Skiing and tramping in the Tongariro National park - Part 4 (Mt. Ruapehu summit)

Mt. Ruapehu from Ohakune. Our route would be up the ridge in the centre.

After drinking too much wine one evening we had plotted to climb to the summit of Mt. Ruapehu. It is the highest mountain in the North Island and at just under 2800metres above sea level, would present us with a very hard challenge.

We got up nice and early and headed to the base of the ski field. Unfortunately we were not allowed to use the chair lifts unless we were skiing, so that meant walking up through the ski fields to the base of the ridge we wanted to climb.

Heading up from the top of the chair lift

We had calculated on reaching the top chair lift within three and a half hours. We reached it in one and three quarter hours, so our morale was sky high. It was only 10am and we calculated we could be on the summit by noon.

Our joy was short lived as I checked the route before us. The ridge I had wanted to climb to get to the top was far too steep to even try and we had no ropes or harnessess with us. We did have our ice axes and crampons.

Rock hard ice. Good for crampons.

Our only hope of reaching the summit was via a wide gully which seemed less steep than the ridge. We started off and made good progress. We were now only 100 metres below the summit.

We could smell the sulphur fumes being emitted by the crater lake just over the other side of the summit. The major problem for us was the steepness of the ice. We were on a fifty degree slope with big exposure. The ice was now so hard that we could hardly stamp our crampons into it.

Oh dear, this is getting serious now.

The decision was made to retreat before one of us had a fall. If we had fallen it would have been pretty serious, so as Don Whillans the famous mountaineer once said, "The mountains will be here next year lad, just make sure you are"

James at the high point of the day

The route back down the face was very slow going as we needed to tread very carefully. We managed to get down safely and in retrospect we made the right decision to turn back, even though we were so close to the top.

We still managed to get some good pictures and hopefully we can summit it in the future.

Hayley on the ice slope

Looking across to the summit

Hayley on the way back down

Chilling out after a long tough day in the mountains

Skiing and tramping in the Tongariro National park - Part 3 (Skiing again)

Looking down one of the runs

Another nice blue sky day

After our walk on the round the mountain track it was back to the skiing. The weather was being kind to us and gave us another nice blue sky day.

Nice hat!

Hayley posing again!



It was pretty busy on the slopes because it is currently half term for the schools.

Charlie at the bottom of the home run

Skiing and tramping in Tongariro National park - Part 2 (Tramping)

Treasure at the end of the rainbow!

Hayley playing in the snow near the start of the walk

A nice easy bridge crossing (wish they were all like that!)

Whilst the boys continued skiing Hayley and myself planned to complete some of the famous round the mountain track walk and top off the week by summiting Mt. Ruapehu.

Waitonga Falls

The round the mountain track is a five day wilderness trek, but we only planned on tramping up to one of the overnight huts on the south side of the mountain and back again.

Dodgy river crossing coming up!

Made it to the first hut.

We reached the hut bang on time and had a quick break. It was really hard going in the soft snow and we had wished we had brought our sleeping bags and a bottle of wine so we could just crash for the night in the hut. It had a nice wood burner and comfy beds.


And the second hut. Half way point!

Snow outside the hut

We left the hut on our return journey back to the car and by the end of the day we both had soaking wet feet from completing so many river crossing's. I also had the joy of falling backwards into a freezing cold river after a branch I was stood on snapped! The walk had prepared us well for what was coming up at the end of the week when we would be going for the icy summit of Mt. Ruapehu.

Skiing and tramping in Tongariro National park - Part 1 (Skiing)

Our accomodation for the week

On 9th July we headed down to Ohakune for a week of skiing and tramping/mountaineering. We were staying in the rather unusual Turoa Yurt Village. The buildings are circular and are based on Mongolian Herdsmen's housing.

There had been over two metres of new snow during the previous week, so we were glad that the roads had been cleared a couple of days before we left to head south.

Looking up to the top of the ski lifts

Hayley and James getting in a tangle

Go for it!


