Showing posts with label mountain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mountain. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2009

Cheeky


You may recognize Mt. Doom (LOTR) in this photo, but it's really just Mt. Ngauruhoe. It had a lot less snow on it than a month ago when I went skiing, which hopefully means summer is coming fast to the North Island. Just like yesterday, this photo was taken from the car window while traveling on our adventure weekend... Now for Sunday, we woke up bright and early, had breakfast, packed up, got geared up, and headed out to a gorgeous river to do some white water rafting. Our guide said the water was murkier than usual, but I still thought it was beautiful (I swear this country has the most beautiful water I've ever seen). We rafted all morning and into the early afternoon, I had never done it before but I was awesome. The rapids were pretty mild, but still got us soaked sometimes. We also came to some gentle water where we were allowed to swin - er, to put more precisely, I was thrown into the water (apparently it's customary to throw the birthday girl into the beyond freezing water). Well, eventually everyone in our raft ended up in the water and it was refreshing even if I couldn't feel my hands or feet for a while afterwards. Overall, the river was absolutely gorgeous as were its surroundings and I had blast. Anyone up for rafting with me when I get back to the states?

Monday, August 10, 2009

Break Time


About half way through the day on Sunday the bindings on my rental skis broke as I got off the chairlift. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I took a snack break while trying to figure out what to do. This was my view during my snack break - and it made me glad that my bindings broke. The sun was perfect, the wind decided to take a break, and I hit the spot right before the mad lunch rush. The image above contains three different photographs that I stitched together to make a panorama. I wish I could include the entire scene for you, but I guess you'll just have to make the visit to the Whakapapa ski area yourself (I'm sure you won't mind). In the end, I rode the chairlift back down the mountain and I got my bindings fixed (the person at Piper's Lodge had set them wrong) and I kept skiing for the rest of the day. In addition to this wonderful view, I also discovered that it's nice but also kind of scary to ski in a t-shirt (without a jacket) and that Music for Men - the latest CD by Gossip is awesome music to ski to.