O is for Oh My God Ohakune!

Where on earth do I begin with this post?! My very good friend TC turns 30 on Wednesday. She decided to head away for a weekend with her besties. Being the middle of winter a weekend away just screams SNOW! So the snow we did go. So many things happened, good and bad. How about I just tell you exactly what went down;

On Friday I spent my day racing around town trying to get my car warranted (didn't happen - stupid water in the stupid indicator) and keeping my workmates in hysterics. I'd mentioned that I was going up the mountain for the weekend but had no wet weather gear. My eight workmates managed to find me with an entire wet weather outfit, which I promptly tried on for them. Like I said, hysterical.

After being dropped off at home (thanks Matt) I quickly raced around trying to pack a bag of clothes, pillow, sleeping bag, games, booze, etc, etc. JP followed around behind me gathering things for me until VR arrived to pick us up. We went for a quick trip around the supermarket and a stop for dinner at Macers, then it was on the road. We arrived in Ohakune at 10.30pm - after being stuck behind some very slow and annoying campervan drivers and not being able to find the tiny little street in the tiny little town we were staying.

ES and JD had arrived in Ohakune around about the time that we were leaving Wellington, so they had the house nice and toasty and warm. mmmmmmmmmmmm. After a beer it was time for bed. JP and I were sharing the "cool" room - two singles in a largeish room, while VR, JD and ES shared a double bed and a single bed in one room and TC & MC shared the double bed in a room the size of my bathroom. We'd definetly lucked out on that one. Until we realised that my bed was right next to the wall shared with the couple and JP's bed was right on the other side of the toilet. Lovely. And, my bed was on rollers - when I moved, I slid across the floor and slammed back into the wall again. Maybe it wasn't the best room afterall.

Saturday morning was SNOW DAY! It took several hours but eventually 7 of us were showered, fed, dressed for the snow and ready to go. VR took a few of us and we followed MC heading to Ohakune. Only, MC can't go lower than 100km on any road, and assumes he always knows where he's going. We knew it was the wrong road when we passed a "private property" sign, broccoli fields, unsealed roads with rocks the size of riverstones, and a toothless farmer looking very angry.

Finally we arrived in Ohakune (really only 5 mins away, not the 30 mins we'd spent after detouring down broccoli alley). We all piled out, assuming a shuttle would come padt at any time - well that's what MC told us anyway. We waited, and waited and waited.

After waiting for what felt like ages, we called a shuttle company and they arrived to pick us up and up the mountain we went. I have never been up the mountain before - I never have and don't think I ever will have any desire to go sking. (Being half death means that I have terrible balance, so even if I wanted to, I probably couldn't do it anyway.) So this was pretty exciting. My only memory of snow is playing in it on the side of the Desert road one year when I was a kid, and when it fell in our back yard several years ago and melted before it hit the ground. Now, I was like a little kid at Christmas - SNOW!

When we arrived, JP and I hired snow boots and snow pants - mmmm snow pants are so warm and dry. VR and MC went snowboarding, TC went skiing, ES went for a skiing lesson and JD sat inside in the cafe with a book and mulled wine (perhaps the most sane choice of the day).

Meanwhile, JP and I went out on to the learner slopes and made a snowman. We'd been talking about this for months and it was so much fun. To be fair JP did most of the work. My jacket (thanks again to Matt for the borrow) was so big and warm that I was snug as a bug in the rug, but it also meant that I was getting hot and my glasses were fogging up, but putting the hood down, snow would fall down my neck.

It was snowing pretty heavily which was awesome for snowman building and for such a snow novice such as myself. It took a lot of effort and an hour and a half, but JP and I finally made Basil the snowman.

We had a couple come up to us and tell us how awesome he was which was pretty cool. We headed inside at this point and de-layered - I must have been wearing about 17 layers, it sure felt like it anyway. The snow was getting pretty heavy and they eventually closed the mountain to uphill traffic, which meant our shuttle couldn't get up to pick us up. We had to wait several hours before they finally let it up and we could head back down.

We decided we'd have showers, change, have fish n' chips for dinner and head out to Mardi Gras - several hours of street partying and bands in Ohakune town. All was going to plan until TC & MC had some type of argument and VR, ES & JD kept arguing about who owed whom money. After a few hours of arguing and attempted peacemaking, I found myself being the "let's go out and have fun" person. Those of you that know me well will know that I'm a stay at home where it's warm and not many people type of person. It took several attempts, but we eventually got through to the shuttle company. Shuttle wil lbe there in 15 minutes they said. An hour and a half later we were still waiting, very cold and very tired. JP started making drinks (in coffee mugs, because there just wasn't enough glasses) for us girls and at 10.30pm I called it quits. The jacket and boots were off and we were officially staying at home. To be honest, we probably had a much cheaper, warmer and entertaining night than if we had actually gone out to the cold, freezing night.

JP started it with cocktail making and throughout the night we took turns making new drinks. We used whatever we could get our hands on, which wasn't much. We had:

* Beer

* Wine

* Diet Coke, Coke, Coke Zero

* Lemonade, Diet Lemonade

* V, Red Bull

* Mandarin flavoured Vodka, Absolut Vodka

* Midori

* Baileys

* Pineapple Juice

* Milk

What would you come up with out of that?! We had lots of Illusion type drinks, Midori based drinks and QF type drinks. Some of my faves were the 'different' ones. Particuarly:

* The Sweetheart - a teaspoon of raspberry jam stirred into a shot of absolut vodka, topped with lemonade and microwaved for a minute.

* The Ohakune Mousse - Baileys and Coke. You had to drink it quick before it curdled.

* The Ohakune Slapper - Midori, Lemonade and Pineapple Juice.

The worst would have to be :

* Brinks - a teaspoon of vegemite stirred into a mug of beer - TERRIBLE!

We spent the next several hours talking bollox and videoing ourselves (because ES kept saying 'For the record. . .' so the video was the 'record'). I just don't think it's safe for me to post any of the videos - they are funny, but perhaps not entirely appropriate for public consumption. At about 2am we all stumbled in to bed, very drunk and tired.

This morning we woke at about 10am, showered, packed and headed home. JP and I were sitting in the back seat. Needless to say that VR did threaten to pull over several times to kick us out. I maintain that JP was being naughty, not me. I'm innocent. The "stir crazy" part of a road trip settled in around Paraparaumu (not too far from home). I decided that I was going to start a band called "Parallelogram" (mine and JPs 'safe' word in our never-ending game of 'Made You Look'). The first song for the band goes "Parallelogram, Parallelogram" over and over in a monotoness tone. The second song is called "Rowdy and Rude" (after JP told me I was being rowdy and rude), the lyrics all rhyme with rude, so you get the picture.  

MC, TC & ES are still up there tonight. Hopefully having a good time. Happy Birthday for Wednesday TC.
ES is next - don't make us go away again!