Stupendous Skiing and Gigantic Jumping

[Ed - there is also a comedy video that you may enjoy! ]

First weekend of my school holidays and we hit the slopes of Ruapehu (big volcano in the middle of North Island) for some snow action...brilliantly it had been snowing all the previous week so there was plenty of the white stuff around.

[NB actually it hasn’t stopped snowing since, so we haven’t been able to get back there yet!!] 

We ‘did’ both resorts in one weekend – Turoa on day 1 and Whakapapa on day 2 and so now knowthe slopes a little and are dead keen to return for a bit more of an explore.  

Phil had bought new ski boots so was busy trying those out and I had some very cool (and very curvy) new carving skis...which I had bought off Trade Me and had funded by my tutoring of Portia in A Level Geography….so it was satisfying to have my own skis.

It was the most heavenly weekend weather-wise – with incredible views off Ruapehu across to Ngaurahoe and Tongariro (the other volcanoes in the Taupo region) and we could even see perfect snow-capped stratovolcano Taranaki,right over on the SW coast (apparently the biggest threat volcano wise to NZ).

So despite numerous volcanic rocks in the middle of the piste (it is an active volcano after all!) and rather more narrow runs than the wide open pistes of La Plagne that we are more used to, we thoroughly enjoyed our first NZ ski experience.  Phil particularly loved the snow park that we found at Turoa and is mastering the triple salco before taking on the ‘rails’!

Stratovolcano Taranaki.

An amazing waterfall that I (Phil) lost my ski down.

And I[Ed]'d just like to mention how incredible the wind is in definining this ski area and the experience. Having spent large chunks of our skiing life bouncing on- and off-piste, you'd be expending large chunks of your body if you tried it out here!

Being a volcano, there are no fresh pastures under the snow, or trees for shelter. The wind whips off any fresh snow and off the very well groomed pistes, you're dicing with death - see the piccys.

Ski off-piste and die! This is where those indian chaps who sit on nails all day come to ski.

Welcome to razor-blade country. A far cry from the Mont de la Guerre after a good snowfall (top powder in Champagny)!

More fun and games with the wind.

And it has to be mentioned how good (take note French and Germans) the kiwis are at lift queue management!...look left...any free spots? Absolutely not. Look right...goes some way to explaining it. This is probably the best run (there are less than 20 in total) and this is the only lift feeding it.