ADV229 online
Summer issue of Adventure Magazine
Summer issue of Adventure Magazine
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e it but it’s just still frozen over”. I’m not sure if she was<br />
delirious after hiking for two hours with a 10kg+ backpack<br />
but I almost believed it too. In my head I was thinking, I<br />
can’t have hiked all this way to not even really see it. We<br />
questioned our route up and had actually accidentally got<br />
side-tracked, veering to the left and going around the dome<br />
instead of up and over it. We ended up above the summit<br />
plateau, which to be fair, could quite possibly pass as a big<br />
frozen lake or crater. With sunset nearing, we both became<br />
adamant that we had to keep exploring to find the reason we<br />
were up there in the first place. 400 metres further, just over<br />
and around a little hill, with the light going golden we had<br />
finally made it to the crater!<br />
With relief that we had not only made it to the top, but more<br />
importantly in time for Lauren to work her magic with the<br />
light and her cameras. After admiring our location, devouring<br />
our snacks and LocalDehy dinner we still hadn’t finished our<br />
adventure. We raced the sun as it was quickly setting and<br />
nearly 8:30pm with us on top of Mt Ruapehu. With nerves and<br />
excitement we strapped our snowboard and skis to our feet<br />
and started cautiously skiing down the mountain hooting and<br />
hollering with one another with a couple of stops to appreciate<br />
that we were the only two people on the entire mountain<br />
crazy enough to ski down by a phone torch. We managed<br />
to ski over three quarters of the way down before the spring<br />
snow changed to a rocky mountain trail. Quickly changing<br />
from ski boots to hiking boots and now carrying the extra<br />
weight of our skis, snowboard and boots; it was now pitch<br />
black but it was luckily a perfect starry night that made the<br />
last 30 minute trek down nicer but definitely not easier.<br />
Making it back to our car at just after 9pm we were completely<br />
exhausted but so high on an adrenaline rush. We talked<br />
about it for days! To summit up (pun intended) both ticking it<br />
off our bucket list but we already want to do it all again!<br />
Top: Not a bad spot for dinner<br />
Inserts top to bottom: Our delicious dinner from Local Dehy - The first night in our new Kiwi Camping tent 1200m+ above sea level<br />
48//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#229
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