Lucky Girls

This past weekend, while Danielle went on a lovely little camping trip up to Waipu, Megan, Christy and I hiked to The Pinnacles in the Kauaeranga Valley on the beloved Coromandel Peninsula . We camped on the bottom the night before in our little Connie, woke up to mosquitoes in our ears, and got out of there before we had to pay for our campsite.
Waiting outside the visitors center to pay for our little hut and start our trek, we were quite the sight...making breakfast out of our little stove with all our stuff strewn around the car, eating oatmeal in the parking lot...

When we went to go pay for the hut, the ranger almost laughed at us, as the hut with 80 beds was totally booked--TILL JANUARY--but to our relief, only a few minutes earlier a group of three had canceled their reservation...(This, I feel like, is the story of our lives over here. Having no plans, but everything always working out for us. It could be that because we don't have any plans, ever, anything that happens is great and so it seems that everything just works out, or maybe we're just lucky...it's probably a little bit of both).

The hike was great, lots and lots of stairs and entirely uphill. We were so impressed by the kiwis of ALL ages cruisin up the mount. After three hours of INCLINE Meg, Christy and I arrived at our first kiwi hut. The Pinnacles Hut, come to find out, is the flashest hut in the whole country, consisting of 80 beds, running water, gas stoves, and a shower. It felt like a hostel on the top of a mountain (a little trippy actually and not exactly an intense nature experience). The night before all three of us squeezed into our car and slept on therm-a-rests, but on our backpacking trip we slept on a mattress...what? I know, it's confusing. But we had a good time up there with the other 77 people.

The whole experience has got me thinking though...I mean, how wonderful is it that they make backpacking so accessible to everyone. You don't need a bunch of gear or patagucci to go on these long walks, and it gets people who normally wouldn't backpack outside moving their butts and engaging the landscape... something about that sounds right.

All to say, we had a wonderful time. We hiked back down this morning and arrived at Conn just as it started to rain. We drove to Sola Cafe in Thames, a nearby township; after enjoying a vege sandwich and a warm cup of coffee, we walked back out to find that Connie had a super duper FLAT tire. And, did you know that AAA works here? Well, it most definitely does, so after making a few phone calls, we played a few card games back in our little cafe, hung out with the nice road side service man and were back on the road to meet Danielle back in Auckland. So here we are, staying one last night at the house on Hamlin Rd with the lovely boys who have hosted us so many nights.

We are camping out on the living room floor. As I write, Danielle and our new lovely friend Kate Anstis are reading, all snuggled up on the couch. Christy is uploading photos on to her computer, and Megan is reading The Dharma Bums.

Tomorrow, we think should hold an adventure to a famous Auckland chocolate shop, some rock climbing, and perhaps some kite surfing...who knows...