Although we have been in Taupo for two nights we had not really seen much of the town until today.
Our hotel is located on the lake about a little over a mile from the city center. Yesterday morning we walked down to their very nice harbor near the downtown area before heading off to Tongariro. Today we did a little more exploring.
We walked back into town but stayed along the river past the harbor. We ended up at their fairly small but quite busy Saturday Market. The doughnut I am stuffing into my face was fabulous. It was covered with fruit so I'm opting to put it in the fruit category.
In the afternoon we went out for a walk to Huka Falls. We could have driven to the Falls but chose to hike the 45 minutes along the Waikato River to reach them.
Shortly after starting our hike I looked about 20 yards in front of me, turned to Beth and said "hey, we know them"! She looked at me and said as she often does "what are you talking about"? At that point I was still too startled to come up with their names so I replied "there's Holland America"!
She admitted at that point that she thought I had finally gone off the deep end and was having visions of our ship floating down the river. Thankfully it all became clear after I yelled out, "hey, Holland America" and Jordan and Jason turned around (it was about here that I remembered their names).
We had met Jordan and Jason in the hot tub on the ship between Honolulu and Sydney. A few things about them stuck out right from the start.
First, they were really nice. Second, on the ship they were two of the dozen or so passengers that were clearly younger than us. Third, they were "travelers"!
Jordan had requested and been granted a three month sabbatical from her job in Virginia so they could visit Australia and New Zealand. Jason shared with me that he had hiked the entire Appalachian Trail over the course of two summers.
We visited with them several more times on the ship before they got off in Sydney and we continued on to Auckland.
This was a pretty amazing crossing of paths. They have been off the Noordam for almost a month. They got off in Sydney and wandered around Australia a bit before heading to New Zealand. We got off in Auckland fourteen days later, wandered around New Zealand only to end up on the same trail in Taupo twenty yards from each other.
It was great visiting with them again, they're still nice, still younger than us and still travelers.
Their travels tomorrow are going to take them on the Alpine Crossing Trail that I talked about in yesterday's post. They have our e-mail and this blog post web site now. I'm excited to hear how they do on tomorrow's hike. I'm thinking it'll be a walk in the park for them!!
PS I frequently tell Beth that wherever we travel I'm always on the lookout for people we know. It's happened several times over the years. Doug Futch our neighbor from Burleson in New York. Vince & Evie Liem also neighbors from Burleson on a cruise ship in Alaska. Rich Reiner from Adventist Health System in New York, too. Rich lived in Florida but was the Chairman of the Board for Huguley and was sitting directly in front of Beth and I at a Broadway play. Rich and his wife were traveling with John Harding and his wife. I had worked with John early in my career at the hospital in Punta Gorda, Fl.
There was Don Wiersdorfer, (sp?) from Burleson in Hawaii and Jean Barnhart(maiden name) who Beth and I knew growing up in Mulberry at London Heathrow Airport. Beth also ran into Sandra Burns, an old classmate from Mulberry on a cruise ship in the Bahamas. Sarah has even got in on the act. In Junior High she and her friend Allison who was traveling with us ran into a classmate at the Zurich Airport.
It's a small world out there. Keep your eyes open!
 |
| That's fruit on top! |
 |
| Huka Falls |
 |
| Lodge on the river above Huka Falls |
