Insert Swear Word Here: Whakapapa Arson

Well it has been more than a week since <Insert Word Here> Arsonists burnt Knoll Ridge Cafe and surrounding buildings to the ground at Mt Ruapehu. And I haven’t had much time to blog about it, I am still in a state of disbelief that someone would do such an act.

I guess what just makes me really mad is the shear number of people this will affect. If this was a disgruntled employee it is not getting back at your employer but rather destroying an asset used by many thousands of local and international visitors that have nothing to do with you.

And this was not a spur of the moment attack either. The chairlift ride to the cafe is 20 minutes and the hike is around 90 mins – during daylight. The fact that the fire was started at midnight just shows the determination of the termite who did this callous act.

I’m fortunate enough to already be planning a trip to Mt Hutt this year for my main skiing weekend, but regardless this one act will have an impact on many thousands for the next few years. How about we burn the arsonist at the stake? An eye for an eye – it may make the entire world go blind, but at least then we won’t be able to see where the box and the match should meet to light the spark.

Whakapapa vs Whangaparaoa

At first I was laughing at this press release by the NZ Police which was released in the middle of yesterday’s storm.

***Urgent Media Release***

There have been reports in the Media about the evacuation of Whangaparaoa.

There is NO Evacuation of Whanagaparaoa.

However, I think I may have no have worked out where the confussion arised from. At 10.30am the Whakapapa Ski Field at Ruapehu was evacuated due to the storm. Reading more about it you can see why:

Between 10am and 10:40am the wind speed went from 0 to 100kph and it’s now sitting at over 200kph. Our extremely hardy road crew are currently out being blasted by wind and snow as they fit chains onto all vehicles to get the public safely down the road.

Now I can imagine that the media would of probably just confussed the word Whakapapa with the word Whangarparaoa quite easily. One is a ski field on Ruapehu which often gets hits by snow storms. The other is a peninsula north of Auckland with lots of homes on it. Given the storm would of been bad at both areas a mix up in words is not supprising at all.