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snowboarding at mt. ruapehu is amazing.
for bexie's 28th birthday jon and bexie and i went on a road trip to the mt. ruapehu ski fields in tongariro national park and it was super-fun. we left from coromandel town on monday afternoon, drove south to taupo where we stopped for dinner, and stayed at a backpackers in national park on monday night. on tuesday morning we geared up and headed out past mt. ngauruhoe (nar-ah-hoe-ee: mt. doom from the lord of the rings) and onto the freshly dusted mt. ruapehu (roo-ah-pae-who). i snowboarded while jon and bexie donned ski's and we had 4 amazing days on the hill. the weather was ever-changing from clear blue skies and beautiful powder to nearly zero visibility in dense fog and snow... we were all terribly sore every afternoon, drank lots of tea, played dominoes and cards each night and had a great time.
mt. ngauruhoe from the kitchen of the backpackers in national park...photo op on the road to mt. ruapehu...mt. ngauruhoe from the road across the golf course...the mt. ruapehu ski fields from the entrance road...
we were lucky enough to enjoy the alpine club hut (jon and bexie are members) that lives RIGHT on the side of mt. ruapehu - between several of the top runs. it was super cozy, heated, with bunks for 10, hot water and beautiful views!
this is the entrance/mud room...view from the kitchen...view into the kitchen...warming up with some tea!!!
we stopped at the banks of lake taupo on the way back home to coromandel town to pick up some of the pummice stones (that TOTALLY float) to use in bexie's gardens. the sky was very "new zealand" and the clouds were putting on quite a show.
bexie at the base of the big kauri.
in a moment of downtime between tree-hole digging bexie invented bumroping... like jumproping but without the effort of having to stand up. here she uses an old bicycle tire like a bumroping pro (they are being used to hold trees up between stakes).
so, the cold lasted a bit longer than originally anticipated and i was out of it for a full week. it wasn't fun but if i had to be sick, and it was bound to happen at least once on the trip, i am glad i was sick now and here versus later and elsewhere.
luckily, i had 3 days off from the cafe (which is when i normally hang out with jon and bexie) and i played on the couch, read and watched movies while willing away the sickies with copious amounts of herbal teas and fresh juices.
on friday the cafe was closed to complete mehow's mountain of floor repairs (which he actually finished) and the weekend was wet and stormy which means pretty slow on the customer side.
on monday, i headed back to tuateawa with bexie to get back into my pre-cold routine, and the muscle and sweat of digging tree holes and shoveling dirt seems to have whiped the bug right out of my system :^)
this week, mehow decided it was time to fix the floor in the washroom. we will be closed on friday so he can replace the floor. he has a builder coming, so we aren't too worried, but today he decided to get a bit of a head start and he put this nice little hole in the floor where the sink and sanitizer use to live. i hope the builder knows what he's doing. mehow swears we'll be open for business as usual on saturday... any bets?
because we're closed on friday, helen and i have a list of chores that include, but are not limited to:
- cleaning the ceiling
- waxing the floor
- re-writing some of the menus
- sealing the floor of the wwoof house
- making mehow lunch
- selling things on trade me (new zealand's answer to craigslist)
- fixing the hole in the side of the patio
- repainting the computer table
- painting the playhouse
fun, fun, fun!
hallelujah! the sun came out today! after three days of buckets of rain, and feeling absolutely terrible, it was such a pleasant surprise for the sun to grace us with his warmth and light!
helen and i made good use of the break in rain to walk into town and take a short hike and venture up driving creek road to visit petra the potter. petra is a cafe regular and we use and feature her clayworks in the cafe (mugs, saucers, dishes, bowls, etc.). she is super talented and a really lovely woman (originally from germany). she let us tour her studio and gardens and watch her at her wheel. twice a year she has a huge firing party that i hope to attend!
koru = maori meaning "new growth"
also, the name of one of my favorite kiwi kids who lives up the road from the driving creek cafe.
our dear, little, craig the wwoofer has moved on to bigger and better places (thank goodness) and has been replaced by dear, little, helen, also from the u.k. she started on thursday and has been such a nice change from pigpen, ahem, craig...
we've had less than stellar weather over the past few days which meant perfect time to break out one of the 2 cafe puzzles that mehow got at the op shop. we started on monday and have been working away at it between whatever else we can think of to do. mehow says we should invite some little old ladies over to join us and can't believe that we willingly and eagerly broke the pieces out. we might finish - it's a pretty hard one - 3 days in and we're still not done.
i've now been on new zealand soil for 3 solid months... yikes! so much done. so much more to do!
i've managed to sneak in a few gardening days at the cafe when the sun has been out and the customers have all been at the beach: here are the sweet baby lupine spouts that are just starting to come up...
on our trip to auckland bexie and i got to kill some time in the big little city while jon ran some errands... killing time meant locating and cruising around a gormet food court called elliott stables, window shopping in the asian-ish mall and bexie posing in front of some monchhichis...
so, it's been a spell since i posted... not for lack of fun and adventure but apparently a bit too much of the two as i came down with a bug and was off the map (and on a couch) for a few days. with that out of my system i'm back in all my glory - and here is a much needed update :^)
last week i had the pleasure of taking the ferry over to auckland to meet up with jon and bexie for a night and a day in the big little city. bex had purchased a ferry ticket to run some errands in auckland but then jon made arrangements to go to the city to pick up some new sweet baby fruit trees, so they two of them drove together and i lucked out with the ferry ticket.
the ferry between coromandel town and auckland runs a few days a week in the winter, and left at 4p on tuesday afternoon from the harbor. the sun was out but unfortunately, it was on the windy side. the first hour of the 2 hour trip was CHOPPY to say the least. we took water over the bow of the boat on every surge, lost some bow line at one point, and couldn't see much of anything out the windows through all the sea spray. the attendant handed out barf bags to everyone, whether we wanted them or not.
the second half of the trip across the bay was perfectly fine, although dark enough not to see much of the scenery. i'll have to try the trip again once the days get a bit longer and the weather isn't so terrible.
jon picked me up at the ferry terminal in auckland, we rendezvous-ed with bexie at the backpackers, and then had a night out with dinner and a movie (inception), which after a month and a half in coromandel town felt like the most happening night of the year.
on wednesday morning we had brunch at a great little organic, vegetarian cafe called kokako (which i had enjoyed before) and then we hit up the auckland climbing gym for a much needed workout (much needed by me). it had been so long since i had been climbing but it felt so good to get back into a harness and it was a great gym with tons of variety - we were definitely entertained for several hours (and exhausted afterwards).
