Another amazing weekend, definitely in the top three I’ve had while abroad! We made the 6 hour drive out to Napier on the West coast Friday after class and stayed in the Criterion Art Deco Backpackers Hostel which had very Gatsby roaring 20’s feel to it. Walking around the town the next morning felt the same kind of way with lots of vintage shops and little street festivals. What we really drove out here for was our hike up to the Sunrise Hut. This hut was located in Ruahine forest park in the Hawke’s Bay region. We drove about an hour from Napier, seeing our first rainbow at the bottom of the trail. We hiked on the Sunset Track all the way up to the hut and arrived just before dark. To our surprise, the 20 bunk hut was already full of about 30 people consisting of adults and kids really all ages even an 8 month old!
It was so incredibly windy all night that we barely got any sleep, but it was all worth the hard floored slumber (since we were the last ones up we were stuck with the floor) when we ‘awoke’ to the sunrise. It was honestly a little dangerous being outside on the edge of the cliff in the crazed wind but we managed to hold onto each other and get a picture or two and take in all of the beauty. Afterwards we had a delicious breakfast of oatmeal and then left our packs and wanted to hike up a little trail behind the hut that would lead us to the saddle giving us more of a 360 view. About five minutes in we were literally blown over and realized that this would not be safe or really possible at all. A bit of a bummer but we figured we’d just head back down so that way we could make a few stops on the drive home anyway.
When getting to the bottom we saw yet another rainbow! We then set off for Auckland! On the way home we stopped at a few places including Taupo and the Hamilton Botanical Gardens where alas we saw our third rainbow of the weekend!! Great end to a beautiful weekend in the great outdoors! Also saw so many sheep 🙂 might be my new favorite animal. Still waiting to find a kiwi bird. Stay tuned!
Adventures with Amber 