Ohakune

So after our horse riding adventures and climbing all those stairs to the Bridal Veil Falls in Raglan, Tom and I set off to Ohakune.

Ohakune holds a very special place in my heart. I spent over a month here when I first arrived in New Zealand. What was meant to turn into two or three weeks of woofing (unpaid work, usually for accommodation) soon became so much more. Here I found a place to call "home", I made some wonderful friends and I have many fond memories here. There was a mixture of reasons for me leaving, otherwise I would never have been able to draw myself away from this quiet, beautiful little town. However, more importantly, it's where I met Tom and if that doesn't make a place special then I don't know what does!

This image was taken in 2013, myself, Emma, Tom and the other woofers Johny & Kieran before we all went our seperate ways! It was another bloody hot day in the height of summer, but I'm covered up as I was suffering terribly with sun burn :(

Though the town is very basic - made up of one supermarket, a post office, a couple of takeaways, a bank and a few pubs - but plenty of ski & snowboard rental shops! - Ohakune is filled to the brim with charm. The mountain, Mt Ruapehu, now has snow on it and its even more beautiful than ever!

This is an image of Mt Ruapehu which I took on the way to the Tongariro Crossing. This was in the summer and you can see the small amount of snow still present here. The mountain is now almost covered.

We originally decided to only stay a day or two here, as it was meant to be more of a pit stop and a catch up with our friend, Emma, who runs the lodge we woofed at. However, this morning we found the prospect of leaving our cosy, heated blanketed bed, hot shower and full kitchen facilities too hard to part with and decided to stay an extra day. That, and because our car decided to surprise us with its engine warning light, and by the time we got that sorted and our laundry dry it was 1pm!

So tomorrow we will embark for Wellington, which is at the very bottom of the North Island. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be bloody cold and windy, maybe even a bit of rain, but Wellington is said to be a very popular city, and since it's New Zealand's capital there's going to be tons to explore and enjoy!