Skiing at Mt Ruapehu

We headed away to Mt Ruapehu at the beginning of August for a week’s skiing! We had absolutely spectacular weather for the first few days, then it started to snow – a lot – it definitely slowed us down but it was super special all the same! We were actually meant to be going on this trip in July but there just wasn’t enough snow at that stage, so we pushed it back a few weeks. It was a good decision! Here are a bunch of photos of our trip, if you’d like to see…

We stopped in Cambridge for coffee on the way south and Amelie and I visited our horse again. Wonder how many years she’ll put up with this tradition for?! I love Cambridge – it’s such a lovely little town. One day we’ll try to spend longer than just a meal there!

We are absolutely creatures of habit. We stayed in the Chateau Tongariro again for the whole time. It’s so convenient to the skifield, so charming, and is in such a spectacular place – how could we not?!

We all got in as much skiing and snowboarding as we possibly could, even driving over to Ohakune (the skifield on the other side of Mt Ruapehu) one day when Whakapapa (the closest skifield to us) was closed due to high winds. As I regain my confidence on skis it’s getting harder to fit it all in! We managed and everyone came away happy. Ski trips with small children will always be a bit of a juggle and involve a lot of compromise but they are well worth it!

Skiing in this snow was absolute magic – it was the softest little flurries blowing around, and catching the lift back up, perfect tiny snowflakes would settle on my jacket. I was having the time of my life.

Amelie had another ski lesson and loved it! She kept telling the instructor that she wanted to go fast…I think she may take after Hayden more in her daredevilry than me!

There is not a single photo of the three of us together on this trip, which is a bit slack, and there’s only this one shot of Hayden and me together because I insisted on one on our last night! We had dinner at the Ruapehu Room and it was fantastic. Everything was fantastic!

I’m so glad we got to go away, especially as we were meant to be getting in more spring skiing in September but that is looking decidedly dicey now with New Zealand having gone back into lockdown over the last week. It’s not very likely we’ll get to travel within the next few weeks (although I hold out hope!) but at least we got this trip in!