Dumb and Dumber 3

---

"Like children realizing they are in candyland!" thats how a bystandard would have described my facial expression. With 2 scooters with plenty of coastal roads to explore, it's quite liberating going 60+ km/hour on the duct-tape bound instruments we hired on Waiheke Island. Only stopping for a little lunch, a wine tasting and what turned out to be 30 min of laughing at the alpacas, we navigated most every road on the island. We returned to Auckland, for one of the best nights out yet, at the Physio Ball, in Mission Bay (Auckland), with all the Physical therapy students - a course of study that was fortunately still dominated by women

Then back down to my Ruapehu, in our specially requested maunual Nissan POS. After a night out with the liftees and Andrew's other coworkers, we arose to a much warmer Mt. Ruapehu than 2 weeks ago. Turoa was even more fun this time. After a few warm up runs, we headed for the skies. Hiking from the top lift to the peak of Ruapehu seemed an easy feet when viewed from below. Suprisingly, it was a very icy ascent, that God did not want us to complete, as we couldn't even find enough powder to imagine an enjoyable decent worth the treacherous venture skyward. What energy we had left was spent goofing around on the snow parks throughout the ski field through the next day.


Exhausted we, like the late, great Dale Earnhardt raced up windy roads trying to make record time. Around 1 am, after a few lattes and Vs (the local Red Bulls), we pulled into the the almost empty parking lot at Hot Water Beach, where you can dig into the sand and find geothermal hot water springs leaking to the surface by the shore break. Apparently, only at low tide. Which we did not have since we slept through the first one, and the Sunny Nissan was due back in a few short hours.

Back in Auckland, we made it to a really fun house party (felt more like high school party, except everyone was wearing black, but wasn't emo) to watch the All Blacks (NZ's national rugby team) lose to South Africa. The next day a group of us from the X Base Hostel ventured over to watch a local rugby match, which almost put me to sleep, even though I did figure out most of the rules.

---

Photos

Ferry Ride
Auckland in the Background, Excited Allen in the Foreground

I've Had Better
Wine Tasting at StonyRidge Winery, Waiheke Island

The lift only goes part of the way
Turoa side of Mt Ruapehu, from the bottom lift

Fly Pinkie, Fly!
Allen, spreading his wings

Turoa Cliffs
They used wayyyy to many signs and warning fences to make it clear that if you got 50 more feet you will fall to your death

Physio Ball
Our buddy Jake got us into the Physio-Therapist Ball, with almost unlimited free red bull and Export Gold!

Brazil, Russia, England and America
Bunk Beds in the hostel