The year 4-8 class at National Park school, called Te Whiowhio and Paretetaitonga, spent five weeks doing lots of learning about geocaching and the geocaching culture. They have created ten geocaches and placed them around the National Park village area. Each cache includes information about an aspect of National Park village life. Please enjoy the mahi (work) they have done, and be sure to leave them a comment on the website!
Imagine standing on a piece of ice and suddenly it falls out from underneath you and you start tumbling down in tremendous amounts of snow at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour. Luckily at Mt Ruapehu we control avalanches really well.
What is an avalanche? An avalanche is an event that occurs when a slab of snow lying upon a weaker layer of snow fractures and slides down a steep slope. Avalanches are very dangerous because they can capture you whilst skiing and bury you in tonnes and tonnes of snow and ice. If you are not rescued quickly, you can suffocate and die.
How do ski patrol control avalanches? They actually prevent avalanche accidents by triggering avalanches before they become a problem. The idea is they keep the size of the avalanches small and make them happen when they want them to. They use a range of triggers from ski cutting (where they ski through start zones trying to trigger slides with their body weight), then they try explosives, and if all else fails, they need to leave the zone closed until the snow has stabilised.
How do avalanche dogs help when an avalanche happens? Avalanche dogs are so important because they use their sense of smell to track down the scent of someone trapped in the snow, and others around the area. When they smell a trapped person they run over to them and start digging and barking so the ski patrol in the area can come and dig the person out. There are only about 10 avalanche dogs in New Zealand! 4 of them live here in National Park! Ralph is a chocolate labrador and his handler is Toby. Whaia is a black labrador and her handler is Phil. Mac is a black labrador in training and his handler is Luke. Echo is a tricolor border collie in training and his handlers are Lisa and Andy.
Avalanches can be dangerous, but the local ski patrol do everything they can to manage them in skiing areas. Make sure to be safe around high risk areas in the backcountry. Have fun and be safe out there!
This cache is hidden along the Tupapakurua Falls track. Drive up the Fisher's Track road and park in the parking area just before the big gate. The walk begins here.
Don't forget to enjoy the view of Mt Ruapehu - on the left, and Mt Hauhungatahi, on the right (our oldest volcano) from between the trees at the cache location.
Please note there is a Letterbox hidden nearby. Please ensure it is in fact our Geocache that you have found, before you swap anything out or sign the notebook. They are both labelled clearly.