This weekend we hired a Rav4 and went up the mountain 🙂
Friday
We left on Friday in the hired Rav4 (it was lovely and new and an automatic) and the journey didn’t seem to take very long. I have a sneaky feeling it was because I was actually driving to the speed limit, rather than 20km below it (because the Corolla doesn’t drive very nicely and I often get the feeling that the wheels could, at any random time, simply fall off). Anywho, we made good time and the truck (…car…vehicle…) was very comfortable. I was really unsure about the 4-wheel-drive aspect of the car if it’s an automatic, but it seemed to cope well with all of the hills…so we’ll see…
Once we arrived at ‘Discovery Lodge’ we threw our things in the room and made a cup of tea…of course. Our room was lovely; there was a bedroom (which Charlotte and Kirsten took) with a huge double bed and also a single bed and a living room type area with a sofa bed, two large armchairs, a big dining table and a cute little kitchenette.
We ventured out for dinner back at ‘The Park Hotel’, which is where we stayed the last time we came snowboarding; they have a really nice restaurant and a huge open fire. Charlotte and Kirsten like that they serve Mulled Wine there…me not so much. Once we’d eaten and got back at the room (and in the warmth and in our pyjamas), we sat and read until we couldn’t keep our eyes open.
Saturday
Waking up bright and early, we made our breakfast of Weetbix and toast and left for the slopes. As we arrived quite early, and while i was waiting for everyone to get all geared up, i went down to the (almost deserted) Happy Valley trail and got about six good runs in before it got busy. Most of the day was spent on Happy Valley, though we did venture up to the Showcase/Rockgarden for a scenic photo op and the last run: last time I went up there I had only really been on my snowboard a few times! I remembered it to be steep and scary, however, this time it was actually really good fun and i really wanted to do more, however, we were getting a bit tired so decided to leave!
Driving into Ohakune we decided to grab a bite at The Mountain Rocks and chill out a bit. The Mountain Rocks is my favourite cafe there as they sell bowls of coffee. Yes bowls. We ate a hearty afternoon snack and moseyed on back to the hotel for a freshen up and diner.
Once we’d eaten we returned to the room to, once again, sit in our pyjamas and read until we fell asleep!
Sunday
Charlotte and Kirsten decided to forego the snowboarding today and go for a hike instead.
I went back to Whakapapa. The first run of the day (Showcase/Rockgarden) was pretty bad; it was really windy overnight and that seems to have equated to the powder being blown off of the top and the ice and iced snow being left. It was quite scary as my board was going really fast, but not in the direction that I wanted it to go in! I completed one run there and decided to go down to Happy Valley and get a few runs in there to get used to the horrible conditions. It wasn’t actually too bad in the valley, but it was still icy. I spent most of the morning there, stopping for plenty of tea and snacks.
I decided to try the Showcase/Rockgarden after getting a bit bored of the same (by now, cramped) trail, this time round it was much, much better! I managed a few really great runs before I decided that we were a bit tired…
I picked up the girls on the way through and drove home 🙂
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