I got into Taupo and found the YHA with no issue. Not being accustomed to hostel life I didn't realize that as a girl you ALWAYS....ALWAYS...request an all girls room, but I'll get to that later too. My first move was to introduce myself to all of my roommates. A travel from Scotland, one from England, and one from North Carolina. I really enjoyed chatting with all of these guys about the adventures they had been on in New Zealand and other places. I realized that my experience here has been so different than a three week sightseeing tour. I am not a traveler, I am a visitor.
That afternoon I set out with Stuart, my new North Carolina friend, toward Huka Falls and the hot-springs We ended up on a 6 hour hike and then had some killer Indian food.
The next day I woke up at 5 am to hike the Tongoriro Crossing. It was WAY different than anything I have seen or experienced hiking in the past. There was a constant stream of people hiking up at the same time. In places the track felt like waiting in rush hour traffic. I realized how lucky I have been in the past to feel like I had entire mountains to myself. To be fair I went on one of the busiest days of the year, they estimated that 2,000 people hiked the crossing that day. I was incredibly grumpy for the first two hours on the mountain, but the volcanoes snapped me out of it pretty quickly. The volcanic surroundings were so foreign and vast that I feel like I can only really describe them as epic, not beautiful, just amazingly large and powerful.
In the morning I couldn't see much above the cloud line. As I ate breakfast the clouds began to role over the hills around me.
The crater you walk through before the second large stint of uphill climbing.
Woman who took this, "You are making me really nervous standing like that"
Her friend, "That's the mother coming out in her"
Me, "Don't worry I am sure my mom will back you up on that one"
An idea of the number of people on the track. This is a ROUGH climb, I was amazed at how many people did it.
The Emerald Lakes on the other side of the summit. Again, really different beauty from the alpine lakes I am used to.
The red crater
Mount Ngauruhoe, Mt. Doom for my LOTR fans. The clouds cleared and all of a sudden this MASSIVE volcano was there.
That night I came back to the YHA to find a letter from Stuart inviting me to dinner at his friend's house in town. I went and spent the night hanging out with the lovely company of two new NC camp oriented friends and a French roommate. They really reminded me of my lovely Orkila adventure minded friends. It was wonderful to encounter genuine and friendly people on the other side of the planet. They made an Easter Feast and I had my first Speights. Overall a nice relaxing end to a very busy and awe inspiring day.
Now imagine this. I am asleep, snug as a bug in my YHA comforter and completely zonked out. 2:30 AM enter drunken Kiwi roommates. Four of them, all completely and utterly wasted. So to set the scene a little more, I am one female in a room with 7 men. No big deal, except the bro to normal human ratio got far to high. The guy next to me decides he would rather have his misadventure sans clothes. So now there is a very naked very drunken Kiwi who is really struggling to make his bed about 3 feet from me. I decided to help him out rather than listen to him struggle for another 20 minutes. 2:30 am Ashley is evidently much less of a prude than 7 am Ashley, and lucky for me YHA doesn't believe in nighlights. Anyway helped him with his pillowcase and just kept saying, "yep, yep, ok, just go to sleep". Around 20 minutes of conversations I wish I could unhear about tattoos in unheard of places and sex and all sorts of sillyness ensued and then the whole lot of them were snoring. I would sincerely like to thank the drunken escapades of NWICSA sailors over the years for getting me through through that experience.
Easter morning I went out for a walk around Taupo to avoid the parade of hungover naked men that I expected my room was about to become. Had a lovely coffee and walk along the shore. It had that feeling a place has before people really start moving. It feels like the world isn't quite awake yet.
I checked out, accepted apologies from my roommates, and spent the rest of the morning writing postcards and poking around the shops. Then it was back to Wellington and dinner with Nikki and Cam. Getting so excited to go on our trip in a few weeks!
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