wanderlust: Lake Dive

Our last weekend! Be prepared for lots of mountain pictures. Just a warning. So for our last weekend we were deciding between going to the group of three mountains about three hours northeast from us or a hike that goes to hot pools about four hours from us. We couldn't decide. And I really didn't want to drive. So, we stayed in good old Taranaki. Saturday we headed out to the Dawson Falls visitors center and were treated to this lovely snowy mountain:

Our hike was to the Lake Dive hut, which is only about a three hour hike in, but goes up and down and up and down! Here's Josh standing in with the trees with the ground covered in lava rocks. It was kinda surreal.

The weather forecast was a bit iffy but it turned out to be beautiful both Saturday and Sunday. Yay!

Josh basking in the sun!

Here's the hut, which is in a great little spot, over looking the lake and the mountain. The mountain has TONS of snow, so it made for some really pretty pictures...
This is Josh in our little hut that we had all to ourselves! It was the first time in all of our hiking it happened. It had an awesome fireplace that made it nice and toasty. We dragged the sleeping mattresses out to the big room so we could stay warm.

Look at that gorgeousness! This picture was literally take out the window of the hut.

Josh making a fire. Good job, man. Good job.

Sunset over the lake...

The hut doesn't have any lighting, of course, but Josh brought candles. Lots of people do that, but we never have, but since it gets dark so early now it was very helpful. Candlelit dinner!

I got up for sunrise. It was frosty on the grass.

And an early morning moon.

Hello, mountain man! Josh getting ready for a muddy hike back.

These are two of the three mountains (Tongariro, etc) we were considering hiking this weekend...remember they are a three hour drive away! It was such a beautiful clear day.