Julie and Jay's big catch

First of all - before we get to the "big catch," we did go on a hike....see the view? Pretty neat eh? This is Mt. Ngauruhoe in Tongariro National Park.

Jay's big catch! A rainbow trout from some stream in the park.
Julie's BIG catch. Enough cheap NZ wool to knit Jay a sweater. For how mucn$ you ask? Man, I'm gonna buy the place out...it was about $27 US for all this wool. In the states, you would be looking at $100. I'm in paradise.

Well - we are back on the road! We are slowly making our way to the South Island where we hope to work on a vineyard. But we decided to take our time getting there and explore a bit of the Taranaki coastline and Tongariro NP. We haven't gotten to Taranaki yet, that's happening in a few hours. But we did hike the Tongariro Crossing yesterday. We hope that will be the most crowded thing we do - because MAN it was THE most crowded trail we have ever been on. But, we can see why. This hike takes you up into volcanic craters, beautiful lakes, steaming rocks and vents, and through a gorgeous forest at the end. My favorite part was warming my hands up at the top of "Red Crater" on the steaming rocks. It seemed wrong that I was standing there with all this steam and stinky sulphur smell. But, so were lots of other people, so it must be safe right? =)
Anyway - I feel like I can't complain about all the hikers. I would rather people be out on a mountain than in a mall. So, it was OK in the end.
OK - tim'es running low on the internet.
Hope everyone had a great Turkey Day. Send pics and email us soon!