I don’t know why… And I don’t know if this is out of normal for me. But it seems out of normal.

I have had so much to drink today… And I don’t know why.

It could be because I am tired after a long trip away.

It could be because today was exceptionally hot - I think the Albany Weather Station was at over 23C.

Anyway drinks today:
7.30am Breakfast - Cocopops with Milk - probably 200ml or so.
7.35am Glass of Water - 250ml
9.20am Can of V - 250ml
12pm Glass of Water - 250ml
1pm Bottle of Coke Vanilla - 600ml
3pmish Glass of Water - 250ml
5.30pm Glass of Orange Juice - 250ml
6pm Bottle of Bourbon - 250ml
7pm Glass of Water - 250ml
9pm Cup of Milo - 250ml

That is close to three litres off fluid for the day… not that much out of normal… but I am sure a lot more then I normally have.

Because of some changes in plans I got to go skiing for a second time!

Don’t be fooled by the nice photos below the day started in much worse weather.

I left Wanganui at 6.30am to drive to Ruapehu and I arrived just before 8.30am. The weather was average to terrible driving up to the mountain. Snow in lots of places (not as bad as a week ago though) and lots of rain.

When I got to the base of mountain the upper mountain lift facilities were on hold. Because of this I decided to wait at the bottom of the mountain for an update on their opening status. This wait lasted almost a whole hour before I decided to head up the road at 9.20am.

In my hour of agony and dilemma I came very close to heading around to Turoa as it had more facilities open then Wakapapa. I was lucky that I didn’t though because it was only open for two hours before the weather packed in and closed the ski field.

Anyway back to the story. Like last week the road up to the ski field was closed unless you hired chains for your car. Chain hire costs $25 and there was quite a queue of cars waiting for chains to be fitted. I paid for my chains at 9.20am and then waited until 9.40am for them to be fitted. At 9.30am while I was waiting, and after I had paid, they decided to open the road up until Day Park 10. But no because I had already paid for chains I still had to get them fitted and go up the now open road on them.

This was a minor pain in itself but never mind chains are very helpful on mountain roads and because I was on chains I would be able to go to one of the higher and closer car parks when I got up the mountain. Sweet! However, when I got up the mountain I was directed to park at Day Park 10 despite having chains and arguing with the parking attendant. (I was told later he was wrong and I was right.) I was not happy about this for two reasons. The first is that I was made to hire chains that I did not need, and secondly I was forced to park low down on the mountain just because I was 2WD and the parking attendant was blind to the fact I had chains on!

Anyway. I couldn’t be bothered waiting for a bus so I walked the kilometer or so up the road to the Top of the Bruce. Here I hired gear and passes. The upper mountain was still on hold so they were only selling lower mountain passes. GRRRR I thought. By this time the weather had cleared a lot. After getting my gear sorted I headed out to head up to the top of the lower mountain. Well I ended up in a queue for this chairlift for close to 45mins! By this time it was approaching 11am! Yes I had been on the mountain for over two and a half hours and I hadn’t even got to go skiing yet.

When I finally got onto the chairlift they decided to open the Upper Mountain. When I had purchased the lift passes they had told everyone if the upper mountain opened everyone would have to go back and pay more. However, everyone on the mountain, including myself just headed for the upper mountain lifts without the extra passes. We had had enough waiting! There were at least 100 of us wanting to go higher up the mountain and it was not our fault they hadn’t sold us the right passes so thankfully the ski field operators saw the sense in letting us go higher!

After all this the weather cleared and the skiing was great. I skiied for just under five hours and now two days later I am still paying the pain for it. Sore legs, knees, bruised side and motion sickness is still mucking about with my sleep. But it was great. And fully worth it. Except for the chains!

Check out the reflection in the goggles. Nothing but snow and sky!

Note to self: When taking photos remember to smile!

To go off the edge or not. That is thy question.

Snow. Snow and more Snow!

Okay so tonight I am back in Palmerston North. A whole day earlier then planned but I should be able to get more work done up here then in Wellington.

I came back up to Palmerston North with two other friends and because the weather was good; we decided to go over the Rimutakas and through the Manuwatu Gorge (see yesterday’s blog for other comments).

Looking South from the top of the Rimutaka Road

A zoomed shot looking south.

Brad on the top of the Rimutaka Hill looking to the north.

Brad back in the car before driving off. Looking sideways at friend who is taking a photo of him drinking water. How odd.

Snow, glorious snow on the top of the Rimutakas.

The wind turbines (Tarauras) as seen from Woodville.

The amazing Manuwatu Gorge.

It is late so I will keep this short and maybe expand it in the next few days.

But something to ponder.

What is the point of judging people?

