This was one of those times when you felt VERY lucky to have a camera on you! You also feel quite lucky to have lived through something like this...

After a day skiing with teaching buddies from Auckland, I had just finished handing in my gear when, all of a sudden, there was the most enormous boom. This boom was more than just your average large fireworks display... it was like the whole world was exploding at once.

The next thing I remember was the shouts and screams of people, then I looked up the mountain to see large billowing clouds of vapourised snow ballooning down the mountain, as if to envelope us. This caused widespread panic and alarm for most people, I thought to myself, "Well, if I'm going to die I might as well get some photos," and went nuts and took a whole roll.

Ruapehu01	Ruapehu02	Ruapehu03	Ruapehu04	Ruapehu05	Ruapehu06
Ruapehu07	Ruapehu08	Ruapehu09	Ruapehu10	Ruapehu11	Ruapehu12
Ruapehu13	Ruapehu14

Next I reaslised it wasn't in fact an avalanche, but an eruption, and saw loads of earth and rocks being shot really high up into the ski (I mean REALLY high, like more than 500m!!).

Needless to say, the carpark was clear in about 10 minutes flat, down one windy road went the 500 or so people.... except a few who like me, stayed up there. I kind of wish I had taken shots of the expressions on peoples' faces (next time I'm somewhere with something like this, I must remember to take some people photos).

Quite an experience...