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!)

I used to have a boss called Ski, true story

Even though I don't have income, I've already got a season pass for Ruapehu, so I need to ensure that the $350 I spent on it last November doesn't go to waste.

With that in mind, Ken and I headed down to the mountain on Thursday. At that stage, Whakapapa only had the learner slopes open, so we went to Turoa, even though it's a bit further.

Since one of their lifts is bung, Turoa only had two chairs operating (Movenpick and High Flyer), but that was enough for a first day.

Here's Mount Egmont/Taranaki in the distance (you might be able to see it if you click for big):



Here's what the field down from the top cafe looked like:



One of the reasons we went was to test out our gear, which included helmets each for the first time ever:





This will probably mean fewer head injuries, but more broken bones as the helmets will spur us to ski far outside our abilities.

Plenty of snow on the upper mountain:



. . . but we couldn't get to it due to the bung chairlift. They made good use of the nice day to get almost the entire tower rebuilt though. Here's the helicopter they use to ferry bits of tower up:



Here's a panorama:



A few people turned up, but the queue never got much bigger than this:



This here's pretty much what we skied all day - not huge, but just right for making sure we could still do it:



Bloody good start to the season.

1400km part 1

[click photos for big, or visit flickr for too many photos]

The original reason for going to Wellington was to see the F1 exhibition at Te Papa. We flew down last time, but this was when Rach was working in Wellington, as well as Bethan being under two, so able to fly for free. Two extra airfares meant that it was going to be cheaper to drive down.

This also coincided with me getting a week of long-service leave. Yes, I've been there 10 years, yes it might be time for a change, yes I'm doing something about it.

Never mind all that though, I had to use this leave all in one go, so we decided to do a road trip to Wellington in the school holidays. It was also long overdue that we visit all Rach's family in Palmerston North, and while we were at it, why not go to Ohakune on the way down and have a bit of a ski?

So, Thursday 1st October, we left (relatively) early. Surprisingly, we had such a small amount of crap packed, I was able to see completely out the rear window of the Volvo.

Memory's fading as it was well over a week ago now, but I'm pretty sure Te Kuiti was our first stop, for a coffee and some kid snacks. Then it was onto a favourite town of mine, Taumarunui. My liking of this place was reinforced by the free wifi outside the Taumarunui Public Library.

We stopped next at Raurimu, home of the famous Raurimu Spiral. We'd looked for this in the past, but never managed to find any of it. This time, though, we found a path directing us to the lookout. There's a sign in case you forget where you are:



There's still very little of the spiral itself visible (perhaps it's better with a train on it?), but they provide a handy model on a big tall pole as high as the lookout:



What's that? The spiral's not exciting enough for you? OK then, here's a picture of us in the Raurimu bus shelter:



After our leisurely drive down, we went straight up to the Turoa skifield. It was late in the day, and quite miserable, so we just had a quick look, checked if the hire place had boots to fit Bethan (they did), then drove back down to our palatial accommodations at the Mountain-View Motel:



Doesn't look that flash you reckon? Check out how they fold the towels!



We very quickly made ourselves at home (i.e. strewed our crap everywhere):



then headed out to eat, at a restaurant, much to my surprise. We went to a place called The Bearing Point (not Breaking Point as I first read it). It had pub prices, combined with (for us at least) an upmarket menu, and crucially, a kids menu too. It was great, and I'd put a link in if they had any discernible internet presence whatsoever.

Quite swanky inside too, which you can only just see in this photo of us before we got kicked out:



No, we didn't get kicked out! The kids were models of good behaviour. The same can't be said about me - I went for an entree and a main, which turned out to be too much. So much too much that not only could I not face dessert, but I couldn't even go for the ice cream at the dairy that the rest of the family opted for.

We'd booked a time in the motel's spa, which the guy had apologised about for being old and not having bubbles. No bubbles? Dude, it's a freakin' spa, we don't care! It was hot and had jets, and was perfect on a cold Ohakune night.

Next morning it was skiing time! Picked up some rentals for Rach from Station Lodge Rentals, and got me some cheap ex-rental poles while we were at it too.

Up the picturesque Ohakune Mountain Road


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to Turoa. A smashing bloke let me drop the girls off, then park miles and miles closer than everyone else - thanks very much indeed! I joined them at Turoa rentals, picking up skis for Ella, and hilariously cute little miniature ones for Betty:



Ella had a go at skiing last year, so she got straight onto the skis and seemed to remember everything she'd learned last time. We'd booked her a lesson at midday, so she did a solid couple of hours.

Meanwhile, I skied down holding onto Betty, which she enjoyed as long as she was moving:



As you can see, the cloud kept coming in, but it didn't stop us.

Ella ended up having a one-on-one lesson (the teacher didn't believe she was six at first) - next year I'm determined to take her up a bit higher. Rach too - she loves skiing now. How lucky of us to have found a nice cheap family sport.

I had a single run from the top, but by the time I got there the cloud had completely closed in so it was a bit of an invisible ride down to meet the girls in the bottom cafe.

As it had started properly raining now, we decided to leave. Before we left Ohakune, we did the traditional fond farewell activity of taking stupid photos of ourselves with the giant carrot:







Of course, Bethan is actually licking the carrot in the above photo.

Next instalment, Palmerston North!

Bunnies and it's not even Easter

We went to Mt Ruapehu at the weekend. Ella and Bethan have never even seen snow before, and skiing's one of my favourite things so I'd like to get them into it. Rach was also keen to have another go at skiing.

We left as early as we could on Saturday morning (about 9 o'clock in the end, which isn't bad for us) and drove down with a couple of stops on the way. We got to the mountain about 1 o'clock, and decided that since the last lessons of the day start at 2, we'd just hire a sled for $20 and go up to Mead's Wall and slide about.

Betty and Ella were both quite excited to see the snow (well, Ella was), and then it actually started snowing! None of the girls had ever seen this happen before, so it got very VERY exciting.

Here's Betty in the snow:


She got a bit unhappy about it all later on, as she got a bit wet and cold, and wasn't really into sledding that much.

Ella, after some initial trepidation, loved the sled. She trudged up to the top of the slope with one or the other of her parents dozens of times.

Here's me pushing Ella around:


Here's Ella and Rach in the sled in the distance:


Here's Betty trying to get us to hurry up:


Sledding was pretty good fun, even in the falling snow, but eventually we listened to Betty and took off down the mountain, pausing only for Ella to scam some mini-Moro bars off some snowboarding guys.

We drove to Turangi (about half an hour) to the place we were staying: Creel Lodge. I'm not sure why I picked this place, but man was it a good pick!

Here's our two-bedroom cabin (more like a house):


The kids are good at relaxing after a hard afternoon dealing with snow and sleeping in the car:



Here's Ella to show us the inside:


This place was nothing short of amazing. The grounds are incredible, full of massive trees and carved ponga logs. The back of the place has a gate onto the riverbank path (of the Tongariro River), where we went for a walk and watched dudes in their waders fly-fishing.

We got fish and chips for dinner, which are some of the best I've had for a long, long time.

We had originally meant to go back to Hams on Sunday, but Rach decided we might as well go back up the mountain if the weather was good. It was, so we did.

This time, we got the Discover Ski package for Ella (ski gear plus a lesson):



We'd also brought my (long-term borrowed from Emma) skis with us, so Rach could have a go:


She cleverly saved money AND got extra exercise by not buying any lift tickets and just walking up to the top of Happy Valley and skiing back down. I did this once, which was more than enough for me.

You can see how sunny it was - this meant that Betty enjoyed herself a lot more than she did the day before:



So that was our snow weekend. Could've gone a lot worse I reckon.