Happy Valley – Whakapapa Ski Area at Mt. Ruapehu

Less than a month and summer will be over. And here I am posting an entry about what I did last Winter! I’ll try to blog more (weh?!) to share with you our adventures here in New Zealand. I'm currently at home nursing a weird sickness so why not blog to keep the boredom away.

Last August, Jeff and I, along with two of our friends, went to Mt. Ruapehu. Since July, we’ve already booked each other’s calendar for this Winter getaway. To make the most of this trip, we left Auckland on Friday night and arrived in Turangi after an almost 5-hr drive. It was a very long and tiring drive but achievement unlocked for me as this was my first longest drive ever!

We stayed at Judges Pool Motel for 2 nights. I really like this place because it allowed us to do late night check-in with no extra charge. Also, the size of the room is spacious enough for 4 people. It’s a 1 bedroom unit with private deck, kitchen and bathroom. The unit has 1 double bed in the bedroom, 2 single beds on the living area, sofa, cabinets and most importantly, heater. Haha.

The kitchen also provided all the basic kitchen needs including cutlery, plates, toaster, water kettle and cooking pans. 

Day 2 was our snow day. Since none of us would like to drive on roads with snow, we opted to book Adventure Headquarters for our shuttle service to go up to the mountain. I also booked them last year and we all liked their very prompt service. They picked us up in front of our motel at 8:30 in the morning and we arrived in the mountain half past 9.

 These 2 are our contant travel buddies in NZ. :)

There was a long queue of cars and buses going up the mountain but I didn't mind because the view was breath taking. I’ve been here 2 years ago but I still felt the same excitement as if it was my first. 

The queue in the ticket counter was very long that it took us an hour before we got our tickets.

I only bought the Sightseeing ticket while Jeff got the Ski package. The sightseeing pass is more than enough for me to enjoy the mountain. It’s our first time to ride the lift and it brought us to the higher area of the mountain. As in sooooobrang ganda! I just felt bad a bit for Jeff because he was walking with ski boots already and I know how painful and uncomfortable it is.

Here are some of our snaps:

After sightseeing, we went down to Happy Valley for the boys to ski and us girls to try sled! OMG! It was soooo much fun! Though it hurt my butt and back a bit, I still rode the sled countless of times. I remember hitting my head when Jeff and I rode the same sled and tumble in the middle because of a hump. But even after that, I did one last ride then stop because we need to board the shuttle back to our motel again. The next day, I saw a huge bruise in my butt! Haha

This adventure is nothing but pure fun and laughter with friends. We’ve had endless photo shoots and video taking. And it’s also a bonus that it snowed later in the afternoon. Perfect IG moment! This is one for the books. I hope one day Jeff and I can bring our families and share the same joy we had when we are in the snow mountain.