The weekend with Mt Hutt and Ruapehu

Hi,

Ok - I had a great weekend!  Andrew and I met Mike and Toby at the car, and we dropped Mike and Toby at the train station for their Ruapehu adventure.  Andrew and I got to the airport with plenty of time to check in.

The flight was easy and we got to Chch and the rental car without any hassles.  A wee Toyota RAV4.  Very nice.  It's front styling looked like the stormtrooper on my t-shirt.

The airport now has a Countdown supermarket so we stocked up on breakfast stuff and milk and then headed to Methven.  Well, Pudding Hill.

Got into the room at a reasonable time (maybe 9.30pm?) and it wasn't long before I got into bed.  I had an allergic reaction though so spent quite a bit of time scratching before it subsided.

Up at 6am and the sunrise was amazing!  We excitedly got into ski gear and stuffed breakfast into us. Our plan was to meet my work colleagues at the bottom of the hill at 8am.  We wondered when the gates did open so I checked on the ski field website.

Really odd camera effect - sunrise behind me

It took a few reads of the "Skifield closed" sentence before I realised what it was saying.  Yep - no skiing today.  Closed all day due to strong winds.  Aaarrghh.

I contacted the work colleagues and they had switched their plans to Porter Heights for the day.  But by then Andrew and I had switched plans to tramping and were dressed for that.

Summit of Peak Hill

Our stormtrooper car - worked well

We drove up to Lake Colerdige (in from Windwhistle) and climbed Peak Hill.  The wind was terrific at the top.  Based on this being half the height of Mt Hutt, the wind up there today would have been impossible.  No wonder they closed the mountain.

Peak Hill was great.  A slog up from paddocks to a long ridge leading to the top.  Scraggy bushes of an alpine nature.  And wee skiffs of snow left behind from colder blasts and turned to ice.  It was fairly popular - we shared the hill with about 7 other people.  The views were stunning.

After that we checked out the shore of Lake Coleridge and then drove over to the Arthurs Pass road.  Despite the road closed sign.  Hahahah.

Back into Methven for lunch at Cafe 131 and back to Pudding Hill to read the afternoon away.  I tried to watch television with Andrew in the evening, but failed.  Horrible stuff on.

Up early again Sunday after falling asleep at 9pm!  The skiing was on!  Ooosshhh!  Strong winds might cause problems, but it should be ok.

Summit of Mt Hutt - looking over spectacular mountains

 And it was!  Had a fantastic day!  Andrew and I checked out at 7am.  Woke everyone, including the cats and the kuni kuni pigs when we tried to pay.  Only to find out the payment had been made already.  Doh!  We left the chaos in our wake and headed to Mt Hutt.  I paid extra for First Tracks and skied from 8 - 9am on the Summit Six and had a blast.  Great snow conditions and no one there!

Andrew joined me for a few hours from 9.  We skied the Triple too.  But they closed the Summit for a bit and I skied the quad for a while.  Andrew was playing somewhere, doing crazy stuff.

I popped in for something to eat at 2pm and discovered I had lost my watch somewhere.  A few texts exchanged with Toby and I decided to follow his advice and ask the mountain staff.

Turns out they had someone hand it in!  Wow!  Must have only just happened because all I had done was go to the toilet, and buy some wedges for lunch.  Didn't leave much time for someone to find it and hand it in.  But they did!  Thank you!

Skied until 4pm and hauled myself into the car for a fast drive to Chch.  Checked the car in, then ourselves and waited for our 7pm flight.

Wonderful weekend!  Woot!

Hope the week ahead is a good one!

Love,
Angela