Our last stop-Hong Kong

Our 10th and final country on our expidition was Hong Kong. We spent 3 days here, touring the city and visiting with Adam's relatives. Hong Kong is a VERY busy city, with many tall buildings, however it is very beautiful. It consists of many islands, and the islands are very mountainous. We spent our time touring around a few markets, and looking around the city. The city is so busy and difficult to walk around because of all the people, but this also makes it entertaining. We bought our final few things at the markets. One evening we went up to a lookout called the peak. The picture is from the lookout at night time. The view is incredible. It is just a sea of buildings and bright lights. We also got to have a traditional Chinese meal of Dim Sim which was excellent. Dim Sim is sort of like many appetizers. Most are similar to dumplings or spring rolls, and you share everything in a group. On our last day, we took a cable car up to the top of a mountain and saw the worlds tallest seated buddha. It was very impressive!

"Swimming" with Dolphins in Bay of Islands

Adam and I loved swimming with seals so much that we decided to give swimming with dolphins a go. We new that there was a chance we wouldn't get to swim with them if they had babies with them. Unfortunately the two pods we saw did have babies, but we did get to see lots of dolphins swimming and playing in the water. The other downer was that there were SO many people on the boat, it was hard to see the dolphins. We did see about 50 when all was said and done though, so that was good. We also went for a cruise around the Bay of Islands, which are beautiful!

Adam's Birthday BASH!!!

We arrived in taupo early in the morning to look for some accomidations for the night and while we were looking we stumbled across rapid jet boating!! It was an excellent way to spend a birthday. The jet boat streamed across the water at 100 miles per hour. (well that is what it felt like) We jumped through rapids and did a bunch of 360s. Laura was smart and wore her rain jacket, I was not as smart!!! The ride was only 45 minutes, but definetly long enough.

After yesterdays grueling hike we decided after jet boating to go to the thermal spas for a soak since both our legs were tired. It was nice to just lie around in a bunch of different pools and hot tubs - our legs thanked us!!!

Tonight for Adam's Birthday dinner-------PIZZA.

Tongariro Crossing

The Tongariro Crossing is known to be one of the best day hikes in the world. It is very weather dependant and thankfully we had a nice day on the day we decided to do it. It is a 17km hike through a volcanic area with two volcanos that you can climb up. We caught a 7am shuttle to the start of the crossing. We hiked for about 2.5 hours, with 1.5 of that being straight up. The area is called the devils staircase. After this climb we still had 11.5km to hike, however we had lots of time so we decided to do a 3 hour side trip up Ngauruhoe Volcano. This was probably the hardest 3 hours of hiking I have ever done. It literally was up the side of the volcano, which thankfully was not active. We climbed and scrambled for 2 hours until we finally reached the top. At the top we could see the big crater, and see the other volcano, Mount Ruapehu(Mt. Ngauruhoe is in the picture-the big one in the rear), in the background. We could also see the Emerald Lakes, which are small lakes that are super blue and super clear because they are very acidic. Looking back now, it was worth the climb but at the time I was SO tired!!! It was neat being on the side of a volcano though! It then took us (well me) an hour to get down. Adam ran and "skied" down on the skree, but I took a more lady like approach and slide down on my butt most of the way.
After this climb up, we still had the 11.5 km to hike. This part was very interesting terrain, unlike any of the hikes we have done. It was all rock and very barren. Thankfully the last bit was not too hard and we caught the 4pm shuttle back to our campsite. In total, we hiked/climbed for 8.5 hours straight!! Needless to say we were very tired, however we did enjoy the crossing.