Ice palace makes for festive venue
A glossy lodge turned icy palace has made a mid-winter celebration even more magical for more than a dozen experienced mountaineers.
The Tahurangi Lodge, located about 1500 metres above sea level on the north side of Mt Taranaki, was covered in about 20 centimetres of ‘‘thick ice’’ at the weekend, secretary of Taranaki Alpine Club Glen Hodges said.
‘‘When fronts come through it can be very wet and that just coats everything,’’ he said. ‘‘Everything can get covered under one-foot of ice and it happens maybe once or twice a year.’’
But the igloo-like scene had only made the club’s annual midwinter dinner that much more festive with 18 members staying overnight Saturday.
The front that swept the North Island brought with it heaping piles of snow, which blanketed Mt Taranaki and offered a winter wonderland for the weekend.
However, while the skifield offered fluffy hills of snow for skiing, the white piles surrounding the Egmont National Park was ‘‘pretty hard’’ and difficult to access, Hodges said.
‘‘It looks nice, like soft snow, but it’s hard ice,’’ he said. ‘‘You’d need crampons, an ice axe and the experience to get here.’’
Temperatures were expected to remain a freezing 0 degrees Celsius throughout the night and into yesterday, MetService said.
But the club members were prepared and experienced, Hodges said.
‘‘Tomorrow we’re expecting the same conditions,’’ he said. ‘‘The snow will be bullet-hard by morning.’’
And as for the blanket of ice on the lodge, Hodges said any passerbys should be wary. ‘‘It will fall off at some time.’’ The club’s weekend festivities included music and a clear night’s sky, he added.
‘‘All the stars will be out and we’ll get a nice view of the Milky Way.’’