Two years ago, I was in the town of National Park, a small little town on the edge of Tongariro National Park. A few days prior, my buddy Mikkel and I had hitched there from Taupo, after a few crazy adventures there. Still being early spring in New Zealand, we got some unfortunately cold weather. Our climbing of Mt. Tongariro the previous day involved lots of snow and near zero visibility in the clouds. So bad that we had actually walked over the top of the mountain and started heading down the other side until we realized we had gone too far when the clouds parted for a brief second.

Upon our arrival in town the first day, we were invited to participate in National Park’s yearly rugby game against another town in the area. Needless to say, this opportunity could not be turned down and a few bruises, kicks, jabs and tackles later we found ourselves treated to a few free drinks at the local pub for our participation (one of the players worked there) and suffering.

Nov 1st I Hitched east to Napier for a few days and then on to Wellington and then to the beauty of the South Island, never to return north again. I guess it’s a bit of a shame really, some cool stuff up north, but I couldn’t be drawn away from the Southern Alps once I’d seen them.

Just some random memories from a cool little place. Still seems like yesterday…