This past weekend I went snowboarding at Ruapehu for the first time. I left Friday afternoon with my friend Ben on the train to Palmerston North. The train was nothing special except for the small stretch along the Kapati Coast; the seats were comfortable though. We arrived in Palmy around 8 pm, so there wasn’t enough time to do some exploring. Early Saturday morning we left for Mt Ruapehu. We briefly caught a glimpse of the mountain from far just as the morning sun hit it. By the time we got close to the mountain
We went to the Turoa skifield the first day. We arrived about 9:30 but still got stuck in the bumper-to-bumper traffic heading up the mountain. It took a little while to get to the top after buying my lift pass, renting my boots and waiting for the lifts. The top had a good view looking west with Mt Taranaki visible in the distance. I got lots of good runs in and met up with various guys from the group all day. After a full day of boarding we hit Ohakune for some hot, delicious potato meals. Ohakune is so small the family restaurant and the nightclub are the same place.
The second day was a slow start after a little too much partying the night before. We made it to Whakapapa around noon for a half-day of snowboarding. Whakapapa is a bit more spread out than Turoa, and there is a lot more space on the runs, but they have this really awful flat section half-way up that just kills snowboarders. It’s really frustrating to have to take your board off and walk to the next downhill portion. There are some great views from the top and even though it was only a half-day it was still a great day of snowboarding.
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