Twelve of us headed up to Tongariro National Park on the Friday for a beginner's snowcraft instruction weekend. Our accommodation was The Crossing Backpackers at Erua, 6 kilometres south of National Park. We set off from the Backpackers on Saturday morning in light rain and mist. On Saturday we had a spectacular ride up to the Knoll Ridge Cafe complex near the top of the field. We headed over to the Knoll Ridge T-bar and headed up the ridge. Our snow instructor Rex soon had us cutting steps with our ice axes and at the top of the ridge we all put on crampons for the slopes above the ski field. Rex assessed the avalanche danger to be low so we headed out over the first snow basin making our way up and across to the ridge above the Whakapapa glacier. We eventually reached the ridge above the Summit Plateau, below peak 2642m. Access to the Plateau was a bit difficult so we took lots of photos of the fantastic views all around then had lunch looking out across the tops of the clouds to the north and northwest.We followed much the same route back down, getting in a few more self arrest exercises on the way and enjoying views of the Pinnacles and Mount Ngauruhoe sitting above the cloud layer to the north. A route down the Valley T-bar brought us back to the cafe complex and we took the gondola back down to the skifield base and the carparks. We stayed another night at Crossing Backpackers and on the Sunday we walked the nearby "Marton Sash and Door" mountain bike track before heading home mid afternoon.