Officially described as 'the largest active volcano in NZ' 😳, Ruapehu is the booootiful ski mountain of North Islanders choice, about 5 hour drive out of Auckland central. Most people stay in a wee town called Ohakune, and all pile in their batch complexes like an adult holiday camp.. if you don't go there during the ski season, you just ain't cool fool! So me, a mixed selection of Irish and a tiny Kiwi embarked on the journey one eve.. 6 birds and 7 bottles of wine and a couple of snowboards.
We arrived at our holiday home of dreams, 1 part excitement / 3 parts pinot noir.. I took one step out of the car, slipped over onto a tree trunk and was rendered nil by sudden movement for the rest of the trip… woop. All was not a loss though, residing myself to the fact that I'd not be entering any extreme sports competitions (obvs would have been sans injury!), we donned some knits and up the mountain we went. A couple of the girls got amongst the activities, and the rest of us went on the sledge slope and had a snow ball fight.. between 2 lunches and ample medicinal Coronas.
It really is stunning at the top of the mountain and a hive of mixed activities, even people skiing between parked cars and kids on tiny boards going about their own business.. fats, thins, infants and olds all equally as casually winter sports cool. But after a day of watching the other kids play like a special on a trip with the community centre, we made our way back down to O town and spent the eve in the village's main inn, that goes from restaurant - sports bar - table top dancing disco all in the course of a Saturday eve.. It was many lols.
So my first road trip out of Auckland complete! And although it began with a tale of how my abnormally long pins almost killed me (again), it was still wicked.. and filled with many firsts - the most exciting of them being chips topped with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. A weekend I think I’d sum up as 'eventfully uneventful?'
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