Hi,
Wow - what a great weekend. It was so nice to have Mike home, but we were busy immediately after work and I never saw Mike until midnight up at Ruapehu.
Here's how it looked from my eyes. I caught a lift with Rex and his family up to Ruapehu. We made good time and got lots of yummy things to eat along the way. I recommend long road trips with their family! We caught up with Aidan and Josh and their family at Bulls and drove together to Ohakune where we collected the food for the weekend and the week (other people moved in after we moved out).
The road was clear all the way to the carpark, where Rex had to put chains on to get into the spare carpark right beside the track to the lodge. Shame, eh? Anyhow, after fighting the chains for 30 minutes to get the first one on, the second one went on in 5 minutes!
Then we emptied the car and ferried it all up the track to the lodge. I made four trips up and down, including one with two cartons of food on my back! Phew! Good fun! Mike was about 90 minutes behind us. But I only saw him briefly because he got the news that Andrew's car had slipped off into the gutter on the way up the hill. Between us arriving and Mike, it had started snowing heavily and the road became treacherous.
I walked down to see if I could help, but Mike had it in hand and I wandered back up the lodge to wait and see what happened. Eventually they left the car where it was and it was midnight by the time the last of us made it into the lodge.
Next morning it was snowing and a wee bit windy. But some of us braved the conditions and wandered out. I had a fantastic time. Some young people took me down Broken Leg Gully and it was fabulous. I ungracefully flopped over a wee cliff at the start of the run and had a ball. It became a firm favourite when I introduced Andrew to it later in the day!
My messages to the lodge sank in to some people and Andrew and Josh joined me and I had a wonderful afternoon skiing on great snow with good visibility. Josh's children had their first lesson and loved skiing. Hooray! I am hoping they will be good skiing companions for Toby in future seasons.
Dinner was great - so yummy. I am amazed at how people can conjure up scrumptious food from ingredients someone else has selected. Charm and Aidan seemed to be well in control of kitchen things. We were in safe hands.
I slept well that night. Sunday it was snowing early on and although it did brighten up in the afternoon, it wasn't quite as good as Saturday afternoon. I took Rex up the the top of the mountain during a whiteout and I think it made him a bit more apprehensive. Oops. But he assures me that it was good for him and made him better on the easier slopes. Perhaps he has forgiven me? Mike took him down Rockgarden in good visibility and he loved it.
I had a few good runs with Mike and Andrew - exploring more of the mountain.
Then home with Rex and his family again. And I slept well again last night!
Mike has now gone to Sydney again though. We see him in about ten days.
Love,
Angela
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