Riding on my home turf!

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Took a few days out to go snowboarding at Mt Ruapehu which is the largest mountain in New Zealand. I had worked there for a couple of seasons and have been going down every year over the last seven years. Ohakune is a really small town, very simple and laid back. I hired a rental car from Auckland and drove the four hours down. The drive is really beautiful, for the most part it is all countryside passing through a few small towns along the way.

Arrived early morning and went and caught up with my friend Hamish who owns one of the ski shops there. Then drove the half hour winding mountain road to the top of the mountain. It was so good to be on real snow again. Im so used to snowboarding on a tiny indoor ski slope. The weather was beautiful, it was quite cloudy in the town but because the mountain is 2500ft above sea level we were above the cloud. I went and bought a life pass as they were selling them for a limited time to raise money to put in a new chairlift over the summer. I was staying with some friends and a few of us decided to go out that night so went out to the R.S.A (which actually stands for returned servicemen association aka war veterans) but basically known as a cheap place to drink, play pool and gamble on the pokies. Between the four of us we managed to win $160 which was enough to pay for our dinner and drinks. We went out for a nice meal, checking out all the bars and played some pool. Just as well the mountain was closed the next day due to bad weather as we were all feeling a little worse for wear.

Spent the next day lying around watching videos. The day after was another bluebird day so spent the day riding. There was a lot of snow, almost a three metre base. The conditions were spring-like, it was quite icy in the morning but by the afternoon the snow was quite soft and the sun was out so got pretty hot, hot enough to take off my jacket and ride in my t-shirt. Spent a few hours in the terrain park hitting the rails. That night I joined my friends for their management drinks at a local bar. I wasn't really invited but used to work with them all a few years back so any excuse for a few drinks. We then drove out to Rangatau hall (just down the road) to watch a New Zealand band called Katchafire play. They had just come back from touring through the U.K and apparently are quite famous in New Zealand....not that i would know considering i haven't lived there in the last five years! But they were really good and there were only about three hundred people there so was a really good atmosphere. Spent the next day riding trying to get the most in, then had to say my goodbyes to drive back up to Auckland.

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