It’s winter time and rain brings snow to Mt. Taranaki.  The volcano, our close  and peaceful neighbour,  hasn’t erupted since 1854.  So this natural wonder begs adventure.  It’s now been transformed from  “goblin forest” into a treacherous, snow covered mountain with ski slopes!  Yesterday, Des and I made the 45 min drive to the north entrance to begin our hike to the ski area.

Yes, I said, hike!  There’s no lift.  But, luckily you don’t have to ascend the full  2500m (8200 feet) to get there.  It’s a 25 minute hike up to the Manganui Ski Area.  This involves sweating.  You follow a rocky path for awhile, then pass quickly through a concrete tunnel, traverse the “avalanche-prone” gorge, and walk on a narrow trail cut into the side of the mountain. There’s a sparsely constructed, but much needed,  fence on the steep, sloping parts.   We past folks of all ages carrying their ski equipment, snowboards, and sleds. The flying fox was not operational today,  but this is a great help for transporting skis across the gorge section. When you arrive at the 1260 m ski area you are “warmed up nicely” as they say. The ski area might at first seem outdated but it’s very functional.  At the base beginners can get pulled a short ways along a tow rope.  A  T-bar pushes you up  a couple hundred meters to reach “intermediate” runs.  A fixed grip rope tow called the “nutcracker” takes skiers to more extreme runs. The club members say if you don’t know what a nutcracker is or what a harness is for, then you best not go up there.

Sunny days are the best and the weather was perfect for our hike.  There’s more snow to come so we’ll definitely go again with Kai for the full ski experience.  He spent the day with a good buddy biking and walking all over town. Later we met up for some grub!