By Jasmin Malcolm, 20 February 2026
On the 20th of February, the VUWTC 2026 committee set off on our annual comittee trip. This year, the chosen destination was Ruapehu, so we set off for Ohakune where Justin's aunt had kindly offered up her AirBnB for us to stay in (for free!).
I was in Robyn's car on the way there, along with Jack, Hazel and Micah, and we arrived slightly earlier than everyone else. With time to spare, we decided to visit the famed Carrotland. We had a wonderful time exploring all the playground equipment, surrounded by little children.
Once everyone else arrived, we located the keys to the AirBnB, and spent some time stacking firewood in return for the use of the property. Eventually our stomachs started grumbling, so we headed into town and sourced some takeaway curry from Magic Chilli. A few of us ventured into the New World to grab some lunch for the next day, and then we went back to our lodgings to enjoy our dinner.
After dinner, we partook in some trip planning and puzzle solving before deciding to head out to town. Caroline had the amazing idea before this trip that we should bring period costumes up the mountain with us for some seriously amazing dress-up photos. We decided that this night out on the town would be our test run, so we donned our fabulous outfits before heading out into the main street of Ohakune. Unfortunately, we had made this decision rather too late, so every venue was either closed or about to shut down for the night (at 9:22pm!). We perservered and decided to take ourselves to the local playground for some shenanagins and tomfoolery. I'm sure the Ohakune populace was wishing we had never arrived after being terrorised all night.
The next day was lesson in some serious faffery. Despite this being our main tramping day, with an aim to an aim to summit Dome from Whakapapa skifield, we did not actually reach the carpark until 10am, due to a slight detour to visit the op-shops beforehand, which took a little longer than expected. Once off, we set a leisurely pace, winding our way up the skifield to begin with for easier walking. We ate our lunch at the nearby restaurant, and proceeded to waste even more precious time, although it was all worth it in the end as some lovely people gave us some leftover fries. We were obviously looking like poor, starving students, so they must have taken pity on us. We proceeded to amble up the mountain, taking many breaks and enjoying the lovely sights around us. Finally, by 3pm, we arrived at Dome and dressed up in our fancy clothes. Many, many photos were taken (the final photo album had 734 photos!) which all looked great.
After spending a lot of time posing and taking photos, we finally began our descent down the mountain. Many of us were still in costume and it was fun challenge to navigate the mountain while in a skirt. Hazel decided to brave the icy water and took a quick dip on the way down. Luckily it was summer, so it remained light for quite a while and we could still enjoy the sun when we arrived at the carpark by 7:30.
Unfortunately, our night was about to take a turn for the worse. We'd decided to have a barbeque dinner and use the barbeque that was provided by the AirBnB. Jack was manning the barbeque with some assistance from Lange. Somehow, canola oil was poured on top of an open flame and the barbeque quickly caught on fire. Most members of the commitee were supremely unhelpful (including me), but a special shoutout to Hazel, who apparently filled a bucket of water to put out a oil fire, and Max, who ran into the house to warn people and promptly wiped out on the kitchen floor. There was no fire extinguisher in the house, so Finlay ran round to the neighbours to borrow theirs. Finlay and the volunteer firefighters who came to our aid emerged the heroes from this disaster.
Anyways, this is a good precautionary tale to be careful operating barbeques under the influenc of alcohol!
On Sunday, we visited the local op-shop and made some wonderful purchases. It was extremely cheap and there were so many cool clothes! Next, we decided to try and visit 'Gollum's Pool' for a swim. It turns out that there are two Gollum's Pools near Ruapehu, and you couldn't swim in the one we visited, so we had to appreciate the view from the lookout instead. We stopped for lunch in Taihape. While visiting the Gumboot Capital of the World, we decided to try out the gumboot throwing lane. This was much harder than I imagined but still a lot of fun! We made the obligatory stop at Bulls for some dinner, and drove onward. Our car ride on the way home was full of lively debate, as Robyn introduced us to this amazing podcast called Moral Maze.
All in all, this trip was a wonderful time, a good way to bond as a committee, and had us all feeling positive about the year ahead (I hope)!
Author's note: This trip report was written in September, so apologies for any misremembered details!