Skiing New Zealand: Turoa Ski Area – Mount Ruapehu

Wow, what a great day! Fantastic. One to remember. Skiing at Turoa on Mount Ruapehu.

Weather was very strange this morning – at 7:30, cloudy, 7:45 clear blue skies, 8:00 thick cloud. This didn’t suggest the weather was going to be good up the volcano, but it was….

Good breakfast ($14) at the Sunbeam Motels & Lodge… full fry up.

Drive up to the ski area was fine. Road was in good condition and paved all the way. Snow chains are required if there is snow on the road (there appeared to be a $25 chain hire/fitting service in one of the lay-bys). The rocks by the side of the road were very interesting, amazing shades of red and black, with lots of rocks mixed up and ’set’ in other rock – guess this is what you get on a volcano.

Looking back down the road up to the Turoa Ski Area on Mount Ruapehu

The Turoa Ski Area on Mount Ruapehu – view from the carpark

Ski area above tree line, and the parking lot muddy. The great news was we were above the clouds and in glorious sunshine.

Ski, ski boot, poles and pass were available in one hire shop (all very efficient). I hired a pair of ‘performance’ boots and skis for $130 NZ (this included the lift pass). Good skis and boots.

From base-lodge two old slow lifts take the skier/boarders up to the main mountain area and also to a beginners area near the base-lodge.

Ski area larger than any area seen down on the south island..

Conditions ‘mixed’. Some areas were very icy (looking at the snow and the off-piste areas it is clear that the volcano regularly experiences high-winds and freeze/thaw cycles – saw some alarmingly crystal clear rock-hard ice both on and off the trails), some areas very ski-able with a soft snow. Lot of very packed-powder around. Quite a lot of rock sticking through the snow off-piste. The black volcanic rock really provided a sharp contrast against the bright white sunlit snow.

Upper slopes served by a very good high speed six seater lift which gave access to a range of blue and black runs. Some of the lower lifts were very slow.

There is also two cafes on the volcano. One thing that was odd was there were no large piste maps. And trail maps were only available from the base-lodge. I asked why there were no ‘large maps’ on the mountain and was told that they cost too much.

Weather was fantastic. Base-lodge was in the cloud, but the main ski area was above the cloud.

Occasional smell of sulphur wafted across the ski area (or that may have been fellow lift passengers….)

Ski down at the end of the day was via a very narrow and crowded trail.

Verdict: A great day of skiing, snow was not great, but I had fun. Skiing above clouds was great.