Activities during the ski season, Mount Ruapehu

Group of photographs showing the activities of a group of people based at the Whakapapa Hut, Mount Ruapehu, ca 1930. Many of these photographs were taken by Leo L White. The narritive accompanying the images suggest that they were intended for a publication like the Auckland Weekly News. They include - Men and women on the hut porch, the women mending trousers. Snowball fights. Watching other groups climbing Mount Ruapehu. Chopping firewood. Melting snow for drinking. The mail arriving. Taking photographs. Climbing to the ski fields. Skiing. Walking in the bush. Lunch breaks. Preparing food. These photographs are a fairly good record of what, for women, was smart winter wear in 1930.

Re the group located at the Whakapapa Hut and the date of this. Firstly the women are wearing clothes and headgear that date from styles current in the late 1920s-early 1930s (ca 1926-1932). Secondly, a group of mainly women lined up with their cameras, are identified as ready to take photographs of Lady Fergusson departing [the Chateaux] for Taupo. Fergusson's term as Governor General ended in 1930. This is probaly the earliest group of photographs in the collection.

Quantity: 67 b&w original photographic print(s).

Provenance: Donated by Hugh Rennie, Wellington, 2010