Weekend In The Snow
I took last Friday off, so that we could whizz up to the snow at Ohakune. We set off about 11:30am, after Theo had woken up with a full car load of kiddie items and some parent items as well. We took the shorter road, the Napier Taihape which wasn't the best idea, in places it turned into a goat track. I had to get the GPS out of the glovebox (no cellphone coverage) to be sure that were still on the right track. Poor Beth got car sick again, but we were prepared this time with a little yogurt container. Beth was a champion too, she knew where she had to aim! So the carseat (and Beth's clothes) survived unscathed this time around. Phew. We drove past lots of little bits of snow on the ground, pulled over and touched a bit of snow by the side of the road.
After a few more twists and turns, Beth dropped off to sleep. This seemed to upset Theo though who started to get very crabby with the whole situation. Eventually the goat track ended and we were back on a regular old road, another 30 minutes and we arrived at our house for the weekend.
I say house, it was more like a mansion. It was huge. Bedrooms everywhere, massive hallway, lots of bathrooms etc. It was perfect! We all got unpacked and Ben, Di, Jacob and Abbey arrived not too soon afterwards, much to Beth's intense excitement. She didn't stop running around with Jacob from that point on until she went to bed.
Once we got everyone to bed we were all quite amazed they stayed asleep. Theo was happy, as expected, but we thought that Beth and Jacob would keep each other awake etc but once they were asleep they were asleep until morning.
Saturday we got up and looked at the weather. Oh dear, what terrible, terrible weather. There'd be a bit of sun, followed by sideways sleet and rain. Ben and I took Beth and Joseph into see the Giant Carrot. It proved to be a big hit, though Beth didn't like standing on the rock to have her photo taken. Then we had a quick play on the swings etc before the weather forced us back to the car. We went into the iSite information centre to get their tip about going up the mountain, which basically came down to "Don't Bother" so we headed back to the house, then went to get some lunch. Lunch took two hours and half the things on the menu weren't available, I get that's what happens when you're in a snow town and the snow is closed for the day. After that we went back to the house, got the gears on everyone and headed up the mountain to SEE THE SNOW. It was 4WD or chains past 11km, but when we got there chains were closed for the day, so Ben and Di couldn't drive up. So I dropped Sarah, Theo and Beth up the top. Which was easier said than done, when we arrived it started to pelt with snow. And of course Theo had done a massive poo through all his clothes, so we were trying to change a baby and everytime we opened the door snow would fly in. Poor Theo could not figure out why he was naked in the front seat of the car AND being snowed on at the same time. But he wasn't impressed with the situation, that's for sure.
Eventually we got everyone sorted and I went back down to pickup Ben, Di & the kids. Then I ferried them back up to the mountain and we all went and played in the snow for a little bit. It was hard to see and most stuff was closed though, because by this stage it was nearly 4pm. Still, we got to have a play in the snow which was the reason we'd come away for the weekend. Once we started getting dirty looks from the cafe though we realised it was time to go, so off we headed back down the mountain (with some more ferrying) to the house.
Sunday came and of course the weather was much, much better. Sarah talked to the lady who we were renting the house from and she said we could stay past the allocated 11am checkout time. This was partially to make up for the fact the fire in the place didn't work, the dishwasher leaked and the fridge leaked and didn't keep anything properly cold. But it meant we could have another go at the mountain, which we did. We got everyone pre-dressed in their snow gear, Theo of course pooed himself before he got up the moutain but we were more prepared this time. We got to the mountain and wow, so had everyone else. The main carpark was full, we ended up in carpark no 4 and a bus shuttled us up to the snow fields. But it was so much nicer! It was sunny and clear and you could see. It felt fun and it was fun, the kids had a much more enjoyable time on a little toboggan, zooming up and down a tiny hill. Theo loved it so much he would find other toboggans to crawl into, in the hope they'd start going for him. Had to catch him a few times before he tobogganed himself down the slope.
We had a really good time for a couple of hours before the weather packed it in again and we decided it was time to head back and then head home.
The drive home we took the main roads instead, they add another ~50km to the trip but are all nice and straight(ish) roads, no one was car sick though there was a lot of grizzling on the way. And a few times Beth said "Daddy stop wobbling my puku around" when I went around a big corner fast. That was pretty funny. We got back home safe and sound and tucked everyone up in bed! And that was our snow weekend.
Tim