Day 10 - January 31

Waking up at 8 AM with the breakfast buffet again calling our names, we headed downstairs to get some food in our bellies for the eventful day ahead. Right as we awoke, we called a cab to pick all 5 of us up at the hotel. This cab is going to take us to Schnapps Bar which is right by the destination of Tawhai Falls(ecosystem) where we want to spend some time today. This car ride is 3 hours and 48 minutes long to the restaurant and we ordered a Venison Pie. The 5 of us ordered just one large venison pie to split for lunch before heading to our first stop, the Tawhai Falls.  This pie is similar to the cultural pie of New Zealand called Kiwi Meat pie. This pie is a soft pasty with a crust exterior wrapped around a filling which is often mixed beef. They have a dollop of tomato sauce on it generally and are served in huge fast food chain restaurants within New Zealand.

This being said, it is similar to the pie we ordered and got an even better feel for the original food cuisine. After leaving the restaurant at about 1pm we decide to head on over to the Tawhai Falls which is not only a beautiful waterfal but also an amazing sight that is in multiple scenes in the movie The Hobbit. While we walked around the water fall we enjoyed seeing the familar sights from the movie we just recently watched and seeing all of the beautiful wildlife within this enviornment. These falls are beautiful, refreshing, and breathtaking. Hearing the flow of water and the crash against the rocks, it is amazing. Becuase we took the bottom bath we were able to see and be near the part of the waterfall where the water crashes. Jill and John wanted to get higher up without going all the way back up the trail to be ablke to get to the top so they climed over a few rocks to catch some amazing pictures.

We spent 2-3 hours there and then left the falls at around 3:30 PM. We got another cab to head over to Mt. Ngauruhoe which is 16 minutes away from Tawhai Falls. This quick drive was filled with peace and tranquility from seeing and hearing the falls. We enjoyed the car ride very much and although it was very short in time Jill still found a way to take a quick nap before we got to Mt. Ngauruhoe(ecosystem).

Once arriving at Mt. Ngauruhoe we hiked up to the top with a tour guide and saw over the landscape. This hike was very long because we stopped multiple times to talk about the enviornment aorund us such as to why the dirt was such a dark deep brown which almost looked black, and that was because of volcanic ash that had spewed out from Mt. Ngauruhoe because it is still an active volcano. Overall the sights were beyond what the great reviews said because the tour guide was very infromative and made us feel very safe although you may not while walking on an active volcano. With the feeling of freedom and adventure coursing through our veins, we sat as high as they would let us and we admired the beauty of New Zealand. Taking all of this in was stunning and ended our day on a great note. Still feeling inspired, we loaded into a cab and headed back to the hotel. We stopped at McDonalds right outside of the hotel for a "late snack" as Jill likes to call it. After ordering 4 cheeseburgers and a wrap, we walked back to the hotel and ate our food. We all immediately headed to bed and turned on netflix to help us fall asleep after finishing a very busy day!