Day 2 - Mount Hutt and Springfield

day 2! and 2nd day riding

WORST SLEEP EVER. Now I am thankful we went to sleep so early, cos at least I got a few hours in. I was aware of the band, but expected the noise, and lived with it... but the real party seemed to start somewhere about 3am when it was all over downstairs and all on out on the street below. At some point a guy was on the balcony outside my window and right by my head - and just as I was sleeping again (I think) - he yells at the top of his lungs "WHAT THE F*** ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Now I know it wasn't aimed at me, but I was dying to say "what do you think I am doing? I AM F***ING SLEEPING YOU MORON". Then there was all the loud conversations 2 doors down and the knock on our door at 4 or 4.30... sleeping in didn't happen at all! Don't get me wrong, nice pub, nice food, simple but cosy rooms, recently done up bathroom, but best not to stay on a weekend if you intend to sleep? We should have known better.

the view from our room

Rant over. We packed up and went to a café for breakfast at 9am. Methven seems quiet compared to Ohakune at a similar time of day. I guess we are used to the constant stream on traffic up the only mountain road, it just wasn't the same here. Even the ski/board shops were quiet. We weren't even sure if the mountain we were looking at was the one we were about to ride on, there's so many to choose from with the alps right there. But the mountain shaped street lamps and park benches are just like home in Ohakune!

Heading up the mountain road the drive was more familiar this time. There was a bit more time to take some more photo's while we killed the hours. I was particulary fascinated with the wind clouds. Hoped it was gonna be ok up there. As we waited for the morning to tick over we went souvenir shopping, purchased some lunch, and looked at some cute dogs playing in the snow. It's a bit of a novelty as Ruapehu is in a National Park and dogs up the mountain is a big NO NO. I guess it's accepted at Hutt?

our car on the road up

worrying wind clouds out over the plains

We rode the Towers Triple Chair, all the way at the bottom, before the afternoon shadow started its journey over the field. Then with our friends from up north we hit our favourite run combo of the day up top several times, which was something like Fascination/Hubers/Johnny Doles/Broadway. Not sure, it's all new! There was a bit of a cool wind across the tops, and some snow swirling round, but not too bad and the sun/vis was perfect.

punters on the pack, in the wind, near top of 6

Top of the 6

Today's aprés of choice was a mulled wine, and a steaming hot strong brew at that! On the way down we stopped by some unusual snow fences for pictures saying goodbye to our time at Mt Hutt. At the bottom of the road there was Mr Whippy (icecream truck) PLUS a fundraising bbq. As we still hadn't gone shopping for supplies, a sausage wrapped in bread was going to be dinner for the night as we drove onward to our home for the next 7 days in Springfield. (Yes, just like the Simpsons, and they even have a doughnut sculpture) The second half of our dinner ended up being chips and dip from the general store. Yum.

healthy dinner

Well, we checked into our tiny little room, but managed to stack and poke stuff in such a way that would could live in each others faces for the next while. The bonus is a TV and DVD player in our room, so it was just perfect to lie in bed and watch telly, getting excited about the days ahead. We had done 2 out of 2 riding, and tomorrow will be the first on the Chill Pass. Porters ski area, and time to get the T bar legs on.

home for the week - little eh?!

Day 1 - Mount Hutt and Methven

Last night I packed and squished as much as I could into my snowboard coffin. Who knew how cold it was going to be down there, and how long I would need to make my clothes last, ie how many times I'd need to recycle a thermal or two. Ewwww. I thought I managed to keep the weight down too, but @ 26kg it was over the 25kg weight limit on Air NZ and I had to repack and move things into my hand baggage twice at 8am at the airport to comply. Perhaps those coffins aren't such a great idea when you can only have 25kg per piece on Air NZ...no exceptions.

CHCH Airport, our luggage but not our car

We arrived at Christchurch after a rather beautiful flight. The skies were clear over the North Island and you could clearly see all the familiar volcanoes. Bye Bye Ruapehu, we'll be back soon.

Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu

Organising the car seemed to take an age, but it was only an hour, and by 11.30am we were in our trusty hired Subaru station-wagon en route to Methven. The pub where we were staying wasn't hard to find at all, it's blue and called the "Blue Pub". The first bag explosion occured to find the snowboarding gear, all checked in, some beer supplies purchased and back on the road at 1.30, to be on the slopes by 2. Whew. We have 15 potential riding days, so we made it our mission to make tracks at Mt Hutt as soon as we possibly could!

The Blue Pub, and Methven's street lamps just like 'Kune!

It was the first of many unfamiliar mountain roads we were to drive on and WOW! While it is rather wide for most of the trip up, it sure was rough and bumpy! As we went up people were starting to come down. We thought maybe it was cos it wasn't that great up there, but turns out that the runs were being swallowed by the fast encroaching afternoon shadow. (Riding on the western slopes of Ruapehu, you forget that we get all that afternoon light.) The snow was actually rather nice today. We got warned by some helpful Australians "watch out for that ice". I couldn't see any blue anywhere, it seemed to be rather firm snow, and we could slice through it sweet as. It tricked us on our first warm up run on the Quad tho, as we came across bald white patches we thought it was going to be slick ice for sure. People don't know what ice is down here!

Top of the Summit 6, view of the road and the plains

We met some friends from up north who were in Christchurch for the weekend at the same time, doing runs off the Summit 6 and exploring the place, finishing off with an aprés in the shade at the café. Another bumpy ride back down the road, and I stupidly managed to delete all of the first days photo's hitting the wrong button while bouncing around in the car. DORK. Thank goodness I had a travel buddy on this trip so I could share her pics.

empty Hutt, a cool beer in the shade

We met our friends back at the pub, and as we hadn't yet been shopping for any supplies we treated ourselves to a feast of lamb shanks and other fine pub fare. After feeling earlier in the day that Methven hardly felt like a ski town, now the opposite was true. It seemed like the whole of CHCH had slid off the mountains and into the bar. Ahhh this was more like it. The sweet swish of snow pants and loud hubub of post snowtime chatter. We got talking with some locals next to us and explained that us 2 girls were about to embark on a tour of the clubbies. They raved about the area, but also said that more snow was needed as it had been a while since any freshies and things needed topping up.

By 8 we were all tucked up in bed at the pub. The band downstairs didn't start till later. We'd had a relatively early start to the day, and knew there were many more days ahead, and a rest up was needed. The next day we had hoped to hit our first field on the Chill Pass (Porters was the aim) however we are pleasantly surprised with the current conditions at Mt Hutt, so have decided to meet our friends there again. We'll do a half day again, as we didn't plan on paying for lots of day passes. So a big sleep in tomorrow hopefully!

our room

first ski field opened today

T-Bar webcam image from snow.co.nz

Yes, Manganui (up Mt Taranaki) got clearance from DOC to open early! There is snow in the forecast for Wednesday/Thursday and they have good coverage on the T-bar. Manganui is on my list of places to go this winter.

The next field that looks set to open is Mt Hutt in the South Island on the 30th May.