Whakapapa Ski Trip
We took the day off on Friday, packed the car and headed north to Ohakune to spend the weekend with friends. Four families, eight adults and five kids, packed into a house outside the township for two nights and, hopefully, some skiing.
My favourite place to visit in Ohakune is the Powder Keg. After settling into the house and picking up supplies from town, we grabbed a table for dinner. They had a local beer on tap that I enjoyed and a rack of ribs for dinner. My perfect Friday night meal.
We enjoyed catching up on Friday evening and headed to bed earlier, anticipating an early start to spend the day up the mountain.
We couldn’t have asked for a better day for it. A fresh dumping of snow and a clear blue sky on a crisp Saturday morning made for a perfect day up the mountain.
We headed for Whakapapa ski field on Mount Ruapehu to spend the morning in the beginner area, Happy Valley, for refresher lessons for those of us who hadn’t been up the mountain in a decade.
After the lesson, I continued to ski Happy Valley until I felt that I had conquered the runs and needed to stop for lunch.
Rested and fed, I headed up the Rangatira Express chair lift and spent the rest of the day learning the Tennant’s Valley run.
There is nothing quite like skiing under a blue sky in the crisp mountain air with Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony playing as I carve powder down the slopes.
I realised how much I missed being up the mountain.
