By Elliot

Distance: 14km

To clear up any confusion this might be causing: National Park is the name of a tiny town.

We didn’t stay in our tent last night, which was the right call as the night was cold and wet. As we woke up, had breakfast and packed up (all indoors), it continued to be cold and raining. The temperature this morning was below 10C, and reminded us of the Vancouver winter we are currently avoiding.

After a stop at the town’s coffee cart this morning, where we met a Scottish botanist who was in Tongariro to study the local plants, we were off.

The path we walked was super well maintained most of the way, with beautiful forests and long boardwalks. It almost made me forget the weather!

The only issue was that because everything was wet, there was no good place to stop for lunch, so we ended up walking the whole track and only had lunch by 2pm. By that time, I was exhausted, had wet feet and couldn’t stand another mud puddle that I needed to avoid walking through.

What I found cool today is that some of the scenery we walked through reminded me of the forests around Vancouver. Maybe it’s the elevation that we are at, or that we’ve gone far enough south that the climate might be similar.

We are spending another night indoors. We even managed to do laundry, which, given the two days worth of mud caked onto my pants, was sorely needed.

We went out for dinner to the one restaurant in town, and I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated being in a restaurant as much before. It wasn’t the food. Being able to sit and not have to make any effort for food to appear in front of me while I’m warm and indoors has never felt like more of a luxury.