The Family Establishment

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We hopped aboard The InterIslander again today and are now back on the North Island again. The plan was to stay here in Turangi tonight and hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing tomorrow before driving the last two hours back to Hamilton but word on the street (or at least among the backpacking community) is that the weather isn’t going to be great tomorrow. So now we’re thinking we might stay here an extra day and do the hike on Wednesday when the conditions are better.

For now we’re at a family run backpacker’s hostel and it’s defiantly the most family oriented one we’ve come across so far. When we walked in the owner greeted us by name (he knew we were coming because we’d called to ask for directions) and his young daughter wrote us a note telling us her name because she was too shy to actually talk to us. When we were showed to our room and the owner opened the door and three more little girls popped out from behind one of the beds and giggled as they ran out the door under our feet as the owner (presumably the father of at least some of them) shoed them out. We put our bags down on the brightly colored fire-engine bed sheets and got our stuff together to make dinner.

The other woman in the kitchen with us was from Israel and the mother of one of the little girls running around. She too has plans to hike the trail and is bringing her six year old daughter with her! She says her daughter loves nature and loves to hike but with such a young child she won’t go tomorrow if the weather is bad. The little girl watched us intently and gobbled down at least three different kinds of salad, each more colorful than the last, as her mother spoke to us. What a life! So young and already conquering 19.4 kilometer alpine crossings! If I ever have kids they better be just like that!

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