An Ode to the Snow

Oh how thee is so white.
Oh how thee is so pure.
Oh how thee glistens under bluebird skies above.
The trails they leave behind are a minor scratch on your skin.
The powder that you share.
The fresh air is but a cool breeze amongst your natural slopes.

Nothing can quite describe the natural beauty of being lifted up through snowy mountains on a chair lift on a blue sky day at Mt. Ruapehu.

I’ve had the pleasure of sampling the two biggest ski fields on Ruapehu this season: Whakapapa and Turora. Good luck to the foreigners that are trying to read those names! Let me try help you…

Whakapapa: ‘Fuk-a-papa’ – I’ve left one letter out so that it doesn’t look like I’m extensively swearing on my blog.
Turora: ‘Two-row-a’ or ‘Tor-row-a’ – At least that’s the non-Maori tongue way to say it. Try rolling the ‘r’ and it sounds a bit better.

Snowboarding: Season 1

It’s been a lot of fun learning to snowboard. As an adult there’s nothing quite like forcing yourself to try to be co-ordinated and learn something completely out of the box and see yourself progress.

I’d say I’m still on the beginner-intermediate slopes at the moment, because I’m still trying to nail my toe edge perfectly. If I wanted to just go heel side the whole way then I could go higher up the mountain, but then I’d never improve.

I’ve had a few expeditions with family and a few solo ones, but the funny thing is most weekends you can count on someone from my work that I know being down at the mountain! Must be something to do with being cooped up in a big media corporate all week, we can’t wait for the fresh mountain air come the weekend!

Ohakune and the National Park are the two main townships around Mt. Ruapehu. They are home to some pretty awesome sunsets… and carrots.

Leading up to the end of the season I had slowly managed to purchase all my gear, so no more relying on awful hire gear! Woohoo!

Sadly my best friend, Deja, only got to have two outings, one in horrible wet weather and one in bluebird conditions, where she got her first scratches. She is now a bit worn in, but not nearly as much as I would have liked.

On my last trip I fell a little too hard in a tender spot, which seems to have put me out of action for a month or so. Less be said it really sucks! One more injury to add to my year of stupid injuries. It feels like my body decided once it hit 30 that was that, time to show you what all your clumsiness can really cause!

I live in hope that magically I won’t be in pain for the last long weekend of the year and last weekend of the snow season in less than 2 weeks, but given its taken 2 weeks for me to start sleeping through the entire night, my chances of snowboarding are pretty slim.

Though the memories still hold dear. The fresh snow covered mountains, rocks jutting out, waterfalls sliding down and the satisfaction of a good run. Until next time…