The skiing was great and so was the weather as we finished our first day on the slopes. The weather then took a turn for the worse and we had two days of heavy rain, causing the rivers to go into spate.

This was a small stream the previous day!

The bad weather enabled me to visit the local police station and make some more enquiries about working in the area in the future.

An acclimatisation walk along Sunset Beach

The edge of the sand dunes at Sunset beach

As our new arrivals started to get over their jet lag we thought it would be a good idea to blow the cobwebs away with an afternoon stroll along sunset beach at Port Waikato.

It's a bit windy!

It was really windy and there were some huge waves. The nice cold wind helped everyone to get used to the winter weather here at the moment!

Looking along the beach

Charlie running through the foam

The arrival of the Motley Crew

The flight from the UK heads over Greenland

On Wednesday 2nd July we welcomed back Cherry, Gary and Bill for a one month holiday. This is their second visit in six months and the plan is to head off to Ohakune for a week skiing and tramping before Charlie, Gary and Bill head to Queenstown for another week skiing.

Cherry is staying at our Pukekohe house whilst we go to the ski fields.

A Future Posting?

Mount Ruapehu


Now I have got my permanent appointment, I am free to apply for any post that is advertised across the country. A magazine is produced every two weeks with loads of jobs. Last week I applied for a job at a little village called Raetihi in the Tongariro National Park.


Oohhh I want to climb that hill!


This is the area on North Island where the ski-ing is found and it also has three active volcanoes! The biggest one is Ruapehu at about 2900 metres above sea level.

It was the Queens birthday weekend and we decided to drive down to Raetihi for a look around. It took about four and a quarter hours to get there and it is about 350km south of Pukekohe.

Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings)

The police station at Raetihi!!!


The village of Raetihi was a bit of a let down as it is very run down and not in keeping with the other villages we have seen. All is not lost though, as there is a cool village 10km away called Ohakune. This is like an alpine ski resort and was a much nicer place to live. I just need to get a job interview and hope I can talk them into letting us live there and not at Raetihi.

A nice waterfall on the road to Wanganui


We also drove out to the coast along a spectacular mountain road for 88km to Wanganui. It was one of the most scenic roads I have ever driven along but it was hard work with all the hair-pin bends!

Hayley and Charlie on the beach at Wanganui

It's pretty remote on the road to Wanganui!

One thing we really noticed was the difference in temperature. We have still been getting temperatures around 18-19 degrees in Pukekohe, but in Raetihi it was about 6 degrees during the day. It made us realise how used to the nice weather we have become!

Holiday at Taupo

The town of Taupo

Last week we travelled south to Taupo for a week's holiday. Taupo is pretty much bang in the centre of North Island and takes about three hours to get to from Pukekohe.

It is situated next to the largest lake in New Zealand and is about thirty minutes north of the main Ski areas for North Island at Mt. Ruapehu.

We were staying in a small cabin on a holiday park, which was basic, but fine for our cheap budget. We took the mountain bikes with us, as we had planned to visit the many mountain bike tracks in the area.

Huka falls

The Huka falls is one of the main tourist attractions in the area and we started a couple of our rides from the bridge crossing the falls. It is possible to pay to go on a jet boat which rides right up to the base of the falls.

Rapids a bit further down the river

On the first bike ride

Whilst on one of the bike rides we found the Taupo bungy. It is straight off one of the cliffs on the river bank and looked pretty scary!

That's not me!

On the craters of the moon tracks

Charlie on the see-saw

Hayley on the tracks

Nice walk along the beach

Busy on the beach!

We went for a nice little 24km walk along our local beach a few days ago. The beach is about 40km long and runs along the rugged west coast, bordering the Tasman sea.

The area is pretty remote and not many people except locals head out there.

I am starting to build up my fitness now and hopefully I can stay injury free for a while!!

Local horse trainers having a workout

Is that a crocodile or a log?

The tide is out a long way