Tongariro Crossing

I don't know if you guys remember the two girls I lived with when I moved into my first place here, but one of them is getting married this weekend, and the other has come back from France for the wedding. I'm not friends with the girl getting married anymore, but I was super excited to see the girl from France again. Since she is busy with wedding stuff, I only got a few days with her, but we used them to go and do the Tongariro Crossing, one of the great walks. She had tried to do it when she was here before, but the weather wasn't good enough for it, and it has been on my list (which seems to constantly be growing instead of shrinking).

The national park consists of a few active volcanos that make up the ski hills in winter. This is where Sean goes to go snowboarding. The walk is 19.5km (~12 miles) and doesn't go to the highest peak, but goes up along the crater between the peaks. The bus dropped us off at the starting point along with HUNDREDS of other people. For what is not a friendly walk, I was astounded at the number of people doing the walk. All ages, fitness levels, sizes, etc. Especially for what is starting to become the off season.

We started the walk on what was a fairly friendly beginning. You work your way up a little bit and then you hit the bottom of the steep part. This is where it really gets fun. I actually didn't think it was as hard as I expected, but it was definitely not easy. My friend wasn't as in shape as I was, so it took us awhile to get to the top (of that section). The views were stunning and that was really our last chance as we then hit the clouds.

We walked across a very flat expanse to the start of the next bit of the climb up and it felt like mars. Especially with all the clouds hindering the view.

We finally got to the bit where we walked around the crater but because of the clouds we couldn't see anything. We started on the downhill towards the other side and at that point I was thinking I would actually have energy to do something else the next day. We stopped at the emerald lakes, which you could barely make out in the clouds. The clouds cleared for a few seconds and everyone scrambled to get their cameras out. We stopped here for lunch, but didn't stop for long as it got cold once you stopped for too long.

one of the emerald lakes

We walked down for a ways more and finally got to a hut. This was about the point where we finally came out of the clouds again and started to feel like we were in the home stretch (despite there being 2 hours left). The views of the surrounding area were stunning again.

the water was a weird grey color. also notice the volcanic activity in the background

the craziest looking rock

We then walked for what felt like FOREVER to get to the end point of the trail. We went through some forest as well, which really rounded out the diversity of terrain we had seen. We finally got the end in time to catch the bus back to our hostel and I was absolutely pooped. Looking back the clouds had finally cleared too which was a bit of a bummer, but it was supposed to rain and never did so we were thankful for that. In the end it took us 7.5 hours to do the walk. We celebrated with a beer and a meal and went to bed about 9 o clock.

It was a phenomenal experience and I still cannot get over how many people did the walk. I will definitely do it again when the weather is better.

Sunday we drove home and sat on the couch! Monday we played the last game in our 5 a side league and won! We got second place in the league, which was exciting. The rest of the week I have been trying to play catch up and it has been very busy. The team I was coaching finally decided to fold as only 4 girls showed up to play the weekend I did the crossing and only 2 were going to be able to play this weekend.

In other exciting news, we booked our flights to come home to Texas for Christmas yesterday and I am counting down the days until my family comes to visit here!

Oh and also, this was the view from my office when I left this week.

Birthday Camping

For my birthday I wanted to go camping with friends. I said all I wanted was to sit around a fire with friends and a drink in my hand. Since it was Easter weekend, most people were busy, but it meant we could take a few days to go camping, and there was at least one other couple who was free to go with us. We went out the Mangawhai heads, which is a place we had quickly stopped at before, but had been wanting to go back to.

We left home Friday morning and got to the campsite around 3pm. We pitched our tents, got all set up and went for a walk to the beach with their dog, Taco. The nearby beach is really popular for surfers and we could definitely see why. It was a stunning beach with massive crashing waves and it was fun to watch the surfers. We walked back to our campsite, had a shower, and as soon as we got out, it started raining. There was no rain in the forecast, so we didn't really worry, and then all of the sudden it started bucketing. And it kept pouring all night long. We went into the kitchen area to have dinner but there were holes in the roof of that as well. It made for a fun adventure. I was concerned because we didn't properly close the tent up, thinking it was only a short sprinke, but fortunately everything inside was dry.

our campsite

the beach

Saturday we woke up to a beautiful day and went kayaking in the estuary. It was hard work because the tide was so strong, if you stopped paddling for a second you were twice as far back from where you had just been. We went across to the sand dunes for a quick walk. The couple we were with went back to our campsite, but Sean and I went to do the walk we had tried to do the last time we were there. It followed the coastline and it was a beautiful walk. We hadn't realized how exhausted our legs were from walking in the sand so much and by the time we were finished all we wanted to do was sit.

We got back to the campsite, had some dinner and sat around the fire and had a drink, just what I had wanted. Since there was a burn ban, we could only burn pinecones, but they burn really interesting and it was fascinating to watch them burn.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed for one last trip to the beach. Taco made a new friend, and we cracked confetti eggs on the boys heads without them expecting it, following family tradition. Sean and I did one more walk on the way home, but Sean was so exhausting from playing in the water earlier, so we had to turn around before we finished. We came home and relaxed. This week, we also found out that Sean got his first speeding ticket that day from a speed camera.

The next week we regrouted our other shower. It was a lot harder work than we anticipated, and so gross, but so worth it. The shower looks completely different now, and we don't have to feel embarrassed by it anymore.

Thanks to you all for the birthday wishes! I always feel so loved on my birthday! I had exactly the day/weekend I wanted, and just before summer decided to end.