milestones galore! Laura

Warning: the following passage may contain egregious spelling and punctuation errors due to using a keyboard slightly larger than my thumb which is all a result of the lacking free internet access, emphasis on free, in new zealand


Today is marked as a momentous day for various reasons and I will begin with the most apparent...we have a new president! Which leads us to our second milestone, we woke up at 515 in the morning today. Serendipitously we were near a TV just in time to see obama sworn in with jumbled words and all(the nerves were endearing!), as you
may presume, we were
not awake at that hour in order to pay our patriotic duties, but because we were on our way to one of our least-anticipated yet continually most memorable (for better or worse) activities - trekking! Which will be referred to as 'tramping' while in new zealand to refer to one of the most popular activities for its countrymen - it's not just for you granola-eating, subaru
-driving,tree-huggers up in Vermont down here in new zealand. Oh, I jest! In reality, despite how I try to hide it, I have become the greatest proponent of general outdoorsiness in the group. So as today is our ONE HUNDRETH day of travel (yet another milestone to add to your list) and we are in the land of 'great walks' (and lord of the rings), we planned a tramp of EPIC proportions in which one Laura Fox and Jessica Caimi set out at 8 am to conquer or succumb to new zealand's greatest day walk (rest assured that the term 'walk' is used very lightly
here) in which we were to face craters, summits, emerald lakes, and sulfur fields aka mount DOOM, the land of the orgs, etc, all of which are sights in lord of the rings that were shot there - we were hopeful that the similarities would end there and we would fair better than Frodo and Sam :\
(apologies for the unabashed lord of the rings references as I just saw not only the first film but all three last week for the first time)

While seeing some truly other worldly landscapes on the tongaruro alpine crossing, Jess was able to recreate various scenes from the film while I tried in vain to deny my new identity as an outdoorsy person. I suppose while on the walk there were two more milestones - first, we decided that five or six hours is our physical and mental limit for a day hike especially considering that we were not the most professionally outfitted group with my 'streetwear' adidas and all. Too bad the walk took us seven hours...which not only led us to fits of delerious laughter and hobbling on feet that had tried to run away from our bodies hours earlier, but also to the completion of our longest trek/tramp to date! The length was allegedly 18 and a half kilometers but man oh man that last half kilo went on long enough for Jess to contemplate setting up shop in the bush while also talking to herself (first sign of legit delirium, I have recently learned). Thankfully the third member of our party, miss Katy Jane, who had pased on the hike, was waiting at the end of the path ready to mother our rather tired selves.

I have a few photos on my phone from today - not only do they not do the land justice, but I am just not that patient to figure out how to add them now, so I implore you to look up the park online. At the close of this most memorable day, I would like to thank all of you for your support and positive thoughts throughout our first one hundred days and we will in turn send our support and positive thoughts to the states on this the first of, hopefully, many proud days for our country, good deal?