tongariro crossing

livia and i got up at like 5.30 in the morning, had a huge breakfast and got going. there were so many people doing the walk, but what would you expect?! its supposed to be the most beautiful day walk in nz - and i think i can say that i agree. first of all the scenery was so totally different to what i have seen on the south island. it was volcanic, kinda looked desert like as well (flash back marocco) and you could smell the brimstone coming out of the ground. the walk was more like climbing at times and because it was sand and stones mixed together you always slid down while going up. the descent, on the other hand, was really easy. though both of us fell over a couple of times and it really hurt! my camera went flying into the air when i slipped and my hand motion must have been like a catapult cos it was 2-3 metres in the air. i was so glad when it didnt break. its got hideous scratches, though... nice! anywyas, at the top of the volcanic crater and the tip of the 'mountain' it was freekin winday - we were cold even in our wind proof jackets... it was an exhausting day. my blisters were bigger than a 5 dollar coin and the skin was hanging down... outch! at the end of the day, after 8 hours of walking, we had to find a way to get to our car, at the other end of the track... we couldnt get a shuttle cos we didnt have enough money and, to be honest, we didnt fancy paying 25 bucks for just like 20 km... so we hitchhiked. we were hardly at the end of the gravel road leading to the 'highway' when we already stopped a car with people from taiwan in it... we saw that they were already full (4 people plus luggage in the car) so we were like 'ah, shame'... but they put their stuff in the boot and we squeezed together and they actually took us all the way to our car (including down a 7 km gravel road!). they were sooooo cute! we werent even sure we would get to the right place, since we didnt really understand each other... =) but after they dropped us at the right car park we got to our car when thwy came running back to take a picture with us... =) sooo cute, as you can see on the pic...
anyways, that night we went out big time, although we were kinda tired... it ended up being an absolutely great night out and at the end we had been awake for more than 24 hours doing the tongariro crossing and everything... not bad, aye?!