When we were at Mount Ruapehu and the weather was bad we had to find something to do - we went to the army museum which was interesting as it detailed the history of New Zealand, from the inter-tribal wars between Maori right up to the current day.
We then went to the memorial for the Tangiwai disaster which Billy Connolly visits during his 'World Tour of New Zealand'. The Tangiwai disaster on 24 December 1953 was the worst rail accident in New Zealand. An 11-carriage overnight express from Wellington to Auckland fell into the Whangaehu river.
The bridge carrying the North Island Main Trunk Railway over the river had been badly damaged just minutes earlier by a flood of water and mud from the crater lake of Mount Ruapehu. The steam locomotive, all five second-class carriages, and the leading first-class carriage derailed, resulting in the deaths of 151 of the 285 people aboard the train. Of the 176 second-class passengers aboard, only 28 survived.
This sign at the site of the disaster states that the river can rise 5 metres in 30 minutes - you wouldn't want to get in the way of that!
You can see from the erosion on the opposite bank, how strong the river current is... and how close these trees are to falling into the river.
This is the road bridge over the river - it has to be high up because of how high the river gets. There are gates either end of this section of road which will close if the flood alarms go off.
The above was on the first day that the slopes were closed. On the second day we decided to take a trip to the other side of the mountain to see if Whakapapa ('Wh' in this case is pronounced as an 'f'...) the other ski area was open. It wasn't... but we did see this amusing sign - not that I condone graffiti but we loved this:
If you can't read the word it says 'Skiwi'. :D
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