I woke up without an alarm because there was this thing, I’m pretty sure it was sunlight that got me all excited. I ran to the back patio, and yes, in the distance, there was the top of a giant mountain. That’s why he booked three days. It was worth it. Basically. I mean, well, it took that long to see anything.

The first hike we took was called Kea Point (no, no keas) and it showed us the tops of the peaks surrounding the area and the water everything ran in to. About an hour. Then we went to Hooker Valley, to make it to the base of the mountain and the best view. Wow. We should have skipped the first one. There were bridges. And rocks. I mean, I’ve never hiked anything like that – well, I’m not a hiker or anything, but it was nuts – it was the longest, biggest, scariest (over water and rocks and certain death) thing we had done yet. I imagine it was only just over two hours there, two hours back, but in was a tough walk. We got to the base of the mountain and there were ice caps floating in the water. It was spectacular.

I am pretty sure that after that we slept quite a while, again, we had no watch but it was sunny for so long that the hike and the lunch I made was an all day event. I’m glad it cleared up, both of us enjoyed it and afterwards we changed up and had dinner and went to this “Old Mountaineer’s Bar” – it was 5 years old – then played pool and called it a successful day.

Honestly, honestly: we were ready to go home. It was a LONG trip. A great, amazing, I don’t have words and I’m supposed to be blogging about it, trip – but we were toast.