Wellington

Well, our climbing of the volcano didnt go *quite as we'd planned.. as it turns out hiking for 3 days is a lot harder than we thought! we didnt leave the visitors center until almost 3, and the first park of our hike was really beautiful! we saw Mt Doom from lord of the rings (i got a play by play from circus, my live in commentary) and the landscape was really amazing. then after about 2 hours we were starting to get a little panicked.. we couldn't see out hut and we hadto make it there before dark. by around 5, it was dark and the hut was but a small speck in the distance. finally we made it. ive never been so exhausted and cold in my entire life. ever. there were some parts of the track that were completly vertical! there was no path, just run off from water! we zipped our sleeping bags together, slept for 14 hours and left early the next morning.

since we were in the middle of no where, we had to spend the night in this small small town called National Park (or as i now refer to it, Craptown). the only plus was that the hostel had a hot tub and heating pads in the bed. our bodies still havent forgiven us

Currently we are in Wellington, the capital of new zealand. we have set up camp in the backyard of a hostel but its so ridiculously windy today that the tent frightens us. so we've set up shop in the tv room with a deck of uno cards

we leave for the south island tomorrow, and im doing my best to talk circus into snowboarding on a glaicier! she was quick to remind me how our last very amibitious ourdoor adventure turned out...

and, shocker, ive been bitten by a mysterious new zealand bug. on my ankle. its very swollen and itchy. theres also a new one on the top of my hand. i brought lots of allergy medicine though!