Iwikau Village · Top of the Bruce · Whakapapa
Sleep on the mountain
Tauwira is a small family ski club with a twenty-bed lodge in the middle of Iwikau Village. Park at the door, walk to the lifts, dry your gear by the heater. Members and their guests, all year round.
- 1,630 mBase elevation
- 20Beds, 5 bunk rooms
- $40Member, per night
- 0 mWalk from the car park
- 46Huts in the village
One of 48 clubs on the maunga
Ruapehu's best-kept secret
Tohunga Tauwira Whare Ski Club takes its name from the closest te reo Māori translation the founders could find for architect: the chief builder of houses. Fitting, for a club whose members have spent decades building, insulating, rewiring and re-roofing the one house that matters.
Iwikau is the only alpine village in New Zealand. Forty-six club huts sit in a loop at the top of the Bruce Road, 6 km and 457 vertical metres above State Highway 48, with the Whakapapa lifts running straight off the doorstep across 550 hectares and 67 named runs.
We are small, family-oriented and unfussy. Members cook together, wash up together, and turn out for a work party each autumn to get the lodge ready for winter. In summer the same lodge is a base for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, the Bridge to Nowhere and the cycle trails.
All of it sits inside Tongariro National Park, which in 1993 became the first place in the world listed as a World Heritage cultural landscape, recognising what these maunga mean to Ngāti Tūwharetoa.
The lodge
Warm, dry,
and right
in the loop
The founders built in the centre of the loop road. Everyone else carries their skis. You don't.
Bunk rooms
Twenty beds across five rooms: two sleep five, one sleeps four, and two smaller rooms sleep three each. Booked per bed, so families and groups can usually take a room to themselves. All five renovated by members with full insulation, thermostatic heating and new lighting.
Heating
Ducted heat runs through the hallways. It stays warm through the worst of a Ruapehu blizzard.
Kitchen
Open plan, two ovens, a large fridge and a freezer. Self-catering. A second fridge for beer lives in the work room.
Living
Open-plan lounge and dining. Downstairs there is a sitting room with a fusball table and a television. Bring your own decoder or player if there is a game you can't miss.
Bathrooms
Separate men's and women's wings, each with a shower and washbasins, plus two more showers and separate toilets. A washing machine is there for members to use.
Drying room
Large, shelved and hung out properly. Boots and jackets are dry by morning.
Work room
A workbench for waxing and repairs, plus members' lockers. Lockers are allocated in early June, bring your own padlock, and clear them at the end of winter so others can use the space.
Getting in
Members are given the code for the key lock box on the front door. The Booking Officer sends the interior digital lock code before your stay.
Bring with you
A sleeping bag or duvet and linen, a pillowcase (pillows are here), towels, and food for your whole stay. Lodge blankets are for emergencies only. Everything you carry in, rubbish included, goes back down with you. Transfer stations sit at the top of the Bruce and near the information centre at the bottom.
Your share
Everyone is rostered on, kids included, for cooking, dishes and the clean-up. The club stopped catering weekends as costs and compliance rose. The pantry stays stocked for emergencies, and for a bake-off on a day the mountain is shut.
Schematic
Find your way around
Tap a room. Handy for a first stay, and for telling the Booking Officer which bunk room you'd like.
Schematic only, drawn from the room descriptions. Send the committee a real set of plans and this becomes accurate.
The lodge
Choose a room on the plan to see what's in it.
Winter 2026
Rates
Per person, per night, self-catering.
Maximum 20 in the lodge per night.
Any number of nights, weekends included.
| Member, senior or junior | $40.00 |
|---|---|
| Family member, under 17 | $20.00 |
| Non-member, 17 and over | $80.00 |
| Non-member, under 17 | $40.00 |
Summer bookings run on the same per-night basis. Full terms are in the booking conditions.
Season 2026
The club diary
Toddlers' Week
Lodge eventLadies' Week
Lodge eventBlokes' Weekend
Lodge eventWork Party
Senior & junior membersSubscriptions due
Annual
Season passes for Whakapapa are on sale now. Ski area events are listed by Whakapapa and Tūroa.
Membership
Join the club
Membership buys you a bed at member rates all year, and a large extended family who happen to like the same mountain you do.
| Senior | $250.00 |
|---|---|
| Junior, 17 to 20 | $125.00 |
| Family, child under 17 | $70.00 |
| Veteran | $125.00 |
| Non-active | $65.00 |
Entrance fee
$450 for senior and junior members, spread over your first three years at $150 a year. Waived for 2026.
Work party levy
Every senior and junior member is asked to turn out for one work party a year, usually in autumn. If you can't make it, the levy is $150.
How joining works
Register your interest with any committee member, fill in the application form, come and stay so you can see what club life is actually like, then be nominated by a current member. If you don't know anyone in the club yet, say so and we'll sort it out.
Bookings
How to get a bed
Send the request
Pick your nights in the members' area, or fill in the request form. It takes a minute.
Wait for confirmation
The Booking Officer confirms your beds. A request is not a booking until you hear back.
Get your codes
Door codes come through before you travel, along with your spot on the roster.
Who to talk to
The committee
Committee meets every six to eight weeks in Wellington and on Google Meet. Any member is welcome to sit in.
Before you drive up
Check the mountain
The Bruce Road climbs 457 m in 6.2 km at up to 11%. Carry chains, check they fit before you leave, and park in gear with the handbrake off so it can't freeze on.