National Park

The day after a hike should be relaxed and easy going...alllowing the body to recharge from the exhaustion of the day before. Well our prayers were answered when our names were not found on the roster list for the stray bus. Thankfully we could be picked up by another driver and still make it to National Park by the afternoon but that meant that we could have a relaxing morning reading, shopping and then get picked up by the sweetest guy (who is a guide for the Tangoriro Crossing five times a week...he is crazy!) and a big van to stretch out in! Jodie wanted to do another hike that day because she is amazing so she traded seats with a guy on the original bus so it was down to us three in the spacious van!

Apparently pies is the huge rave over in NZ as is in the UK. I think it's disgusting having mince and cheese for breakfast and lunch and supper but they love it over here. So our driver took us to the best spot and I had butter chicken pie and Dan had steak and cheese...not bad actually! Not amazing but good enough to say that the bakery sure knows how to do pies!

We arrived at our hostel tired and not looking forward to hiking all our luggage up the stairs to our room. The best surprise in the world awaited us when we opened our door to find our room to be the cutest loft ever! And beside each bed was our luggage that Jodie had brought up, with a few of the boys' help! It was amazing and when we found Jodie we screamed and bear hugged her due to her kind act and because we had gone six hours without our friend and missed her!

This hostel was like a rustic cabin retreat along with wood-burning fireplaces and huge gathering areas were LOTR marathons were happening. It rained all afternoon and to be in front of a fire and relaxing, reading, sleeping and even skyping was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. It was the last night with our boys (sniff sniff) and in such a manner we had banana pancakes for supper and they were amazing! I need to mention that contribution of a large Nutella by Andrew...it was the icing on the cake. As our last night ended by discussions of head massages, picture transfers and good times we felt so blessed to have met these guys and experience the North Island with them. Luv B