too long to look around, it's interesting, but most importantly, the kids got bags of shredded money! What more could one ask for?

We had a quick coffee with Toby before embarking on our trip home, which I'll write about if I ever get around to it.