Walk away me boys and by morning you'll be free

Greetings from the best smelling town in the southern hemisphere.

Today began with a multi kilometre mission to find the Department of Conservation (DOC) office which was just outside town. Upon reaching the building we found it vacant. After consulting with a neighbouring plumbing company we learned they had moved across the road, down a long laneway partway into a local park. We arrived and as they are not near one of the great walks they could offer us no information or answers to our questions other then "have you tried the internet?" or "you should really ask someone about that". Once we internalized these words of wisdom we set out back for town.

We now have the next few days to week and a half planned out, depending on how things go. We leave tomorrow afternoon on the Nakedbus (we took it from Auckland, a bus company that is cheap but also mandates clothes apparently...) towards Tongariro National Park and a little town outside it called Whakappa (which, with the kiwi pronounciation, transaltes to FUCK-a-pappa...I'm starting to think the country is just playing a joke on us). From there we will get our permits and [hopefully] start the first great walk, the Tongariro Northern Circuit. The walk will take us over and around a couple mountains through volcanic craters and glacial valleys. The walk should take 3-4 days but could be longer depending on weather. After that we are going to hitchike to the next walk which is a multi-day paddle along the Wannganui river (so far not aware of any inappropriate pronounciations). For this one we will need to rent either kayaks or "Canadian Canoes" as they are advertised down here. We're not sure if solitutde or patriotism will win out so it will come down to budget.

Today to relax we had a swim in the hostels pool. It's outdoors and heated naturally, not quite as hot as the bubbling mud puddles in the park across the street but much cleaner and still nice knowing we are swimming in something heated by the nearby volcano. We're hoping for our first dinner tonight as last night we opted to go for a liquid diet past 6:30pm which saw the night end past midnight (a huge feat for us) and with both of us being eliminated from a pool tournament at a local bar.

Depending on how the walks go I'm not sure when the next time we will be able to access the internet will be, so I'll be updating sometime in the future. Godspeed.