In the morning after several reminders from Stu we signed the visitor book with what he wanted to hear. Clean place, and Stu is great! I had a feeling he read it as soon as we left. That feeling was confirmed when he sent a text saying thanks for the nice words about him! He is a "hardcase" (funny person in NZ) but might be a valuable contact while here.
We drove about an hour to Lake Waikaremoana in the Te Urewera National Park. He heard from a sweet Maori girl that his place is what the whole north island looked like before they cut down the bush for cows, and sheep. At the DOC visitors center we paid for the huts and choose what end to start at. Once they had our names, and the huts we are to stay at (there are 5 huts along the walk) we are staying at 3.
We drove down to a DOC campground that was again free. We both had some serious reservations about going to another, but since the lake had other places to stay we knew we had an out if we needed it. To our delight the spot was small, but beautiful. There were no awful roads to get there, no livestock, and no one else there! It was right along the water. We spent the afternoon packing our packs and putting together meals for 4 day's and 3 nights.
Another van joined us later in the evening. We were in the middle of dinner so we just said hello and let them get settled. While eating we were trying to figure out what language they were speaking. We both thought German, but that is sort of our crutch in language department. Paul then thought northern european.
They built a fire and invited us over to join them. They were Francesca and Michele, a couple from Switzerland! They were very funny and we had a great conversation! We asked them about their trip. We were blow away when they said they have been traveling for 2 and a half years! They started their journey from Switzerland on bikes (not motorcycles, but peddle bikes) and road up Europe and took some trains along the way into Russia. Then took the Trans Siberian train, until it met up to the Trans Mongolian train. They loved mongolia, said it was so beautiful and untouched, very cold, and not much english spoken. They continued down on bike through China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. They then took a cargo ship to Australia. They drove around and through Australia in 1 year. They loved it! From Sydney they flew to Christchurch and have been on the South Island for two months. We asked them lots about the south. They said it was incredible and that we should go there immediately! They have not been very impressed with the north island.
We went to bed feeling impressed to have met such an adventurous couple. They were winding down their trip, on their way to LA to visit a friend, and then back to Switzerland. We exchanged information and I hope to vista them in Switzerland. We were also impressed and curious as to how they funded this adventure. They did not work, and lived very cheap, but still 2.5 years on across the globe! It got us excited about traveling to more places, but agreed we would miss begin around our family and friends and would only take shorter trips like this 4 month one!
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