Whakapapa

After a few weeks of planning with Johanna, we finally went to the mountains! 

We both have been wanting to go skiing for a while but the problem was we didn't have a car and we didn't want to go just the two of us, because then the petrol would've been so expensive. But luckily we found a Finnish girl and her boyfriend (or a friend, I don't know) to go there with us. So we went to Whakapapa and it took about 4 hours to drive there. And that has actually been the only time I've met any Finnish people here. But it's fine, I didn't come here to meet Finnish people and talk in Finnish all the time.

We left already on Friday evening (28.8.) because it gets so busy there in the mornings during the weekend so we wanted to be there really early on Saturday. Because if you go there late or during the day, the roads might be closed and you can't even get to the area. And we drove back to Auckland on Saturday evening because the weather was really bad for Sunday so we didn't wanna go skiing in the rain...

At first I planned to ski but there was a really cheap deal for rental, pass and a lesson so I decided to try snowboarding! Which I've never tried before so it was good it included the lesson. Can't say I'm good at snowboarding after just one day but it was so much fun and I felt so happy to try something new! And we've actually been thinking about practicing some more snowboarding with Johanna at Snowplanet, which is an indoor snow resort quite close to where we live.

Since I had the cheap deal, I wasn't allowed to go all the way up to snowboard but I bought a $5 ticket just to go to the top so I could see the whole area. And it looked so awesome from up there.

After Australia (where I missed one winter), I've become such a winter person. I don't mind if it's cold, as long as I can be around snow and do some snow activities. So you can only imagine how excited I was there; snowcapped real mountains (and a bit bigger than Ounasvaara :D) and amazing views with great company! It was such a weird feeling snowboarding in August but I truly loved it! And it was so weird because there wasn't any snow anywhere else than in the mountains. Like when we were driving there, we didn't see snow anywhere.

Whakapapa is in Tongariro national park where I'll go again later in the spring to do this one amazing hike. And there's some amazing Lord of the Rings shooting places! We saw a bit when we were driving there but didn't stop for any pictures so gotta take lots when I can go back there!

That's Mount Doom in the background!

On Sunday it also rained almost the whole day in Auckland so I spent the day in the city with Johanna. First we went to Safka which sells lot of European/Scandinavian food. There were Fazer chocolates/candies, rye bread (!!) and other yummy things. But they were all so damn expensive... But had to buy a bit of candy (Hyvää makumaasta) since it was -60%. :D

After Safka, we had some safka. Haha. And then we went to the movies to see We Are Your Friends.