The long awaited ski trip has arrived!!! Only 4 of us went. Me, mosquito, Nicole and LP. We rented a car for our trip, it's a Nissan, but of what series i don't remember. This car.... sigh... it's a station wagon, but only 1.5cc.....every time going up to any steep mountain, or even some slope, this car totally power less, max I step on the accelerator only reach 50kmh. Was so afraid there will be police stopping me and saman me.....
We rented the car a day before we head up to Mount Ruapehu. First thing after I've gotten the car, I headed straight to Nicole's place to help her to move her stuff. After stuffing all her stuff in the car (small note: it's only half of the belongings Nicole had), we headed to Reagal for yum cha. Had some really nice BBQ pork bun, some congee, then take some "left over" for mossy.
(p/s: not really left over though, we specially put those aside for some, but once we put every thing into a container it looked really like we "da pau" left over for her.)
After yum cha, me and Nicole went back to my place to put her stuff into my room (she'll be moving in to stay in the same building with us once we got back from the trip). Unloading the stuff from the car didn't take us too long, Mossy was amazed by the amount of stuff Nicole could have, and after I told her that was just half of what had been moved form her place, she was speechless.
We then went to Yan's supermarket for groceries shopping, to buy stuff that we needed to bring for the trip. Then after done all the groceries, we drive up to LP's house to get his stuff.
LP stayed a night at our place, and the whole night, me and Mossy keep threatening him that we will zip up his sleeping bag and then throw him over the corridor fencing down to the grass part in our place. LOL...
The next day early morning, we woke up around 6.30 am like that, washed up ourselves, then, need to go get Nicole from her place. After getting her, TIME TO HIT THE ROAD!!!!!
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| ~On our way to Palmy~ |
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| ~ This bay is breath taking, too bad the weather not too nice to photo taking~ |
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| ~Flocks of sheeps you can see all the way~ |
The weather wasn't too promising on our way, an was raining on parts of the road. All four of us chatted happily along the trip. We first had a pit stop in Palmerston North to rest a bit and grab a breakfast. Then went over to i-site to see which exit to take to Mt. Ruapehu. After filling up the fuel, we once again set off!!!
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| ~On our stop at Palmy, looking at The Square~ |
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| ~One of those breath taking views taken on our way~ |
It didn't take us long till we reach our destination, the road sign was super clear and road condition was superb. Not much car on our way, probably because it's Sunday and people are heading back to their home. We managed to steer on the right path, except that I've over shoot a bit on the exit 49 towards Ohakune. Made a safe u-turn from a nearby housing area and turn back into exit 49. We drove another 40 min once we turn into the exit 49, then finally, we reached!!!!!
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| ~Ohakune, the huge carrot behind was the landmark of that place!~ |
We turn in to the huge carrot to take photo, before we head straight to the lodge we booked. We were very excited by the huge carrot, and I even make fun of it that it was my ancestor and I originated from there. it took us nearly 30 min just to have fun over there. And I even took out the carrot we brought with us to the trip and compared it with the giant carrot.
After having fun with the carrot, we finally head to the lodge. On our way to the lodge, LP sudden said that his cover for his camera has gone, we ask him where he lost it, and he said he put it on the car while we were having fun with the carrot. We had to head back to the huge carrot, and found out that it was on the road side, not far away from the carrot.
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| ~The lodge that we stayed for 3 nights~ |
We head straight to the office of the lodge to check in ourselves. The manager then showed us our room and the surroundings. There were drying room for us if we to dry the ski equipment, there was a washing machine (which comes in VERY convenient on our second day), and a SPA POOL (we didn't tried that though). The room we booked was very nice, comes with 2 rooms, a living room with an open kitchen, and a bathroom. The unit was well kept, and most importantly, it's CLEAN!!!! The rates was not too bad, NZ$ 230 per night.
We unpacked our stuff, then started to make our dinner. The 1st night dinner was hotpot, and was a spicy hotpot! We had thin slices of lamb, some assorted stuff specially for hotpot, surimi (crab stick), tao pok, mushroom and pork ball (mossy's personal favourite).
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| ~The spicy hotpot~ |
In the middle of the dinner, me, Mossy and nicole were so full, that we decided to go have a walk around the lodge. When we headed outside, the sun was setting. The scene there, my god, was really nice. The sky color during sun set, really can't describe it.
