The carrot capital!

Or next stop, Ohakune, is the jumping off point for the slopes of Mt. Ruapehu and the Turoa ski fields. It is also, I kid you not, the carrot capital of New Zealand and home of the infamous annual carrot Mardi Gras. A drive to the outskirts of town will see you visit a gigantic carrot sculpture, kind of like the HB pencil I remember as a kid on the road to Cork. Cows graze in the fields (on carrots), 10kg bags are sold outside each and every shop, like peat briquettes at home, surly teenagers hang out on street corners, not smoking or drinking, but chomping on carrots. Ok, so I may be selecting the more unusual sights we witnessed, but it is a veritable carrot kingdom.

As it happened, we had arrived only 7 days too early for the Mardi Gras. To soften the blow, we took ourselves up the icy mountain road to the Turoa ski fields to get stretch our snow boarding legs. Sometime between now and the last time we snowboarded, about 18 months ago, I got a slightly inflated idea of how competent I actually was. I was given a short sharp reminder in the form of a very hard landing on my first run. The boarding improved slightly as the day went on, unlike the resulting bump which ultimately called a premature end to our snow time and we headed back down the mountain for the après ski – ok I lie, for an icepack and some ibprofen. I’m happy to report however that the injury is on the mend, I can now sit comfortably and I am sure I will be fit and ready to complain about about yet another injury in no time!