Not really a snow bunny....

4.6m of snow is really rather a lot....

We were up at Whakapapa in the weekend as part of the Playcentre ski trip (only way we can afford to go to the snow - on a shoestring!). Stayed at Taylor Memorial Lodge - typical grotty school-trip type accommodation just out of Ohakune, but hey, it only cost us $80 for three of us for two nights so I'm not moaning much. It was warm, dry, had reasonable facilities (although run-down) and it was close to where we wanted to go.

We went up Friday - I took Friday and tomorrow off - and arrived mid-afternoon. The rugrat travelled quite well and settled in much better than we expected. Saturday was an earlier start than I wanted - there were ten families staying and the oldest child was about 8, so there was running and activity early.... We went back to sleep though, and headed up to the snow for about 11.30.

I have never seen that much snow, ever. It was amazing. The buildings were banked up to the windows and the snow was over a metre deep on the roofs at Whakapapa Village. People were on the roofs digging it off. We got up to the bunny slopes with our toboggan (well, really hubby's boogie-board doing double duty), walking through snow so fresh and soft my leg sunk up to my hips at one point. It was snowing lightly (first time I've ever seen snow falling) and we were looking forward to snowman-building, snowfights, tobogganing, etc etc. However, small daughter had other plans. She decided she didn't like the snow at all and threw the mother of all tantrums up there, sobbing her little heart out and declaring that she wanted to go home (all 5 hours away...).

We eventually decided (after trying to settle her for some 20 minutes) that it wasn't going to work, so we trudged all the way back down to the car and headed off to Tokaanu Hot Springs and boiled ourselves into Homo not-very-sapiens lobsterii. She loved Tokaanu, and I must admit a swim in a pool at bath temperature when one hasn't had a soak in a bath for over a year was seriously good. After that we wandered around the Tokaanu geothermal area and showed her the hot stuff - after all the rain we've had the boiling mud pools were really amazing and the springs were really full.

All the families had a shared meal last night (yum) and we packed the kids off to bed by 7. They were all shattered so went out like lights and the adults played mad and insane boardgames and drank good wine and ate chocolate and talked. Nice.

Home today, day off tomorrow, then horrificly early start on Tuesday (pickup 5.40am!!!!) for a project, followed by two days of conference Tuesday and Wednesday. Yuck. Hard work for an owl!

Pachyderm