White Christmas!?

[Motoracer]

Me and my Dad just came back from tramping through the Tongariro crossing. And what a white christmas to remember!

IT WAS BLOODY AWESOME!!! Freakin high winds, snow fall for most of it and we got some big chunky icy snow (hail) at the creator too.

Unfortunately I couldn't get any pics from the summit cause I was holding on for dear life with both hands and feet due to some rather high wind speeds but I have attached some pics below from other parts of our journey. I took them when the weather suprisingly cleared up for short moments before things got exciting again.


I met some German Mountaineers near the top who decided to turn back cause of bad weather. One of them was having a go at me and calling me stupid for wearing shorts and cheap Warehouse boots instead of proper gear and boots with cramp-ons.

The weather changes so quickly up there. In 30 secs, the sun will come out, then it'll be 100kmph+ winds, then snow storm type of conditions, then hail maybe then all fine again. I just love it how you can really realise the awesome power of Mother Nature and how helpless and venerable us mere mortals can be in those environments. It just doesn't get much better than that I tell ya! I had the best seats in the house for some of the crappy weather that was going around!

[MacD]

IT WAS BLOODY AWESOME!!! Freakin high winds, snow fall for most of it and we got some big chunky icy snow (hail) at the creator too.[/color]

I guess you're lucky the creator was in a good mood, could have been fire and brimstone!

Some friends are planning to do the crossing today, including a guy from the UK who came out here for a summer holiday! Hope he takes a camera with him.