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.
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.
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