Tourist photos from Ruapehu yesterday

Advice from the Department of Conservation 

Here are five essential steps for staying safe in the outdoors so you can have a great trip.

1. Choose the right trip for you

– Learn about the route and make sure you have the skills for it.

2. Understand the weather

– It can change fast. Check the forecast and change your plans if needed.

3. Pack warm clothes and extra food

– Prepare for bad weather and an unexpected night out.

4. Share your plans and take ways to get help

– Telling a trusted person your trip details and taking a distress beacon can save your life.

Leave a date and time to raise the alarm if you haven’t returned. Send this information to a trusted person directly, or use the Outdoors Intentions form or Plan My Walk.

5. Take care of yourself and each other

– Eat, drink and rest, stick with your group and make decisions together.

Every year this father (78 years young) and son (43 years old) have to get out of their comfort zone and discover a new experience or track in the central plateau region. So they decided to climb Ruapehu…

The day before, as the weather was marginal, they did a 90-minute warm-up stroll around the Kiko Road loop to check on fitness levels.

Yesterday, after checking off all the above and reorganising the weather, we phoned the Whakapapa tourist office to check. They advised the snow up the top was deep and mushy, crampons and ice axes were essential, and an exclusion zone still exists around the crater due to seismic activity, so the whole point of the tramp was lost. We were about a month early. Their advice was to find an alternative walk…

Instead we still went up there yesterday afternoon for the scenic ride on the Sky Waka and then tramped the other tracks – in particular the route up above the skyline cafe for about 2 hours. The car-parks were about one-third full, there were no queues, overall perfect conditions.