This year, at Ruapehu, located in the Central Plateau of the North Island of New Zealand, we have a record snow base of 2.5 meters. Ruapehu is one of the largest ski fields in NZ and services the North Island and is not considered much of a tourist destination, like Queenstown. So if you want to meet genuine kiwis you go to Ruapehu!

Ruapehu consists of two ski fields: Whakapapa, which faces north and has a large and varied ski terrain from very difficult to easy and Turoa which faces south is not as big and less challenging, but the snow is better becuse it faces into the cold weather.

One special feature of Whakapapa are the many mountain huts which sit amongst the lower ski lifts where club members can stay on the mountain. This is characteristic of a field that is set up for kiwis and not for the tourist industry. To get to stay in one of these huts you have to be a member or go up with a member. Another feature of this mountain is the fact that it is an active volcano. It last blew its top in 1995 and has a crater lake which occasionally overflows.