Top of the Ski Mountain
39°12′59″ S 175°33′14″ E
Get a cup of coffee & a comfy chair – this is an extended length blog entry 🙂
Today was an exciting day for us but ironically, one of the things that got us so excited today is something we came to Australia & New Zealand to avoid – SNOW! However there was lots of snow where we went today & we were very happy to see it.
Yesterday we arrived at our hotel in Whakapapa Village in the fog & pouring rain & there were no mountains to be seen anywhere. Today, especially this morning, was a completely different story! The mountains were “back” to greet us & they did not disappoint!
Whakapapa Village sits at the bases of Mount Ngauruhoe, also famous for its inspiration as Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings movies, & Mount Ruapehu – the highest mountain on New Zealand’s North Island.
We started the day by taking a short drive to the Whakapapa ski area. On the way there we got some fantastic views of Mount Ngauruhoe.
When we arrived at the base of the ski area we saw that someone had a bad experience parking their vehicle. It was a humorous sight to see but it could have just as easily been me – so I don’t want to be too smug about it.
The Whakapapa ski area is the largest downhill skiing place in New Zealand. Staff there told us that they host about 6,000 skiers per day during the peak season & that the season (June – October) has just recently come to an end.
The landscape on the mountain is interesting as it’s a volcano that is completely devoid of any trees & other plant life.
We took a gondola from the base of the ski area up to the top of the mountain – about 6,600 feet – the same elevation we were at in Ghandruk, Nepal last year but with way less effort!
There is a huge day lodge up there that offers amazing views.
We were very fortunate that there were no clouds on the mountain while we were there & we got lots of great photos.
There were also notices posted in the bathrooms for everyone to read telling you what to do if the volcano started to erupt!
Made me think of Jimmy Buffett’s song lyrics “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know where I’m a gonna go when the volcano blows!” Something to contemplate while you are sitting on the toilet….
We spent a couple of hours at the day lodge & then took the gondola back down to the parking lot.
Next on the agenda were a couple of short walks on nearby trails. One trail we took was to Tawhai Falls which we found out later was the location where in one the Lord of the Rings movies Gollum was shown fishing in the “pool” at the bottom of the falls. If I would have know that earlier I would have jumped in the pool myself!
After our short hikes we went to the Visitor Information Center to learn more about the area & see their displays. We watched a short movie about how New Zealand is trying to deal with invasive species predators such as rats & stoats (weasels) that are posing a serious threat to native wildlife – especially the Kiwi bird.
We have been in New Zealand for almost 2 weeks & we haven’t yet seen a live Kiwi. I was feeling a bit deprived until one of the presenters in the movie stated that he had been working with wildlife in this country for almost 20 years & has still not seen any live Kiwi in their natural settings.
We did see this stuffed kiwi bird at the visitor centre
and this very unique road sign!
We finished the day by walking up to a backpackers lodge that was close to our hotel. We had beer & nachos in their scenic laid back lounge complete with comfy couches and fireplace.
While we were there a staff member showed us a photo of the most recent eruption of Mount Ngauruhoe in 1977. I copied the photo below of the 1977 eruption from the internet. Thankfully the mountain giant lay sleeping while we were here.
We were pretty tired by the time we got back to our hotel – but we were just in time to watch a free movie showing of James Bond’s Skyfall in the hotel’s cinema lounge. Hard to pass up an opportunity like that so we dipped into our energy reserve tanks & settled in for a few hours more entertainment.
Popcorn anyone?