Billy took me away last weekend. We had two days left on our ski passes and, with spring full on, we were running out of time to use them. Our angel of a neighbor Natalia agreed to watch the kids on Saturday while Mikaylie worked, but the rest of the weekend Mikaylie (our angel of a daughter) had kid duty.
Billy and I drove the 4 hours to Mt. Ruapehu and hit the slopes. Well, hitting the slopes is NOT what you want to do during the spring, particularly on a volcanic mountain! You don't want to hit anything! Rocks that were hidden under a thick blanket of snow when we were there in July, were exposed and taunting me. Those rocks were so in my head, there were times I was nearly paralyzed with fear. Headlines of tragedies in the past ran through my head. And when I wasn't worried about the rocks there were the cliffs; shear drop-offs to jagged rocks below. Streams of melted snow ran by, dropping over a waterfall, then disappeared under snow. Another scary thought. Plus there were times that we were literally skiing through a cloud with barely 20 feet of visibility. Oh, and it was hot! People were skiing in tanks and one guy was even wearing a kilt!!! At the base, where you get on the lifts, the temp was 50 degrees. It was cooler up the mountain but certainly not below 40 or so. I was so hot when I removed my helmet, I looked as if I'd just stepped out of the shower! Granted, some of that was probably nerves. I took several spills, wrenching my knee and my hip pretty good.
We did have fun, despite my fears of certain death. The lifts close at 4pm so after a delicious burger dinner out at a pub, we had a quite evening of reading and movies, fireside at a lovely B&B. A well needed getaway for us both.
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