Isn’t it better to accept them as they are? as they come? as who they are?

We are all different shapes, colours, sizes, and people because God is a very creative artist.

So why try and make people to conform to your ideals?

What makes your ideals right?

Why can’t people be as they are because that is the way God has created them?

Why judge? Why not just accept what has been created and especially accept people as who they are!

Well today has been a very long day.

I left Wanganui at 10am with the plan to be in Wellington a little after 1.30pm.

Normally it takes a little over two hours to get to Wellington from Wanganui but because I had the day spare I decided to head through the Manuwatu Gorge and Rimutakas for the fun of it.

My new GPS unit had a fun time trying to workout how to drive through the Gorge. It was determined to get me to drive to Palmerston North first, even though I had been told to go through Fielding, Bunnythorpe, and Ashurst. Normally when you go off the course it has plotted for you it just finds a new route. But not this time. It was determined that I turn around and go back to its planned route. When I didn’t it did everything possible to get me to drive through Palmerston North including just before the Gorge telling me to turn right and drive to Palmy.

The Gorge was abosolutely amazing to drive through. I would have loved for someone else to be with me to take photos. I will definately have to come back in summer with someone. Once through the Gorge I headed to Woodville and down State Highway Two to Mangatainoka where the Tui Brewary is located.

At around 12.30pm I stopped for lunch at Mc Donalds in Masterton. I got quite annoyed at the wait for a cheeseburger - it took twenty five minutes to be served.

Jumping back onto the road I headed south and through the Rimutakas. Again that was great fun - but I wished that I had someone else to take some photos. Although, it was slightly frustrating being stuck behind a slow moving car and then a truck.

Coming into Wellington I headed through Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt. If I was to ever move to Wellington I would live there. It looked like quite a nice place to live - particularly Lower Hutt.

I eventually arrived in Wellington a little before 3.30pm. Yes it had taken more then 5 hours for a trip that should have taken a little over 3. That was primarily due to Mc Donalds being useless, stopping briefly at the beer factory, and slow cars on the road with little room for passing.

Stayed tuned for the journey back on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday…

Okay this photo is old but I have only just downloaded photos from my mobile phone to my computer.

This a photo of very thick fog in Auckland on May 16.

Okay. So I did manage to get up at 4am and get on the road by 4.20am.

Admittedly it was a struggle to stay awake until some light appeared at 6am, and the torrential rain heading south was not much fun. But it lifted around 2 hours into the trip.

I got to National Park village at 8.45am. This was a little later then I hoped for but I had to travel slow through the rain and play it safe. The really freaky thing was the snow on the road at National Park. The following photo is taken heading to Ruapheu just a little after National Park. Note: This photo is of a state highway. NOT the mountain road.

Once I got to Wakapapa Village I had chains fitted to my car.

As you can see from the following photo they were certainly needed:

On the chains I had to travel up the mountain at 30kmh max. This meant that the trip to the Top of the Bruce took close to an hour. I managed to get my tickets and gear at 9.40am, and got onto the snow at 10am, a whole hour after I had planned.

Because the weather was bad the upper mountain facilities were closed. Therefore I decided to get an intermediate lesson. I was fortunate enough to be the only one interested in this lesson so ended up with an hour of private tuition!

The lesson lasted until 11am, when they closed all but the Happy Valley beginners area of the mountain.

The amount of snow on the area (Rockgarden) where the lesson was had was amazing. The snow was so thick that it was a stuggle to see where the slopes and paths were and where the rest of the mountain was. However, this didn’t matter too much as there is a 3m snow base! The depth of snow was so impressive that on some slopes you sunk about ankle deep in fresh snow despite being on skis.

The weather was terrible on the day. But that didn’t matter too much. I have been in worse tramping. It was around -2, 50kmh wind or so (so very very cold wind chill at least -10), and visibility at 50 - 100m.

My car at the end of the day. Frozen.

My car was very nice and warm. Not.

Brad after a day on the mountain. My new goggles and overpants rocked.

Yes there is a building under all that snow.

Coming down the mountain there it was almost torrential snow. Quite fun. But a little scary at the same time. Especially as my chains had been taken off when this shot was taken. Look at the snow on top of the jeep in front.

After the day I stayed at Miro Lodge in Ohakune. Which was alright. I was a little disappointed not to wake to snow in Ohakune in the morning. And next time I would love to take someone else. You get bored by yourself after a while.

Okay the weather is packing in for the weekend so if I want to go skiing I must do it tomorrow.

That means a 4am start to my day.

It is currently 9.15pm and I still have to complete packing, take a shower, load the car, and go to bed. So long Auckland, the Internet, and work for at least the next week and a half. I don’t even have a date that I will be back. It is so great!