I’m up at the Discovery Lodge next to Tongariro and Ruapehu now. =)
Getting up at 5.45am was a pain in the ass. Seriously. I took the Overlander to get to National Park…and I basically slept through the first three hours till Palmy.
It was a nice train ride, but very slow. Trains in Europe go waaaaaaaay faster. =P I know it‘s not really sensible here but it took half a day to get to National Park and that’s kinda long.
The train from Auckland was running late so we had an hour lunch break at Okahune. It was much colder here already. I started to wonder if I’d packed the right clothes…and I was longing for Mr.XY’s blanket…I could already feel being cold at night. =S
I arrived in National Park and Tina picked me up from the station. Aww, Tina…she’s a good girl. She started talking the moment I jumped out of the train and she didn’t really stop anymore. *gg* Something was wrong with the car, it didn’t start when she wanted to come here to pick me up so we went to a mechanic who should fix it. Right into it…Tina never gives you time to arrive somewhere. She’s one of the most energetic and powerful people I know and quite adventurous on top of it.
We arrived at the mechanics and met Alan. =) Who was just about to leave for his farm in Horopito. Was good to see him again. =) He hugged me and got sawdust all over me, explaining afterwards that this is his new disguise as a timber. =P Since it would take about 1 and a half hours to fix Tina’s car, Alan gave us a lift to his place where we had tea and cake, I patted a cat, tiny little goats and looked at his mini pig. *gg* I’ve been into cities too long, again. I didn’t bring much that I can get dirty and I was like „whoa, it’s animals and nature!“ again. Well, not much of those around in Frankfurt. =P
When Tina’s car was fixed, we got to a place to hire boots for me and our „we’re gonna climb Mt Ruapehu“ trip tomorrow (O.o) plus some funny snow pants…the kind that I last wore as a child when I couldn’t dress myself. *LOL* We both felt very funny…
After that I finally got to see the Discovery lodge and, at last, to unpack my stuff from the car. Into a cabin where we’ll sleep in the first nights as the lodge is fully booked. There’s not much in here except for a bed and a queen’s size bed plus a heater but it reminded me a lot of the cabin we stayed in in Te Anau so I squeaked a lot. =P
Up to meet the people Tina works with…getting to hear again that there will be Tina/Nina confusion now…having dinner and now feeling like falling into bed at 8.30. Which I probably will do as I nearly fell asleep at 6.30 already and I n.e.e.d. to sleep a lot because we’ll get up at 6am tomorrow and spent the whole day on the mountain. O.o Hopefully it’s gonna be good. O.o I haven’t done much except for sitting around in the last 6 months so this should be…interesting *cough exhausting cough* We’ll see. =)
Ooh, and of course I didn’t manage to finish my uni crap so I had to bring it. =S Unfortunately. And I won’t get anything done tomorrow, that’s for sure. BUT I just figured out that since I have to hand it in on September 1st, I will not only have the whole Sunday to work on it but also Monday cause August has 31 days and not 30 as I thought. =D *pats own head*
