1/31/16
What was supposed to be our lazy day to recover from our hike, turned into a pretty active day of over 10 miles of walking. We wanted to chill at the beach, but before that we needed to check into a different hostel that we had booked. By the time we actually got to the beach, which was farther than we expected from our hostel, we had done a lot of walking. When we got there it was very relaxing though.
We saw some black swans that we got pretty close to. Nate pretended he had food and they inched closer. You could tell they were pissed off when they realized he didn’t have anything. 
It also ended up being a pretty big day in Taupo, it was packed because there was a high speed boat race on the lake. Definitely some cool free entertainment!
More walking occurred when we were hungry for lunch, and when we wanted to go back to our hostel, and when when we wanted to venture out to the natural hot spas. We headed out to these hot springs at around sundown and when we got there it was pretty dark. The first pool we tried was way to hot for us. We went down to where the hot water springs met the river and it was amazing. You could find a temperature that was right for you because the cold river water was mixing with the hot springs. It was pretty amazing that if you laid down, half of your body could be in cold water and half could be in hot water. So relaxing and it felt great on our sore muscles. It was around 11 when we left and we hadn’t eaten dinner yet so we were pretty hungry. We ended up walking a pretty long ways to the McDonald’s in Taupo since most restaurants were closed by then.
It was a fun day, but not the lazy day we had planned on.
2/1/16
We departed from lovely Lake Taupo in the morning to head for River Valley. On the way we took a scenic drive through Tongariro National Park where awesome our driver Rob told us a cool Maori story about how the volcanos formed. Basically there was a war between the guy volcanos over the one girl volcano. In the National Park, we took some hikes to two beautiful waterfalls: Taranaki Falls and Tawhai Falls.
As we started getting closer to the adventure lodge in River Valley, we lost phone service and the road started to get very narrow and twisty and turny. I don’t usually get car sick, but I had to try to keep my eyes on the road the best I could from the middle of the bus to keep from hurling. As soon as we arrived, I collapsed on one of the couches to let my tummy recover.
Before dinner, we took a dip in the river by jumping off a little trolley that is used to get across the river, or for many to get in perfect position to jump into the river. It was a bit chilly but so refreshing! 
We ate dinner family style at the lodge. The roast chicken dinner they made for us was delicious! After a good time chatting with other guests, relaxing by the river, and playing a game of cribbage, we joined the crowd watching the table challenge. The lodge has a long wooden table and they move the benches and challenge guests to start on the top of the table and to go under and back up on top without touching the legs of the table or the floor. Many tried and many failed and no girl has ever done it because you need a certain arm span to reach around the table. Nate decided to give it a go, and was one of the two people to do it that night. It was awesome and he got a giant round of applause.
2/2/16
We woke up early because it was time to white water raft in some of the best rapids in New Zealand and with the most respected guides in the country. I was a bit nervous for my first time rafting and the river has many grade 3-5 rapids and is very technical. Once we were on the river, I felt very safe and trusted my guide Ants because I could tell he really knew what he was doing. By the time we hit rapids, he had taught us everything we needed to do safety wise and technically to make it through the rapids. While many people in other rafts fell over board and other rafts tipped, our raft rocked the rapids without any INTENTIONAL flips and Nate and I had an amazing time. 
Once again, the drive out of river valley was brutal with the hour of twisty roads and it was miserable from the back of the bus. The rest of the day was a long 4 hour drive to Wellington. After arriving around 6:30, we had dinner and a relaxing evening at our hostel!
Live, Dream, Be Mary 