May 29 - Taupo

Rain, snow, wind, ugliness... The weather was so bad that the Tongariro crossing bus refused passengers for the day. Since this was the only reason for us stopping in Taupo it was basically a waste of a day.
I was Sunday so next to nothing was open, the hostel had nowhere for us to store our bags so we had to carry it with us. We ended up rescheduling a bus to Wellington for the earlier mid-afternoon one and spending hours in a coffee shop. Then even more time at the bus depot. Where oddly enough we ran into Sylvia again, the German girl from Waitomo.
Not much to do in Wellington by the time we got there. Just made dinner and made friends with an irish fellow making of all things, potato stew. Ended up talking to him about any number of things, and settled into bed kind of early. The hostel itself was an old art deco hotel that Queen Elizabeth II stayed at in 1953 (if you care about that sort of useless info). The power kept on going out and the elevator was a little iffy. Otherwise it was a nice place and we got our own bathroom attached to the bedroom. We were just plain pooped, so off to bed we went.