Sadly, our sleep at Adventure Lodge wasn’t that greatest. The first night it rained all night and we heard every drop on our tin roof. It also didn’t bode well for our Tongariro Crossing hike the next day. Tongariro is a national park with a volcano and mountains that is known as one of the best hikes in the world. We got up at 6am and were told the weather was too bad to go up. We were pretty bummed.. but decided to get breakfast and see if the weather cleared off.

Breakfast was fantastic. All the cafes and bakeries here have incredible savory scones. I had a cheesy, herb, and bacon scone that was so so good. Also had some eggs as NZ is known for great eggs.. they were scrumptious. It got sunny while we were at breakfast so we decide to try the trek. We were even treated to a rainbow!

We got to the starting point and could see clouds covering the volcano so Kathryn and I decided to do the ‘easier trek’ to a waterfall. Justin wanted to to try the main path, so we split. We decided to hike for 3 hours and meet back at the car. All the paths are marked with estimated times and the easy path said ‘2.5 hrs return’ so we were off. The weather on our hike went through every stage – we had warm sun, clouds, rain, and cold. We packed layers and needed all of them! The path was also not that easy.. there were many areas where water had carved the path into trenches that were a bit tough the maneuver. I didn’t bring hiking shoes, only tennis shoes, since I didn’t check a bag from the states, so struggled a bit on the path. We also realized quite quickly that the path was going to take longer than we thought. It ended up taking us 5 hrs instead of 3 even though we kept a rather quick pace.. we texted Justin to let him know and kept on going! The spectacular views were worth it! The waterfall was nice, but the best parts were the views of the snow capped mountain and volcano. We took a lot of photos.

The hike back was pretty rough. It was the same route as the way out so we had seen the views and were trying to make up time. At that point, my old-lady-ankles were pretty sore and my knee was starting to ache.. Kathryn too. We also ran out of water.. it was a rough one, but we made it! Justin was waiting for us when we got back as he hadn’t gotten our texts. I felt horrible. He had been an hour late so had only waited an hour for us, but still.. we all piled in the car and stopped at a bar on the way home for a drink, snack, and unwind. It was nice to sit and decompress.

After showering and resting in the room, we went to a Roast Feast at the Station Restaurant in town. It was a surprisingly nice place and the meal was wonderful. Justin really liked the corn chowder, while I dove into the pork roast and we all left sufficiently full. Then we went home and crashed.