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| ~ Sun set, taken just out side of our lodge~ |
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| ~Some nice tree with unknown flower~ |
After dinner, we rested a bit and was thinking what to play. We decided to play "chor dai di" (a.k.a. Big 2). Nicole doesn't know how to play, so we thought her. Who would have know that Nicole learned so fast that she won for a few times. During the game, we had some wine. It was a Yalumba rose, a mixture of white and red. The taste was not bad.
We went to bed around 1 am. We were very loud throughout the whole game. Thank god that there were no resident next to us...
Me and Nicole woke up 9 am in the morning and prepare breakfast. Made a wonderful English big breakfast, with toast, sausage, scramble eggs,bacon along with coffee and tea.
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| ~Our big breakfast~ |
Never came across us was that the walk towards Viaduct was more a jungle trekking, so we didn't dressed properly for it. Me and Mossy were still alright, we wore our usual Timberland. LP still not too bad, he wore his sport shoe. Nicole was the most unlucky, she wore the shoe that was for snow. So, the whole trip was so slippery for her, and she even fell down on our way back to the car.
When we started out to the Viaduct, the weather was pormising and was very nice. Who knows, half way from our way back to the car after visiting the Viaduct, IT RAINS!!!! Not only it rains, it also rained hails!
Little History of the Viaduct
The Viaduct was build to connect Auckland and Wellington in the past.
Before steam engines were invented,
people had to rely on animal power or their own power to travel to and fro Auckland and Wellington.
Revolution of the industries and science helped human to travel from Auckland much faster.
Year 1000 - took birds 12 hours to travel
Year 1600 - took Maori 2 weeks to travel on foot
Year 1850 - took the 1st Europeans 1 week to travel on horseback
Year 1870 - needed 3 days of travel by coastal ship
Year 1906 - 3 days were needed to travel by train and coach when the old coach road were open
Year 1908 - only 1 day was needed to travel by train
Now - takes 8 hours to travel by car
Now - takes 90 min to travel by plane
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| ~ On our way to visit the Viaduct~ |
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| ~ "Nicow" crossing~ |
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| ~Up close on cow~ |
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| ~Signs showing us how far we are from the Viaduct~ |
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| ~The Viaduct~ |
We did not get to visit the water fall, as I told them that we needed to reach home before sunset (because that day was the hungry ghost festival). After reaching home, it's LP's turn to cook us dinner, and we had Japanese hotpot - Sukiyaki.
Then after the dinner, Nicole suggest to start playing Big 2 again. This game was so interesting is that, LP only won 2-3 time throughout the whole game, and I kept winning!! Heh heh....
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| ~Japanese hotpot, Sukiyaki~ |
Before we reach the chaining zone, the mountain road was nice and easy. After the chaining zone, my god, the road were so steep and narrow, and the visibility was only 2 meters ahead. I was so so so careful while driving up the mountain. No one in the car dared to talk also, cause at one point of the road, the car was literally at the side of the cliff, with no safety bar and only 1 meter of dirt of the road. But any how, we made it safely to the ski field!!!!!
We lingered around the ski field before purchasing our passes to the ski field. Mossy and LP signed up the beginners, and me and Nicole went purchase the normal passes.We had so much fun skiing. I stopped skiing quite early because the ski boots were killing me, and it actually bruised my leg. So I took the liberty to take photos of them at the near the ski lift, and get to throw snow on them! LOL.
While I was happily throwing snow on them, I kena snow myself, but not from them, was from the staff operating the ski lift near by. After every one finished skiing. we done something we planned on doing since we were kids, SNOW FIGHT!!! It was awesome, and guess what, all three of us victimized LP... Ha ha ha...
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| ~On our way to the ski field~ |
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| ~Scene on our way to ski field~ |
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| ~The road after the chaining zone~ |
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| ~Covered in snow~ |
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| ~Snow man made by Mossy~ |
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| ~The cafe lodge at the ski field~ |
We headed back after skiing. All of us were so tired, we went to bed early after dinner. Sadly, that was our last night of the trip. The next morning, we started our journey back to Wellington around 10 am. We made a stop visiting the Army Museum at Waioru. The weather was superb on our way back and had not rained a single drop!!! We also made a pit stop in Palmy to grab our brunch, and tour around the city for a bit. We sent LP home 1st, then we continue to help Nicole to finish moving her stuff to our place, as she finally got a room in my place!! after moving, we went to New World to get our groceries, and to get as many as we could as we had the car. LOL!!!
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| ~The view of the mountain we skied~ |
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| ~The Army Museum~ |
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| ~LP's lunch~ |
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| ~Mossy's lunch~ |
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| ~Nicole's lunch~ |
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| ~My lunch~ |
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| ~Bear designed latte!~ |
