How to Enjoy a Hot Meat Pie

Here's how, in only six steps.

1. Get up early. 
2. Drive up a mountain. 
3. Ski a bleak winter's morning in wind and snow.
4. Camp out on a icy deck, because the cafe is full.
5. Enjoy the hot pie warming your cold wet frozen fingers
6. Enjoy the hot food going down into a empty hungry stomach.

Lucy enjoying a well deserved Turoa cafe meat pie in the cold after a morning's skiing.

Climb and Ski Descent from Mt Ruapehu Crater Lake

A GoPro video of a ski mountaineering trip on Mount Ruapehu, Turoa side. It briefly covers a skinning up on touring skis, followed up a climb up to the 'saddle' over looking the Crater Lake.

The ski out in late afternoon mid winter snow several days after a fresh dump was pretty nice. It goes through the 'best bits' of the off trail area 'Out West' and through the remoter bits of Solitude.

Taken Saturday 22 Aug 2015.

Mt Ruapehu, Turoa. 'Heading Out West' 2015-08-22

Mt Ruapehu, Turoa, Sat 22 Oct 2015. A trip far out west to the edge of the Mangaturuturu Glacier and back in again, via the 'best bits'.  Way to avoid the crowds out in Solitude.

Back Bowls of Turoa - A Dozen Turns in Heaven

This is one of my favourite places on Mt Ruapehu. Since its so good, I'm not going to tell you how to get there. 

The great thing about this little bowl is its remoteness from the main Turoa ski area, its aspect to the sun and the snow it holds. Since its hard to get to people rarely go there. Since it has a south westerly aspect it hold good deep cold snow that also gets the sun in the afternoon to soften on spring days.

It holds a dozen turns of heaven - and not many people know about it.

School Holiday Ski Week

First weekend of the school holidays saw us up at Ohakune. Weather was patchy during the week with a bit of time on the snow mixed in with some off-day activities.


On the Thursday we headed over to Taupo for some lakes, waterfalls and other touristy things the kids love.  The kids enjoyed Huka Falls but the feeling I got was the thing they enjoyed the most was the simple act of hanging out by the lake and playing with the pummice rocks.

Playing on the shore of Lake Taupo

Lucy at Lake Taupo

Huka Falls

The kids made good progress on skis. Lucy continued to find and improve her balance in her first year of skiing. Meanwhile Amelia has been well and truley bitten by the snow bug. On the Friday she cracked the Movenpick for the first time and skiied top to bottom successfully. Not to finish there, on the Sunday she had another go on the Movenpick once again and then cracked her first run down the Giant. Again top to bottom successfully. Good way to end the trip.

The Girdlestone

The Girdlestone, on Mt Ruapehu, in a threatening mood.

School Holiday Ski Week

Some shots of Amelia and Lucy in the snow over the school holidays. Amelia and Lucy up bright and early one frosty morning.

Lucy practicing some of here slope style attitude.

 On the snow. Lucy's first day on skis. Amelia has taken up a spot of ski coaching before heading off on her own for a session while I teach Lucy.

Lucy did pretty well for her first week on skis. She managed to stand up balance and ski unaided by herself on her first day. She wasn't so keen on Dad giving the directions however. Nor being told how to stop. She's more a point it straight down the fall line type of girl.

Amelia in Action on Skis

Last weekend we were up in Ohakune with the Bergquist and Cakebread families to get some skiing in. Despite the weather forecast the morning turned out fair enough to take the girls up for a ski during the morning.

I'm not so great at movies by any stretch, however I tried my hand at getting a movie of Amelia skiing for prosperity. I took it using my phone, while skiing backwards down the Alpine Plateau on Turoa. So the quality is not great, but you get the general idea of how Amelia is developing with her skiing.

Here goes.

I'm not sure which was harder, holding the phone steady and keeping Amelia in shot, or skiing backwards while trying to avoid the others on the slope.

Its good to see Amelia using balance by holding hands forward to keep her weight over the centre of her skis and seems more or less under general control of direction and good control of speed. Its starting to come along for her now.

Ski Turoa

Saturday was a very good day indeed. I'd taken some time away to be up at Ohakune to get some skiing in.  Thursday and Friday had seen some fantastic midweek skiing but cloudy afternoon conditions had kept my skis reasonably with in view of the area boundaries.  However the weather smiled on Saturday with reliable clear sky and a low risk stable spring snow pack.  This made a afternoon ski tour an immensely attractive option.

During the morning I'd made use of the short lift queues and spent an enjoyable morning hanging out with the Turoa Hosts exploring the new groomed faces on the South East Basin where the old High Flyer is due to be re-located. The run that has opened down the Cinch and runs out through Once Only is a new favourite. It will be a great entree for Turoa visitors in the future to get a taste of the backcountry without having to put on skins or climb for it.  The host I was skiing with, Jason, had a cunning plan that exited Once Only at the lower car parks. So we hung out for a few minutes and caught the Turoa shuttle back up to the base. 

