Anticpation

I had managed to catch this photo of Amelia before she headed off to see a much awaited show of ballet with her mother. I like this shot. Amelia has dressed up in her best dress and is waiting patiently, but with anticipation.

A happy smile soon followed.

More photos are here.

Weekend of Labour

This weekend was a busy one. That's the reason its called Labour Weekend.

Most of the weekend was taken up with catching up on garden jobs now that the weather has warmed up. On Saturday I dug out a bank of mud down the side of the house and built a retaining wall. Amelia helped by getting stuck in with the spade as well and shifted a surprising amount of dirt and clay for a 5 year old girl.

On Sunday we packed up the girls and drove out to Staglands Wildlife Park. I'd never been there before, and the drive is memorable. 17 km of sealed goat track through the Akatarawa's to get there. It was worth the visit though. Those that know me, know I hate zoo's with a fairly unbridled passion. African wildlife has no business being caged in Wellington to make money off the ignorant. However as Staglands focused on local wildife in an appropraite setting I was prepared to cut it some slack. Besides the local birds, sheep, horses and pigs probably had it better than they would of on most farms.

Highlight of the day was getting two great shots of the girls on the back of a ricktery but rustic wooden wagon.

Quite like these shots. More shots of the day are here.

Rivers to Snow

Last weekend the rest of the family was up in Auckland for the end of school holidays so I headed back up to Ohakune to try and get more skiing out of a tough weather season.

Saturday, predictably, was yet another closed day on the mountain so I packed up the fishing gear and drove over to Turangi in an attempt to catch an elusive trout. I think river fishing is more and art than a sport.  Its definitely tough to be proficient enough to get all the factors right to hook a fish. I only get to go fresh water fishing very rarely so I have little success in discovering what all those success factors are. While I had a peaceful and interesting time on the side of the Tongariro I didn't catch anything. The best thing about fishing on the river is that it almost doesn't matter if you strike out; the surrounds, sights and sounds that you find yourself casting away in are very therapeutic. There is something about the whip and rhythm of casting nymphs into the stream that enriches this. I found a perfect pool nearby Red Hut pool however and saw a fish jump. Just to taunt me, no doubt.

A day on the River

 Every cloud has a silver lining - despite the lack of fish I did managed to hook into a magnificent pie outside the Turangi bakery. Pie of the year award material.

The drive back over the volcanic plateau yielded a nice shot of the sun on the wide open spaces on the expanses of alpine desert tussock.

Afternoon light on the Volcanic Plateau

Sunday dawned patchy with a clearing in between spring frontal systems. It turned out to be a magically memorable day.  After clearing the ski lifts up after the previous weather cycle it was a late opening. After a late start I found myself up the mountain with few people and a fresh 5-10cm of new snow over the mountain. The car made first tracks in the snow in the car park so I knew that was a good sign.

And it was.  The phantom High Noon Express had resurrected itself after being closed for extensive repair just as I arrived. This opened up an easy expanse of fresh snow right off the lifts. While it was quickly tracked out, there remained excellent quality deep fresh dry snow skiing for the rest of the day.  The Slider bowl went into epic mode. The skiing just west of the cornice was quite perfect - boot high dry untracked snow. Dropping over the Slider bowl cornice in steep soft reverse spin drift on the vertical faces was a dream like sensation. The edges on the steep fall lines in the deep snow had to used with attention. A mistake would of been very dramatic on the highly steep bowl sides. After sessioning a traverse out to Sliders, a drop over the bowl into the deep stuff, a traverse out of the east Slider into Branchline and determinedly back into the Main Trunk bowl, a couple of fresh tracks off the bowl cornice and then directly back over to the High Noon lift - the lift run of the day was discovered. Maximised best snow and terrain of the day without having to take the skis off.

The last run of the day I reserved the best for last. I traversed out past the Solitude bowl and out to my 'best bowl' that I'd spent last Saturday in. The snow was just as perfect this time, with the snow perhaps fresher and drier. With a nice routine now, I mounted my skins and skinned up further so 30 minutes to gain some better elevation. The rewards was a perfect blast in new snow though a wide gully with a wind lip and a repeat back through the 'best bowl' snow. Not a person nor other track in sight the entire time. Freshness, freedom over a virgin snow pack. Within 8 days I had to leave the same bowl behind, with the same regret, this time with only one set of extended round tracks to mark my visit.

Ski Week - Part 3

The girls returned to Wellington on Friday, just as the weather finally cleared. Friday afternoon was a lucky break in the weather. Huge tracks of virgin untracked snow lying in bowl after bowl out into the western glacier.  A quick 15 min skin above the Jumbo was all it took to access the goods. Luckily the was nobody else interested in putting the work in so it was just left to me to take care of the business of making first tracks. There I was out west again with the first big bowl in Solitude all to myself. The sweet first tracks of Tuesday were repeated in perfect Turoa fresh cold new snow.  Afterwards at dusk the mountain set itself off in a great display of alpenglow.

