Wade has a kiwi version of Thanksgiving dinner

The next morning we all wake up early as we are supposed to have a decently early start. We pack out stuff, get down stairs only to receive notice that our bus has been delayed. Joy! How much time do we have to kill? Lots! Several hours. We get breakfast...still have more time. We check email...still more time. Alex and I take off to do a few errands. I set out in search of a Vodaphone place and a cheap swimsuit, alex for some flight resolution. Vodaphone basically told me that I can't call out of NZ, joy...and eventually on the 3rd or 4th store, I found a swimsuit that was decent enough price and look wise to compensate for the loss of the other.
We finally departed around like 12 or 1pm. Jeez, if we had only kept that up for a few more hour it would have been infuriating as Tongariro Crossing was open that day.
The bus takes us around lake Taupo towards the three major volcanos of that crossing. We see the beautiful feilds of this golden flower on this bus which he informs us is called Broom(?) and is a major pest that is taking /has taken over much of NZ. Ah, the irony. We had a few changes in schedule with our late start. We were supposed to go up closer to the mountains and go see a waterfall there, but with time constraints we stopped for some quick picks and headed to a closer waterfall that you could jump off of (Rich inserted the standard cover-my-ass "you're doing it of your own free will" disclaimer). For the pics, I got an amazing picture of Mt. Doom (ask me about it later). For the waterfall, we headed down (I took my brand new bathing suit not sure if I was going to go in) and took a dip in the water. Rich informed us that it was a thermal area so the water should be somewhat warm, like 28 C. It...was...frigid!! He lies!!!
Caution/shame/bodily care to the wind, I decided I would never forgive myself if I don't embrace every oportunity to throw myself off cliffs in NZ. I join in the fun. I was pretty much last in line and when I got there only Frankie and Rich were still up top. Frankie was discussing how/what type of jump she should do with Rich to which they concluded some kind of flip. She does this weird kinda half flip, half dead body drop off the cliff and disappears beneath the churning surface. We wait a few seconds and don't see her resurface. Rich looks a bit worried and I comment "Is she dead?" (A comment that Rich will later recount to everyone on the bus for comedic effect). Rich was about 1/2 a sec from jumping in after her before we got word that she's on the other side of the river directly below us where we can't see...and she's safe. I resume my walk to the edge. With a few seconds of decision and hesitation, I do this half flying side-kick off the cliff and land, shockingly, in the water that clearly has antifreeze in it. Rich, as becomes his signature moves on many later jumps does a backward dive into the water. There was a round of second jumps and then we headed back to the bus for warmth and dryness.
On our way out from a restroom stop close to there, we had another fun event where Rich turned a corner too tight when trying to U-ey and hit a rock. Not huge rock, nor did it leave a big dent. The importance of this event was a wager that Rich had made with another bus driver. The bet was $100 against him not hitting anything on his first 3 or 5 (can't remember) trips (each which last about a month). After making the bet one of the observing bus drivers told him it was the easiest $100 the other guy had ever made as he was BOUND to hit something. He did... and on the first trip.
The rest of the ride was decently peaceful and a bit senic as we headed to the hilly fields around River Valley. We arrive at a small hostel where we have to walk down a windy road to get to the actual hostel as the bus won't make it. That kind of place... It was small and quaint and nice with some rooms with bunks or the infamous dorms (aka orgy pit, as they have become known) that are just a bunch of matresses side by side. I stayed in the bunks. The evening was nice and we had the Farm Dinner that the hostel was offering. We sat down at a table of 8 with drinks in hand and prepared for the feast.
We apparently were Ethiopian on the scale of hungry. Here's why...
They served us a plate of lamb, bowl of potatoes, some green beans, cauliflower with cheese, some other stuff, and gravy...most importantly gravy. We decimated this in about 10 min, maybe less. About this time, Hannah, who we discovered has a small black hole in her stomach because she is tiny and eats more than a small army and the hungry hungry hippos combined, steps up to the table and starts looking for other food. We turn our sites to the other tables seeing who looks somewhat finished and has food leftover. Hannah uses her cute factor and brings over a bowl of potatoes or something. Vaporized. The waitress comes around to collect dishes and we inform her to 1) leave our plates alone and 2) bring us all leftover food. Between hannah's efforts and the waitresses help, we destroyed all of our food, and about enough to feed another table. Twas fantastic. Some of our table tapped out during the final rounds but Hannah held us together. the only food left in the entire dining room was a small heap of green beans nobody wanted.
I realized later that that was indeed Thanksgiving night for us, and I'm fairly sure the spirit of Thanksgiving settled on our table (Imagine Pentecost...) and gave us the ability to devour.

In a slight food coma, we meandered around talking and playing some games. Somebody found a game of giant Jenga that I just had to play (it was bout 8 of us taking turns). We later had a small exchange of magic tricks and then more random conversation. It's funny walking into and between conversations. You can leave one about adventures in Asia and walk into one about drugs. Oh Nicolas and his Snooz(sp?)...not acutally a drug btw, just tabacco.
Hours passed, there was talk of going to a hot tub which we later discovered was a...the only color I can desiribe it as is "pee" and had stuff in it. The rest of the time was watching the conclustion of a poker match wiile participating in other conversation and watching Alex(b) and Axel try, and eventually successfully break into the bar. They succeeded in breaking the chain that connected two of the grates protecting the bar...they didn't actually take anything, but surprised by their own success decided to "leave it as a warning that we could have done it." There was no mention or question about it the next day.
Exit stage left for bed.