Adventures in the snow

This past weekend was the last long weekend for a long time (until October), so we thought we'd better go away somewhere while we could. The ski-fields were making lots of noise about getting the best pre-season snow in decades, so we thought we may as well head down to the snow and see if we could go tobogganing - particularly seen as Ben has been super-keen!
We booked a bach (North Island-ish for a holiday house) at Raurimu, which is about a 20 minute drive from Whakapapa, the North Island's biggest ski area. The weather forecast was a little nasty - heavy snow, gale force winds and icy temperatures.
Saturday morning saw us driving down without any rain or wind and was rather uneventful except for Ben bringing up his breakfast all over his pyjamas. He's not getting any books to look at in the car again. We had lunch at the bach before heading straight for the mountain - we wanted to get up there while the weather was still reasonably good. It was overcast, but not raining (or snowing higher up), so it was pretty ideal weather. By the time we got to the top of the mountain, Joanna had fallen asleep, so Ben and I took the toboggan and headed down to the best patch of snow we could find. We had it all to ourselves for a little while - I think Ben's squeals of delight must have attracted some other people though - we were joined by a few others. Joanna and Mel joined us soon after and also had a few toboggan runs. The kids started getting cold, so we headed to the cafe for some afternoon tea, and discovered all the snow that had got into Ben's boots. Oops.
Sunday was supposed to be the worst of the weather, but we woke up to beautiful blue skies and very little wind. So we headed back up the mountain. Up the top it was a different story though - the wind was up, it was snowing, and the carpark was more like an ice-rink. We went back down to the same spot as the day before, which now had a fresh dusting of snow. The wind was just too strong for the kids to be comfortable though, so we didn't stay for long. We headed off to Ohakune (one of the little ski towns) for lunch. After lunch (and a tantrum from Ben) we headed back to the bach, where we had a pleasant afternoon playing and trying to stay warm as the temperature plummeted - it snowed, the snow melted, the melted snow froze. And the wind howled. Ben and I still headed out to play badminton for a little while - it was interesting when the shuttlecock only when one way - downwind!
Monday morning saw the wind still blowing strong, and the access road would almost certainly have still been closed, so we didn't bother trying to get up the mountain, we just packed up and headed for Taupo for lunch and then home.
All up, a very pleasant weekend - the kids enjoyed it (except when they were freezing cold, understandably! We did manage to keep them warm most of the time though...) and we got to see some parts of the country that we haven't seen before. Now just to get back there to enjoy some more snow...