Mt Ruapehu in alpenglow.

On Saturday I had to return home, however the weather dawned bright, clear and perfect. I knew it was all on today in term of the perfect waiting fresh snow and the competition to get at it with the weekend hordes. The High Noon Express was still out of action which once again turned out to be a mixed blessing. Almost the same untracked snow was accessible via a 15 min skin above the Jumbo and again nobody could be bothered with putting the effort in the morning. So I added to my first tracks in Solitude, making 3 perfect sets of fresh tracks that were just mine alone. Eventually the rest cottoned on on what they where missing and a few started to venture out at about lunch time. Too late.

After lunch I made another climb and a trip out to then next smaller bowl over in Solitude. Not many people go there as it requires such a traverse but its one most perfect bowls on the Turoa side for holding great snow, with a perfect westerly aspect to gain the sun and remote enough to make it isolated from attention. The hour that I spent in the bowl was some of the most memorable skiing I've had in Turoa for many a season. The snow was so light, fresh and perfect that it was impossible to leave. I made three runs, twice skinning up to the top of the bowl again leaving my pack below so I could climb quicker and hungrily repeat the sweet gliding turns over and over in the untracked silken snow pack. The feeling of the skis was sensationless, just floating over an untracked alpine bowl. Sadly I had to leave the bowl behind; only with three sets of beautiful symmetric round tracks sitting nicely nestled along aside one another.

Ski Week - Part 2

Wednesday and Thursday the weather returned to storms again. We amused ourselves with trips around the area. Below is a shot of Amelia skipping down the Raetihi main street.  Raetihi looks down on its luck but has a great little cafe that makes it worth a visit, even if to inject a few dollars into its local economy. I like this shot even if its not technically that great as the shutter speed needed to be much higher. It shows a spark of happiness in a place that seems to be missing it.

To fill in the days I took Amelia to the new local climbing wall in Ohakune. Its perfectly set up for kids.  Amelia was terrified when she first saw the walls. She was adamant that she was not going to do it, could not do it and it was too hard. After some convincing to "just give it a try and after a try if you still don't like it then that's ok …" I finally managed to get a harness on her. After about 15 seconds on the first beginner wall she was grinning ear to ear smiles. She was in love with climbing. Dad just smiled knowingly. After scaling up and down the walls madly she was rapt with herself and her new found abilities and demanded to return the next day. So we did and she went even more ballistic up and down the walls and ropes. The staff were amazed at the transformation in her. Dad just smiled knowingly. She's the sort of kid that loves activity but just a bit shy to start with. Amelia has found a new sport.

Ski Week - Part 1

Last week was ski week. It's the time of year when we take a week off and head up to Ohakune for some quality snow time. Usually the first week of September has been the time do this as the weather typically starts to settle while there is still a decent snow pack. However this year we are locked into school holidays so it was a few weeks later.  The winter weather has been so difficult this year. The few weeks before we left has consistent storm cycles passing overhead. More spring snow had fallen on the mountain than I could ever remember, which meant a big fresh spring dump was on the cards. Trouble was the storm cycles were still passing through the week we where there. So there was a lot of frustrated staring at clouds.

For the first few days the Cakebreads joined up. The weather was still terrible but just ok for the girls to learn on the Turoa Alpine Meadow. So we took them up for a few hours and quickly came down again once everybody was wet.

On the Sunday the weather was worse so instead we drove over to the Chateau at Whakapapa. The girls were fascinated with the place and amused themselves staring out the windows and eating scones.

 We drove up the ski field road to let them play in the snow, rain and mist. Lucy wonders what on earth the deal is with this cold wet stuff that she's never seen before.

Monday we had another crack at teaching the girls on he Turoa Alpine Meadow. The weather was worse but we got everyone up there for a play and came down soon after.

On Tuesday there was a gap in the storm cycles. Amelia had had enough of skiing for a while. Taking her up wet weather for desperation's sake had put her off going again. Lesson learned. I took advantage of the gap in the storms to get my first day in for the year.  The High Noon Express was still out of action with a broken cross head on tower 8 so it made for some creative trail finding. To get out west involved a quick climb up to the High Noon cat track. The run out west after a major spring dump was very memorable. I was the first out there to bag 'first tracks' in the bowl.  It was hard to remember better skiing in that bowl ever.   So while the weather has been appalling this year, when it cleared the quality of the skiing was brilliant. Low on quantity, high in quality. The Jumbo opened at  2:30 making for great afternoon over in the Slider and Branchline.