Friday, February 25th, 2005

Up early. I got up at 6:00 am and sat next to an open window listening to the morning serenade of the birds, watching the sun rise and reading my book. Then listening to Dad serenading everyone from the downstairs shower.

We were allowed a more leisurely start this morning. On the agenda was a trip to Mt Ruapahu, also known as Mt. Doom. I frankly was not very excited by this - more long hours in the car followed by a brief look around some mountain. The hours in the car were much as I expected and when we got there it really didn't look like much. Big craggy mountain, little snow on the top. There was a ski lift running though and when we investigated we found that we could take it up the mountain.

Emily, Elizabeth and I all had tennis shoes on so our footgear was adequate but Elizabeth was wearing shorts and immediately complained that her legs were cold. I gave her my polar fleece because it was long enough to cover her pretty well. I was warm enough but they had loaner coats so I took one of those. Thank goodness I did! It was pretty breezy going up the lift.

Elizabeth loved the ski lift ride. There were actually two. The first was a two seater and then we transferred to a quad. When we got to the top there was a trail marked to the summit. Dad immediately poo-pooed that and headed off trail and up a steep ridge overlooking our trail with Mom following behind. I need to inject a side note here...She can absolutely round circles around me. Which I knew but had not had so obviously pointed out to me before.

They disappeared rapidly skyward while we trudged up the marked trail. Marked because it was not obvious where it was. It was very rocky and gravelly and Elizabeth was very uncomfortable climbing on it. She was even more unhappy crossing the snow field. We went a little further and Elizabeth declared she had had enough - I took a good picture of her at that point. The way back was much easier for her. She was much more confident on the snow. Everyone else, including Emily, continued on. Derek had Aundine in the backpack and I think Debbie and Kacie only went as far as they did because they were worried about her. They were both wearing sandals and must have had very cold toes.

Elizabeth and I got back and went up to the ski lodge café. She ate an entire egg salad sandwich and I had a meat pie. We shared a bar cookie and a candy bar (NZ version of a Violet crumble). Derek and Kacie came back and were ready to go back down but there was no sign of Mom and Dad. Aundine was needing lunch which was in the car. Also Bill had stayed at the bottom and was expecting us back. I didn't want to leave without Mom and Dad... Kacie, Deb and Aundine went down on the lift and the rest of us waited. Fortunately not too long.

We all went down the lifts, Deb lost her visor on the way. It was pretty windy in places and it sure made me hold onto my hat a little tighter. Lunch at picnic tables outside the lodge, then we went down the mountain and stopped at the visitor center and wandered around the lobby of a very ritzy hotel. It was more walking for not much return from my point of view. The visitor center was pretty neat. They had a large display about volcanism and other displays about NZ wildlife including one that had the male and female kiwi sounds.

Back to the bach. Increasing frequency of Dramamine use and dosage. I got back and just laid on the bed (a pile of mattresses). I had no energy and was feeling hot which I attributed to sun and wind burn. My whole torso and arms felt prickly and when I got goose bumps which happened more frequently, they hurt. Spent that night with cold towel on my forehead and a cup of water to dip it in.