1 Kilometer is Equivalent to .6 Miles

I had such a hard time choosing a photo for today! But I think this one describes it best. We woke up early, got breakfast and headed out for this walking trail that takes you along the Waikato river and leads you to the famous waterfall, Huka Falls. It was raining, but the lady at the iSite ensured us its okay to do in the rain.

On the walk you pass these naturally hot thermal pools along the stream and people are free to swim in them. We came prepared to do so, but planned on doing it on the way back so our clothes wouldn't be wet and uncomfortable the whole walk. It was somewhere along that area where we checked out the thermal pools that we must have got on the wrong track. We were eventually dead-ended and had to turn around and make a different turn. We seemed to be heading further and further from the river.. but we kept going.

After almost an hour and half of walking we were pretty fed up. But turning back would just be stupid. There were times when we heard the waterfall and times when we didn't. Once we started reaching some signs we realized we were on a mountain bike trail. The sign pointed the direction to Huka falls: 2.3 kilometers. Both of us (idiotically) couldn't remember if 1 km was .6 miles or 1.6 miles. Either way we still had a while

The concern turned to what we would do if a mountain biker came swinging around the trail. Granted, it was raining and not a good day to bike, but at some points we were up against curvy ledges and had someone swung around... we probably would have been pushed off. We were so delirious at this point we were finding this funny. Only a couple of people passed us and it didn't cause any trouble. Just confusion as to why were on the mountain bike trail to begin with.

Finally after what felt like 3 hours we reached the falls. They were definitely a sight to see. Above you can see it in the back behind an exhausted me and Blythe, drenched from the rain. Our legs were just about done with walking and we needed to look into transportation home. $10 dollars got us a shuttle ride back.

Since we didn't have the strength to walk back to the thermal pools we took a bus to a place where they have private indoor ones with the same mineral water. It would be nice and relaxing after the hike. So we get there and the pools were closed... Awesome.

We weren't far from that same trail we walked earlier so we just got back on it since the thermal pools weren't too far into it. Those things were cool. Felt like a hot tub in the middle of nature underneath a little waterfall and everything. Pics will be put on Facebook soon enough. Great therapy for the legs.

We cabbed back home. We heard good things about the nightlife here and it was a Saturday night, we couldn't miss out. We showered and rallied but the worst part was the only shoes we brought to go out in were heels. As if my calves could handle that. But they did.

Our hostel had a bar in its common area and we went out there and met all the other backpackers. There was a beer pong tourney and everything. We ended up going out to town with these group of guys from the UK and Scotland. They were a lot of fun and it was an awesome night :) Just had to hope the legs wouldn't feel sore tomorrow...