At the altitude it is, the spring now just starts to release earlier than the rest of the off trail runs higher up. It was such a good mid morning option that we all had to repeat it straight again after.

The Cinch, South East Basin, Turoa.
New groomed terrain for 2011.

By lunch time the skins were itching to get on the skis so I took them out for a trip over far west into the Mangaturuturu Glacier.

The snow was classic Turoa spring corn, varying from firm packed wind drift up to 5 - 10cm deep soft corn. Sweet and untracked.

Skin tracks pointing the way behind

After about a 2 hour ski tour on skins and a reasonable climb on feet to gain altitude I crested over the saddle above the Mangaturuturu. I was rewarded with a quick view of the crater lake at the top. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo, cloud around the summit plateau was starting to encroach so the visit was all too short.

View of the Mt Ruapehu Crater Lake from the SW saddle.
Cloud encroaching.

However I took the moment to get a decent shot of the southern head wall above the crater lake and the way the snow ridge line curves around to meet the saddle.  Taurangi Peak, the summit that sits above Turoa, is in the background.

South headwall of the Mt Ruapehu Crater Lake.
Tahurangi Peak in the background.

The following shot shows the way out and down the glacier. The top of the saddle is covered in interesting delicate sastrugi and ice formations. While nice to look at they are not so interesting to ski on though.

View down the Mangaturuturu Glacier from the saddle.

After working through the sastrugi, the ski out was epic. Untracked virgin spring corn, with not another soul in sight. Wide open bowl with pristine creamy corn.

First and only tracks in Mt Ruapehu spring corn
on Mangaturuturu Glacier.

The final shot shows the rest of the way out in the untracked open bowls.

Creamy spring snow awaiting tracks on the
Mangaturuturu Glacier.

Needless to say the run out back into the Turoa lift terrain was brilliant and relished with a vengeance.

This is skiing.

No people, no tracks, no queues, no noise. Just simple freshness, freedom and farness to the sweet rhythmic sound of the skis arching and carving round symmetric turns in the snow under boot.

Ngaio Snow

Last week in snowed in Wellington, which is a very rare but welcome event.  The snow was only a few cms worth and very, very wet, almost slurry. However it was snow. It came on the Sunday, and snowed on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, each time in the evening.

I've included an few shots of the snow, just for the record. They are not terrific shots but never the less, here they are.

The first is looking from the back lawn, over the house and onto the Ngaio hills behind.

The second is over the lawn while the snow was heaviest, on Monday evening.

 Finally, overlooking the Ngaio hills on Tuesday morning, with the moon setting.

There are more photos of the snow around the house and hills are here.

Cold Day on Turoa

Caught this shot while hanging out in at the High Noon cafe on Turoa last Friday. It was a cold blustery day, but with lots a fresh dry snow on the main trails.

It was a balance between enjoying the snow and tolerating the cold wind chill on the lifts.  As you can see by the shot, there were not many people up to tolerating the conditions, but when the sunlight managed to pierce the gloomy snow storm it produced a interesting ethereal light.  The tables look like they are lit artificially from above.

On Saturday I took the girls up for a lesson. To fill in time before getting in skis, Amelia decided to make a snow angel.

Amelia and Lily improved dramatically during the lesson. Now they can ski and navigate a way through the masses on the Alpine Meadow top to bottom unaided. Almost even better they load onto and unload from the ski lift by themselves.

Here is a shot of the girls enjoying themselves afterwards.

Winter Snow At Last

This weekend the family was packed up to get the first snow break of the season at Ohakune.


On Friday I spent the morning teaching Amelia on the Alpine Meadow beginners slope. Amelia jumped ahead in leaps for her first day of the season. She picked right up from where she left last year and then was confidently snow ploughing her way un-aided from top to bottom. No more clutching hold of Dad's poles. She also managed to clip into her bindings and exit the magic carpet by herself.  


Dad was pretty pleased with progress so the hot chocolate at the end of the morning was well earned. I caught these shots of her on my phone while I was packing up the car to go home.

Amelia was having a great time exploring the snow and view in the car park.

On the Saturday the weather was poor and not worth the trip, so we amused ourselves with a trip to the Waiouru War Museum and general odd jobs around the house.


On Sunday I had the morning to myself. It dawned bluebird clear and calm so I was up the mountain first thing and on the second chair up in the morning.  Good morning on the groomed making the most of a light overnight dusting of a few cm.  Firm and icy underneath.  Clays Leap had caught a fun dusting on the steep westerly face that just caught the morning sun. 


As it softened during the middle of the day I got stuck into a pair of brilliant runs out in the western backcountry in Solitude. The shots say it all really.