Welcome to another addition of Chris and Amie vs the weather. What a week! First, thanks to all who have been checking in. It is great to see my cousin Rick has joined up, also my aunt Carolyn along with Amie's Bakie friends. We are pleased to know so many people are keeping up with us and our travels.
This weekend headed back up at Mt. Ruapehu. With a last minute call Saturday morning to check the conditions and opening, we made the 2.5 hr journey again. We took our time. The new vehicle was in no hurry up the 3000 ft elevation climb to the base. We pulled into the parking lot to a glorious view of the 9000ft peak. Snow was limited down low, but the top was still sitting on a 6ft+ base.
Our first hint of what was to come should have been the ticket seller. We thought she was just being polite when she informed us of the money back policy if the weather was not to our liking. We could come down within one hour and get our money back. Yeah, right! It was our first and last day of the season and lots of turns to be made.
Now those of you who know me well, know I tend to be a bit impulsive, just a bit. So, no surprise that I took Miss Amie straight to the top of the active volcano. Heck, she had been Tele-skiing at least 4x now, so she was ready. At the mid station, I did not even hesitate with the increasing wind speeds. I just proceeded to the next chair. Amie came right along, never even asking about the foreboding cloud or the sharp, exposed lava rock.
At about the 6000ft mark the wind started picking up. WIND, the nemesis of my surf sessions here, was now imposing on my ski day. Within two minutes we had winds up to 70 mph, no kidding, no heatherton exaggeration. As we came out of the ski lift at the top, we were blasted with the wind and that cloud, it was right on top of us. Zero visibility, hurricane force winds and.... great snow. The night before had dumbed about 6inches and the underlying snow had warmed into a great spring corn. This may have caused me to move out a little too fast.
"Amie just follow me, there is a blue square over here." or so I thought.
There had been a Blue square(intermediate) slope. Oops! I just missed. So, as the cloud we had been consumed by, moved west, we were left at the top of an expert trail, wind blown and Steep! Did I mention the snow was good.
All I can say is thank God Amie is adventurous. As she gingerly proceeded down the slope, her body quickly remembered the moves for a successful telemark turn. By the time we were at the bottom, she was back in the groove. We charged that run, ran into a couple of friends at the bottom and sped off for another. I was determined not to let the wind ruin the day. Amie did not want a divorce! Things were good. You can imagine our disappointment when, as we got onto the chair, the ski patrol shut the mountain down. The wind had picked up force and thunderstorms were coming in. So that was it-two great runs. I found an off fall-line slope; gullies, drops. Fun snow!
In typical Kiwi fashion they gave us our money back. We tried again the next morning, but the weather was no better. New snow at top, but high winds and a closed mtn. Regardless, we had a lot of fun. We found a great bar for apre ski. Amie found some pics on the wall of the cast of The Lord of the Rings, so we found Frodo, sort of.
This week had other nice episodes. We got out to surf twice. On Thursday, Amie and I celebrated our 1yr anniversary. We had a great surf session and then went out for a great meal with some new friends. We also have met a couple from Texas, Mark and Kerri, who are two towns away. Kerri is a Doctor in the near by town. Mark is a real estate investor who used to own two surf shops. He is now surfing daily. He has become very useful giving us daily surf reports. We had a great night. We added some pictures of the waves.
Work is moving along nicely. We had an orientation this week to the differences in the New Zealand system. Included in this was a very interesting presentation by a group of Maori. The Maori people are not as marginalized as many groups of native people across the world. They are taking great strides to preserve their culture and their language. They are very proud and very spiritual- a pleasure to work with. I am hoping Amie and I will be able to sit in a traditional meal soon.
Amie's turn-School is back in session, so I will be subbing in a couple of schools this week. Should be fun! Thanks to all my Bakie friends for contacting me! It is so good to hear from everyone. The students here have about 9 more weeks of school and then 6 weeks of summer holiday (they call it). We are still waiting for the summer to come. The daily rain slowed down, so that has been nice! We get a glimpse of Mt Taranaki every once on a while. We will miss the snow this winter, but it will be nice to get a bit of sunshine in Dec, jan, Feb, March!
This week, on Thursday, we are to have Tea with the mayor of our town. Yes, we will sit for Tea. The mayor likes to meet all the new Docs in town. The community is very invested in keeping Doctors in this area, so Tea with the Mayor it is! We are looking forward to it.
I found a connection to watch the Baseball playoffs here, so I saw the Yankee's win Game 2 of their series. I was looking for the Red Sox game, but could not find it. HMMMM.
Ok all, have a great week. Next weekend we are up to Auckland to pick up a new Mtn. Bike for Amie.
I am out for now.
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