Day 36: Hamilton 0 Day

Kristen and I said goodbye to Curly, Erinn and Trevor and headed into Hamilton. We decided to stay at a hostel so it would be easy to find Julia and Puff Puff when they got to town.  Once we arrived in Hamilton, we dropped our backpacks off at the Central Backpackers where we had reservations.

Pack N Save, the cheapest grocery shopping in New Zealand, was our next stop before walking across town to a good coffee shop. But it didn't have wifi so we walked to sky city to use the free wifi there. After all that wandering around town it was time to check into our hostel.

Expedia had messed up my reservation (not using them anymore!), so I had to spend about an hour on the phone with them trying to figure out what went wrong. After that was all sorted I talked with my mom for a bit and Julia, Puff Puff and Marjolein had all made it to town. I thought Marjolein was another day back!

Kristen and I went to pitch our river trip idea to Puff Puff and Julia and to hear how their last few days had been. Marjolein went to see Curly, so hopefully I'll see her on the trail in a few days.

After talking for a bit and all agreeing on our river plan, Kristen and I walked to Countdown and back to the hostel to make dinner before we met Julia and Puff Puff at the movie theater to see La La Land at 7:45. It was a pretty movie but I wish it had a more normal ending. But it was a really nice theater and we all had lots of yummy snacks so it ended up being a great activity.

When we got back to the hostel, Kristen and I made the campsite bookings for the Whanganui River Journey at the end of January and I packed up all the food I had bought for the next few days of backpacking. I also needed to repack my bounce box I had picked up earlier in the day. It took me longer than I thought and I finished around 11 pm.

Then I realized how wonderful the wifi at the hostel was and started downloading loads of podcasts. It wasn't the nicest hostel I've stayed at, but it was all made up for with the amazing wifi! I ended up staying up til 1 am using the wifi to download things and to upload a few more blog posts. I have them all written, but they take me about 30 minutes to upload each when I get good enough service or wifi. Now it's definitely time for bed! 

I didn't take many photos today, so this is it. A fun sculpture in downtown Hamilton.