my LAST week as a hut warden!

...and i started it sounding like an old farmer - i just kept starting conversations about how fast my time here went and how i was really hoping for good weather.

but karma shut me up pretty quickly... because it was an almost perfect week! i was at oturere, which may be my favorite hut in the park... and the weather was nearly ideal... and i had great people in the hut every night... and i'm completely knackered from a long week of off-track adventures... which made the week fly by way too fast, of course, but... i'll take it.

i FINALLY conquered ngaurahoe! jen and i met up for the mission on saturday... there were some clouds about but we were optimistic so headed up. the summit was socked in, though, so we saw almost nothing but the crater. so... i made a return trip on tuesday. took an alternate, um... more adventurous route. saw everything that i missed on the first trip... which also happens to be everything that i love about the park and everything that i'll miss when i leave. sat on the summit, looking out in every direction, over all the valleys and lakes and ridges and craters that make up this place... and ended up just sort of mentally replaying the last two months of exploring each of those places. i had no intention of a "goodbye climb" but it sort of ended up that way... it's really hard to say goodbye, but i can't imagine a better place from which to do it.