It’s been an amazing season at Mt Ruapehu – the skifield operator says it’s the best snow for 10 years, and our lodge has been full to bursting every weekend. For us on the lodge crew it’s been a gruelling but rewarding season with lots of work and a few crises but lots of exhausted and happy guests all the way through. Thanks heaps for coming and making the lodge the special place that it is.
November 3rd and 4th Cleaning party
The lodge needs a good clean and scrub to bounce back from all the visitors it’s had so we are having a Lodge Cleaning Weekend on November 3rd and 4th. If you are happy to roll up the sleeves and help then we’d love to hear from you. In return for all the hard work you will get two free nights accommodation in the 2019 snow season. You also get free food, accommodation and transport for the cleaning weekend. Contact us at for further information or better yet, to confirm your availability.
Labour Weekend special – 2019 seasons passes special
We’re coming to the end of an incredibly busy season, but there’s still over 3 metres of snow on Whakapapa and more snow down past the base area forecast in the next few days.
We still have space available for Labour weekend, 20-22 October which is the closing weekend for the season. And we’ve priced it as ‘pay for 2 nights, stay for 3’ so it’s a regular weekend price of $90 for WTMC members even though you stay an extra night. Book in now at https://wtmc.org.nz/lodgebookings .
Another top tip – 2019 seasons passes are on sale now for just $399 until 1 November, and you can use it to ski for free over labour weekend 2018 too. Three day passes at full price are $375. You do the maths! Buy one on the field or at https://www.mtruapehu.com/seasonpass2019 .
Ski Touring – 9-11 November
There’s enough snow that we should be able to hit the mountain one more time with our skins and splitboards. There’s a ski touring group heading up as a private trip for the 9-11 November weekend and they’re happy to take more folks with touring experience. Again, contact us at for more info and to get involved.
Open Lodge – 26 Dec to 4 Jan
WTMC Ruapehu Lodge will be open for drop in stays over Christmas/New Year and early January. That means no booking, no hassle and no commitment. Come and explore everything that Tongariro National Park has to offer, or break your road trip and experience the spectacular beauty of Mount Ruapehu in summer. Or simply get away from it all chill out for a few days with coffee and a good book.
We need help! Can you look after the lodge over this time? You get to stay for free if you can. Email for more info.
Lost Property
There is a small amount of lost property at the lodge. If you’ve had any gloves, hats or other clothing go astray, we may have it. Keep an eye on our facebook page, https://web.facebook.com/WTMCRuapehuLodge/ and I’ll put a photo up soon. We’ll keep lost property for a few months and then give it to charity.
We also have three awesomely retro snowboards that we found under a bunk during a cleaning party earlier in the year. We think they’ve been there for many years based on their style! If they look familiar to you, get in touch. Again, they’ll go to charity early in the new year, unless we keep one for decoration or for Retro Day.
Kia ora Cyrus. I made an enquiry as it would have been awesome for the club to have returned the board to you. But despite holding onto the boards longer than planned and no claims of ownership, the boards were disposed of just a month ago. However, thanks for sharing (and yes it was worth sharing). We’re glad you enjoyed seeing your old board again. Hopefully the photo can be a bit of substitute to keep the memories of that time on the mountain alive.
Heather
For what it’s worth – I recognise the Tsunami snowboard. It’s the exact one that I owned back in around ’95, an old rockhopper I used when I was working as a lifty to get from station to station.
Can’t tell you what it means to see it again ; )