Last winter 2008: Well, that is a million dollar question. Is it now is winter or musim tengkujuh?. We just sailed in the shortest day of the year for a few weeks in wet. Rain and rain and rain. As the first time in the winter season we were so excited to touch the snow with our bare hand. After heard about massive snow falls in the Mt. Ruapehu which is only about 4 hours from Palmy, we decided to go for it before it all melts away. As our first plan to go to Mt. Ruapehu been canceled coz of weather, we decided to split our group into three. Actually our first plan was to go to Mt. Ruapehu in a group consists all Malaysian members in Palmy. With the number of us became bigger it was very very imposble to have a journey in one group. So we decided to go in different day for each group.
"Mt. Ruapehu!, here we come"Even though the weather forecast showed the dark cloudy rain that day, we gambled to proceed with our plan. The website we use to monitor the weather is run by the New Zealand Meteorological Department (Metservice) and usually pretty accurate and changes every 2 hours or so. They provide weather forecast for up to next 5 days usually, but I was so tickled by how they described rain for the next 5 days as there were always wrong.
From a cold drizzle morning along the journey it turned to a sunny fine day when we getting near to Mt. Ruapehu. What a great luck for us. And again, Metservice was wrong. Just as the sun was setting and clouds clearing a beautiful rainbow emerged across the sky. The view was stunning. After about 3.5 hours driving, the imposing Mt Ruapehu came into view. It was Majestic with snow on top. It was awesome.
With the warm weather and clear day, the road was crowded with the vehicle line up to get up to the mountain. The guard was busy giving turn to vehicle to get in the entrance. When we arrived, the place was full with crowd. Most of the rental snow equipment was out of stock. We had no luck that day.
"When you put all of North Island + some of South Island in a cruise ship together, this is what you get".
"Some of our group members"
"Still waiting and praying for dropping snow"
"one of the big shot this year"
"Stop by for a while in the Army Museum, on the way to Mt. Ruapehu"
"Snowman making competition between male and female except the little one Asyraff, lost in the wrong group. Just to prove we were there....."
"What the heck of creature is that????"
"Still confuse what the different between snow and ABC
(Air Batu Campur lah)”
"My stomach is growling …food..food…. I need food”
"Stuntman in action"
"Expedition accomplished”
"My stomach is growling …food..food…. I need food”
"Stuntman in action""Expedition accomplished”