Friday morning we were able to sleep in a bit. The funny part about this is that our guide James cannot sleep in to save his life. By about 7am he's already had breakfast, packed as much of the van as he is able without disturbing us and is ready to go. He has no problem making as much noise as possible to let us know that he is awake (probably hoping that we will wake up and start getting ready). This is a common trend that we've noticed during the few days that we've actually been able to sleep in on this trip. So last night we were smart and slept with ear plugs and the doors to the family room shut so we could enjoy our chance to sleep in. :)
Our drive was about 4 hours long. Just enough to experience the road and still have time to play. Originally, the plan was to camp in Taupo but a miracle occurred and the cabins that we tried to book suddenly had two openings- just enough for us. So we jumped on the opportunity. Not that I don't enjoy camping its just that I was ready to have a real bed and a real shower again. It worked out perfectly because we girls could have one whole cabin to ourselves for one last party before going home. We created a shopping list and made a dinner plan before hitting the grocery store. We all chipped in $10 and headed off to buy our ingredients for a salad, spaghetti and plenty of ice cream, tim tams, and milo. It was awesome. After dropping off our groceries at the cabin we put on our togs and hit the hot pools.
These hot pools are different from the ones in Rotorua because they are thermal powered through underground magma and don't carry that sulfur smell (which is so nice!). They had a normal pool attached to the hot springs that also had a water slide! We spent a good part of the afternoon racing each other down the slide- super fun! Around 7 we decided it was time for dinner so we headed back and everyone took turns preparing the food and showering (since there were only two showers). Even though it was just spaghetti it seemed like one of the best meals we've eaten while being on our trip. We had heaps of the stuff left over (enough for breakfast the next morning and yes we did eat it for breakfast... not as bad tasting as you might think). It was so nice not to be in a tent or hostel or someone else's house. We had the whole place to ourselves and we could just relax a bit without having to go anywhere or do anything.
Last night we had started watching Stardust but had stopped it half way through because it was late and everyone was tired (I actually fell asleep in the first five minutes of the movie). So we finished watching Stardust and then broke out the ice cream, milo, and tim tams for tim tam slams. Let me tell you now that tim tam slams by themselves can create a buzzing effect because of the amount of sugar you consume but add ice cream to the mix and it can get off the charts! Which made a perfect segway for a "planned" dance party. It was so much fun rocking out and sharing our incredibly amazing dance moves with each other haha. We wrapped the evening up with How to Train Your Dragon. Everyone teased me because I stayed awake past midnight (I've usually been the first one to fall asleep but that's only because I don't sleep in the car like everyone else- I'm too excited about the scenery and seeing as much of NZ as possible). It was such a great ending to our amazing South Island trip. It's hard to believe that it is over, especially since we've been (well, mostly Erika) planning this trip since last August.
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