Storm

Last week after beginner's weekend, there was a fair amount of snow and a few extreme gusts of wind, it wasn't great weather to be out in. The soft powder was exciting, but the thought of driving down the mountain was not a cheery one.

My canvas shoes sank into the snow as I ferried bags to the car.

Sophia hopped in, snapping  pictures as I freed the car from the powder that had swallowed up the tyres.

I Scraped the ice and snow off the windscreen with my orange headed shovel.

As well as off my windows with my trusty AA membership card...

We then left. A few hundred metres down the road Sophia announced that she had forgotten her phone at the lodge, I did a doughnut onto the ice covering daypark 3 in an effort to turn around. I realised then that I probably should have put chains on my tyres to begin with. After a vain attempt to climb back up the road, in which I did a fair amount of slipping, sliding and stressing, I put chains on. My hand were frozen after that.

When I took off the chains, I learned that they had chipped a most of the remaining paint off my wheel arches.

It's not like my car had a pristine paintjob to begin with, but I was still not a happy camper.

There was a lot of snow, finally Whakapapa looked a bit wintery.

I took a roof full of snow most of the way to Taumaranui.

It was quite and arduous little adventure and I was definately a little grumpy for most of the trip.

Since then it has rained and all that snow and more has been washed away.

Photos by Sophia Jenny.