Raymond Morgan has run the first two transport/food/accommodation trips to our Ruapehu Lodge this season, and I was lucky enough to get onto both trips. While a lot of us got in some great skiing and boarding, Ray took us on some amazing adventures as well. I’m hooked!
18-20 July – Ruapehu
Looking back at Ruapehu
Saturday dawned bright and clear. The white peak of Taranaki was visible from the lodge window as the group of skiers and boarders (Ignacio, Doro, Alistair, Jon and Eaon) headed down to catch the first chairlift at 8:30 am sharp. The two Americans, AJ and Sarah, were bursting with enthusiasm for some mountain adventure. I was keen on taking advantage of the sunny and still conditions and Raymond decided the summit of Ruapehu would be a fun way to start the day. Armed with an ice axe each, and me with borrowed crampons (thanks Jon), we started ascending the valley adjacent to the ski trails.
It was slow going, not really because it was steep, or that it was icy, but because of the numerous photo stops along the way. “Mt Doom”, which was much easier to pronounce than Ngauruhoe, was the feature subject of the shots for the Lord of the Rings fans in the group. The further up we went, the icier conditions got. Once I had crampons on I stopped falling over, but everyone else had to do some careful footwork. Eventually, having had enough of dancing and skating on the slopes we headed back down. We undid our few hours of uphill work by a combination of walking, slipping, ice axe arresting and bum sliding, all the while avoiding the high traffic flow of boarders and skiers skidding and/or crash landing their way down.
After a hearty lunch at the lodge, it was time for some less adventurous pursuits below the snowline. We picked up Jess and headed to Taranaki Falls, then walked through a sea of red, brown and orange scrub aiming for the Tawa lakes. Every so often the snowy peaks of Ruapehu or Ngauruhoe rose up in front of us as the track snaked on. In the end dinner won out over the lakes and we had to turn back. It was quite a fortunate move actually, as on the way back through the forest we were lucky enough to see a morepork, a usually silent and shy night owl. After a lot of chopping, mixing, frying and baking, we helped ourselves to hearty servings of sweet and sour pork/beef. And yes, pudding and ice cream afterwards sure was a treat.
Sunday was another lovely day, though with more cloud and the wind picking up. Some really keen skiers and boarders went back the mountain to perfect their turns while a larger group put on tramping boots. This time it was an easy walk to see the Silica Rapids, which looked almost radioactive with the intense yellow deposits on the rocks. This was followed by an informative look around the visitor’s centre before lunch, clean up and saying goodbye to the lodge.
25-27 Jul – Tongariro
With such an impressive weekend of sunshine and no precipitation, you’d think that would have been hard to top. So it was with high standards that I went back the following weekend, Raymond again leading the trip. This time we were ready, equipped with gear to tackle icy conditions expected for the Tongariro Crossing.
Another perfect Saturday dawned. Aware that mountains make their own weather, our small team of five (Raymond, Inky, Tobias, Logan and I) packed for rain, hail, snow and sun. Of course within five minutues of the initial ascent we stopped to strip off layers and rub on sunscreen (Raymond was again doing the typical Kiwi thing of wearing shorts). An avid group of photographers (Spencer, Ian and Megan) also headed up that way. Pat kindly agreed to pick us up at the other end, and went with us as far as Soda Springs. As expected, it became quite snowy over the pass, but was quite soft and crunchy with enough coefficient of friction that none of us were in any danger of falling off the mountain, even without crampons.
At the turnoff to the Tongariro summit we met a group of Chinese climbers who were figuring out how to eat beef jerky, an unconventional food source apparently. With a lazy start that morning we didn’t have time to do too much detouring up peaks but probably reached 1900 m or so at our highest point. Some more steep ascents and descents over steaming vents and snow-free hot patches later, we sat on rocks overlooking one of the pretty lakes for lunch. We pressed on, sidling along and emerging into a lush valley overlooking Lake Taupo. It was all downhill from there and we arrived half an hour or so behind schedule, but with everyone intact and happy. Dinner of spaghetti bolognaise was very welcome.
With the Crossing done and dusted, Sunday morning was pretty low key. We were met with another fine day though with a little more cloud, before heading back to the lodge and finally Wellington with a sense of pride and accomplishment.
What a great two weekends, and it’s not even August yet! Keep an eye on http://meetup.com/WellingtonTrampingGroup, or the club forum for the next trips. Ray, Gareth, Mike and others will be running vans for many or most weekends based on demand. I’ll see you there!