Today we got to go up "their mountain". Mount Ruapehu. It is an active volcano and this was extremely exciting for Rachel. She had gotten Ruth so excited about the mountain too. The loved seeing it as we traveled here yesterday, so to be able to go up it was even more exciting.If you were wondering. It was last active in September 2007. Thankfully though when it does "flow" it flows down the other side (the side of the volcano with NO houses near by).
First you drive through a forest type area. There is a lot of forestry in this area. The Dad of this family works at the paper mill as a chemical engineer (just in case you were wondering why they stayed out here at the bottom of an active volcano).
As you get closer (and start climbing) the vegetation changes to smaller trees and bushes and then even further it goes down to almost nothing. I did not get a photo as I was more focused on us getting up. It was so very steep and the road is very narrow. Going up was very scary as you are then on the side that has the shear cliffs dropping off next to the road. And NOTHING to stop you from going off (no railing at all).
As soon as the children got to enough snow they started getting in some sliding.
Ruth also wanted a turn.
From here you can see Mount Taranaki / Egmont (which is on the West coast). We were really thankful that we got to see it's tip as just a few minutes later the clouds had covered it. Apparently it is around 150km away.
Our friends were quite disappointed to see how little snow there was. The skiing season had only closed a week or two before we got here. So the adventurous ones headed higher up the mountain. It was very windy in this "valley" though, so Ruth, Hannah and myself stayed behind.
They found some things to slide on and had some fun.
Here you can see how much has melted. It's also quite amazing to see what is underneath the ski fields.
The ski lifts from the position where I stopped with the younger girls. We walked from the base of the lifts along the right (just lower than where the snow is).
A close up of the road we walked up. To think this is all COVERED in snow in ski season and you would not even know there was a road there.
First you drive through a forest type area. There is a lot of forestry in this area. The Dad of this family works at the paper mill as a chemical engineer (just in case you were wondering why they stayed out here at the bottom of an active volcano).
As you get closer (and start climbing) the vegetation changes to smaller trees and bushes and then even further it goes down to almost nothing. I did not get a photo as I was more focused on us getting up. It was so very steep and the road is very narrow. Going up was very scary as you are then on the side that has the shear cliffs dropping off next to the road. And NOTHING to stop you from going off (no railing at all).
As soon as the children got to enough snow they started getting in some sliding.
Ruth also wanted a turn.
From here you can see Mount Taranaki / Egmont (which is on the West coast). We were really thankful that we got to see it's tip as just a few minutes later the clouds had covered it. Apparently it is around 150km away.
Our friends were quite disappointed to see how little snow there was. The skiing season had only closed a week or two before we got here. So the adventurous ones headed higher up the mountain. It was very windy in this "valley" though, so Ruth, Hannah and myself stayed behind.
They found some things to slide on and had some fun.
Here you can see how much has melted. It's also quite amazing to see what is underneath the ski fields.
The ski lifts from the position where I stopped with the younger girls. We walked from the base of the lifts along the right (just lower than where the snow is).
A close up of the road we walked up. To think this is all COVERED in snow in ski season and you would not even know there was a road there.This was an amazing experience. It would be great to come back sometime during the sky season to see how different it is.
Driving down was not scary but quite an experience too. Our friends told us to make sure we change into a lower gear. They had a friend who did not "drive" down but used his breaks. Well, his break pads were worn through by the time he reached the bottom. It is incredibly steep.
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