Mountain

Delay due to unprecedented number of mountains in the area...no internet signal.

Now, lets get this straight. I am not a religious person, but yesterday, I found myself practically preying. We'll get to that in a moment.
Yesterday started, cold and grey. We decided to head to Mt. Ruapehu as Taupo is a dead loss when its raining. The rain was so dense we didn't even realise we were surrounded by mountains until the morning when the sky cleared!
We piled on the clothing, after I was frogmarched to a camping store to purchase thermals. Honestly.
We drove up through the outskirts of the Tongariro National Park and turned a corner and BAM! Instant transformation from lush green forested mountains to huge, rugged white-capped peaks, wreathed in clouds.
We hot footed it up the mountain, following a nerve-wracking track with sheer drop-offs on either side and boulders the size of sofas casually propping up the side of the road after avalanches. Thick snow started to appear, we climbed up above the clouds.

I have never seen so much snow. Ever. A good 6 foot drift leant against the buildings, some of the slopes were just thick, powdered white. It was like walking through diamonds.
Ruapehu is an active volcano - the last eruption was in 2007! There are avalanche warnings peppering the mountainside and posters of surviving eruptions in the toilets.
Due to a gale that morning, the mountain was pretty much closed off unless you wanted to slide down it on a tray or in a bucket. We walked up it a little way.
Alex sunk up to above his knees at one point. That was hilarious. It was tiring walking!
We decided such effort meant we deserved a meal at the mountain snack shop and had some tasty hot food while hopefully waiting for the rental shop to open. Alas, it didn't, but we got Alex a groovy hat after extensive surveying of every hat-like option.
On the drive down, we passed a few signs for random tramp treks. One was for Tawhai Falls. We pulled up and went for a trek through the bush to look for the waterfall.
Along the way we found several semi-inebriated Americans. Semi-naked, semi-inebraited Americans. They were pysching themselves up for a leap over the waterfall, plummeting down to the icy (and I mean icy - snow trickling straight off the mountain as the source) water below.
At the base of the pool, I set up with my camera to take some pictures of the crazy people...possibly for their insurance company to look over later.
After they had all (miraculously) survived, not only the jump but the freezing water below which turned them all an interesting shade of blue, I turned to Alex.
'I want to do that' he says. Hence the preying.
Resigned to his need to throw himself off a 20m cliff over a waterfall, I armed myself with a hot water thermos, two towels and my camera. May as well record his last moments after all. I also needed to something to concentrate on, so I wouldn't yell 'Don't jump!' at the last moment and throw off his aim.
So prepared, we went to the Falls again. Alex whipped off his clothes and stood, only in his boardshorts at the top of the cliff, to the extreme consternation of a foreign couple standing there too (within the barrier). I rushed down to the pool and set up my camera. Another couple looked at me oddly as I scrambled over the rocks to be closer, with no doubt a slightly feverish looki in my eyes. They realsied why all of ten seconds later, when with a cheery wave, Alex launched himself off the top and tumbled in to he depths below!

Thankfully, the Americans had already prooved in their numerous numbers that the pool was deep enough for such antics, pretty much wherever you landed.
Alex survived and was duly covered in towels and force fed hot drinks.
Once the adrenaline had ceased to course quite so recklessly, we both sat on the roof of Newt and enjoyed the last rays of the evening sunshine gleaming on the peak of the mountain in front of us.
We stayed in a nearby camp park in order to get rid of our growing washing pile, have hot showers and charge all our gadgets.

There are three colours 2000m up on a mountain. The intense luminous blue of the sky, the blinding brilliance of the snow and the earthy borwn of the volcanic rock.
Today, we re-donned our warm clothes (never actually took them off, it was a very, very cold night) and drove back up the mountain. We hired snowboards, purchased our chairlift pass and awaited our instructor. After a 2 hour lesson, we were released on the slopes.
First off, snow is inordinately slippery, more so if you strap giant, flat boards to your feet. Second, once down, you have to get inventive in order to get back up again. Lastly, if you can't stop properly...you will get up close and personal with more snow than you ever realised existed.
Alex pretty much got into the flow of it instantly, due no doubt (as he keeps reasuring me) to his ten year experience with skateboards. I have the balance (just). I also have the weird desire to speed over snow. What I lack is any other ability. To stop, I chuck myself onto the ground. I find this technique works for me best because it has prevented me flying off the random, no barrier sharp and fast turns of the beginner slope. Yes, for some random reason the beginner slope is mental and aimed at weeding out the rubbish comapred to the amateur through Darwin-like principles of Survival of the Fittest.
After a while of landing in the snow every 3 metres, I was starting to get irate. It was beginning to hurt. However, we took a break and Alex gave me some tips, which made so much more sense than the instructors did. Anyways, so I was happily doing my zigzag turning down the slope when I stacked it again. No problem, except some out of control 6 year old and his dad on a solid plastic sledge were coming up behind me. At speed. 6 year olds, it turns out, lack aim. So do their fathers. It hit me right in my lower back which equals pain! After establishing that I could still feel and move all my limbs, and Alex had been prevented from giving the father a yelling at, we sat at the edge for a while. I have rather nice bruise developing on my back now and I'm rather stiff, but thats probably from the general cold and exhertion. After all, I was sitting in a natural icepack at the time!
We took a break from the slopes, then I returned my gear while Alex went down again, then we went on the chairlifts, towards to top of the mountain. We weren't allowed our gear up there anyway, as beginners, but we saw the epically beautiful scenery and admired the super-pros (who still fall!)

It was rather chilly, the snow was deep, icicles were forming down the sides of buildings and rocks. After hot drinks in the cafe, with sweeping views accross the valley, we headed back down the mountain and back to the car.
It was a gorgeous day, apparently the best of the season! Oooh, fun fact: the next mountain across the valley was the mountain used as Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings.

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