Kiwi Birthdays and Canadian Birthdays!

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Egmont National Park
March 5th 2007

Published: March 12th 2007

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Kickinitkiwi

Birthday with Mom

Best Present Ever

Mom and Gary left early the morning of the 5th to set off to hike Mt. Taranaki in Egmont National Park. We, without any hesitation at all, decided to spend another day and night in Okura and meet up with them the next day. So we had a lazy sleep-in, went out for coffee at a little cafe on the beach and then planted ourselves on the beach for the rest of the day...which, once again we had entirely to ourselves. We alternated swimming and sun-tanning throughout the day...rough, we know. We cooked a great dinner, with a nice bottle of wine. It was the perfect day to give Dennis' knee a rest from his previously busy days. (And you didn't hear Mel complaining either)

Next morning was the 6th...Melissa's quarter century birthday. But since she was born in Canada...and Canada is a day behind...so being only March 5th at home...we weren't sure EXACTLY when to celebrate, so we figured a "kiwi-bday" on the 6th and a "Canadian-bday" on the 7th. 😊
We drove to Mt. Taranaki in the morning, but just went as far as the visitors centre for breakfast. It's a beautiful mountain... used as a "stand-in" for

Gibby on the Beach

Mt. Fuji in "The Last Samurai." After breakfast we headed towards Tongariro National Park to meet up with Mom and Gary. Tongariro National Park is a World Heritage Area and has 3 active volcanoes...the most recent eruption was from Mt. Ruapehu in 1995. The park is also where they filmed all the Mordor scenes for Lord of the Rings. Mom and Gary were there in hopes of catching good enough weather to do one of NZ's most popular hikes...Tongariro Crossing. Because the weather can change so drastically at those heights and the winds are so dangerous, there are only very specific conditions that the 8 hour hike should be attempted. So we got a campsite in the park where we could keep up to date with the ever-changing weather reports for the next day. The rest of the day was fun, spent hanging out and enjoying Melissa's bday. We had lunch in a restaurant in the hotel in the park (very fairmont-ish) and later cooked a very good dinner, with bday drinks, cakes, presents and a competitive crib tournament. It was a very good day, and so nice to have my mom here to celebrate with me.

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