Day 24 River Valley

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Today we headed to River valley which is in the middle of nowhere. It was quite a long journey there with a couple stops. One stop was at Tongariro national park to see a waterfall, so although Em and I did not get to do the crossing we did get to walk part of the park. Felt very refreshed after the 2 hour walk through a climate that was very reminiscent of the good old Ashdown Forest back home. We also stopped at a giant carrot, but I was half asleep and just looked out the window pretty bloody confused. I'm still not too sure why.



Another was an ice cream stop to try the infamous tip top of the New Zealand ice cream scene. It was delicous, plus twas the cheapest ice cream ever at £1.75 for a two scoop (that for some reason actually means 3 scoops). There was also the added entertainment that the vendor had a heavy Asian accent and really couldn't say scoop and would say SCOO, ("you want double scoo?") I had to refrained heavily from laughing.



River Valley was super cool and really isolated in a valley with a river in the middle if you hadn't worked that out from the name. The dorm was really great for us as a group now as its like one giant bunk with a row of 12 on bottom and 12 on top. Pretty glad we have a great group of us travelling and this wasn't at the beginning because you are all squashed in and could be pretty awkward if you weren't acquainted. We wandered and played some giant jenga and of course I knocked it down – we did make it one time round and halfway after 17 of us have played so I'm surprised it got that far.



We utilised the BBQ outside and played drinking games plus some more giant jenga until we headed inside the lodge where Lisa our bus driver set us challenges which if we completed we would get a shot.. The boys had one which involved getting over and around a table without anything touching the floor. Given that this table was a really long they had no legs or anything to grip onto. Unfortunately none of our lot manage to do it but they are covered in bruise and battle wounds from trying.



Funniest moment of the evening was us peer pressuring Lisa to attempt this table game (it is only generally achievable by men because of width of the table and the strength it requires). She essentially laid on top of the table and rolled off the side and thumped onto the floor. I don't know if the tequila shots she had been doing helped by numbing the fall or really made her just awful at the game – It was like she didn't even try. There was everyone around the table collectively going OOOH OWWW HAHAHAHA.




The version of the game that gave the girls a chance to get some glory involved a chair and a match box. You had to sit on a chair and a matchbox was placed behind on of the chair legs you had to round the opposite side of the chair and pick up the match box with your mouth. No hands and legs must touch the floor. Logistically in my head this sounded so easy. In reality the chair loses balance and you fall off – I didn't even get near the matchbox. Joe however took one for the team and absolutely nailed it.

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