North to South Island Pt I
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Wed 5 Aug 2009 08:37
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Hi Folks,
Sorry its been quite a while since my last
transmition but we have been on walk about down in the South Island of New
Zealand, remote but a great experience, after our adrenalin fuelled break to the
north we returned for a few days prior to going on an extended weekend to Mount
Ruapai , the weather was atrocious on the drive north again, land slips to the
two main rail routes blocked of Wellingtons train system , the roads were awash
with the torrential down pour and the drive was defiantly one to remember , we
arrived three and a half hours later at our holiday chalet, just as if it had
been transported from the Alp's , sitting at the foot of the active
volcano Mt Ruapai or to "Lord of the Rings" film fans " Mount Doom " ,
at this time of year its covered in snow and is the North Islands premier
ski resort.
Having dusted off my ski boots and the rest
of my gear I was greatly anticipating a ski over
Golems bumpy bits as was the rest of
the crew
Jack,Lyn,Gail,Devyn,Alex,Morv,Doug,Calum,and last
but not least Kaite,they all went off to the hire shop on arrival to get
kited up for activities next day.
All were up bright and early and we crammed
into the van, as only four wheel drives were allowed up to the ski fields it was
our only option, anyway after driving through sub tropical forest we started to
climb up the mountain it got steeper and snow was sighted at 1000m above seal
level and looking back down the mountain it looked as if we were a white Island
in the middle of a sea of green, the view was magnificent even from the base
station, and I hurriedly parked up the van bundled everybody off to there ski
schools, with the exception of Gail,Lyn,Alex and myself who are the
hardened ski junkies, we all leapt on the ski lifts and headed for the top of
the mountain, on arrival at 2,340 meters above sea level the views were even
more breath taking, out came the cameras and another Kodak moment was
born.
After a fun packed day of sun,snow and down hill
shuzing we all bundled into the van and made our way back to the chalet, topped
up the log burner and started sloshing down the vino calapso, Jack my nephew has
recently found a liking for " Lambrisco " the Italian fruit drink that has a
certain effect on sixteen and a half year olds..... co-ordination on bottle top
removal was impaired but the guitar playing was ace .
It all ended to quickly, three days of winter bliss
were over and we were packing, firstly eating everything left in the
fridge for brekki then off back down route 2 to Wellington , a much better trip
with the sun shinning all the way home.
On arrival back at Miramar , and with one week to
go till our nephew Jack went back to the UK, and with his new found skill of
balancing on a surf board whilst pointing down a mountain we decided to jump on
the ferry and go South to find more snow .....
The Snow Junkies
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