7. The Hobbit: an Un(EGG)spected Journey

3 blog posts in ONE DAY?! Unprecedented.

Just a disclaimer: This post will be the shortest of the bunch. (Haha, get it? Because hobbits?)

The next morning, we woke up at exactly 8:54AM (which we did every day thanks to Rachelle’s very specific alarm.  Where were you at 8:54AM?) to head over to a small little town called … Hobbiton!!

Must be this tall to enter.

Hobbiton was super cool and well preserved. It looked just like how it did in the movies!

Little hobbit burrow

The Baggins’ residence… we were there on party business

We really fit in.

The flowers were taller than the residents.

I scanned the community board for a job.

After the tour we stopped at the Green Dragon bar for an actual beer.

Name of the bar seems fitting.

Chairs of an excellent size.

Beers of an excellent size, as well.

As we drove out of Hobbiton, I contemplated…instead of working on a kiwi farm… should I come work at the hobbit village before my visa runs out?? I love how traveling puts the craziest ideas in your head THAT ALL SEEM POSSIBLE!

When we reached Huka Falls (our next destination), I was absolutely stunned by the breathtaking view and the BRIGHT BLUE water.

#nofilter

If you were ever wondering how something could be crystal clear AND blue, here you go.

That night, Rachelle and I decided that we were going to sleep in a hotel (sorry, bach) because, the next day, we were going on a pretty strenuous hike.   However, to keep costs low, we were going to make ourselves some dinner on the road (some HOT food, finally). 

What was on the menu? Just a carton of eggs, naturally. And how were we gonna do it?
Naturally.

So, we tied a plastic bag to a stick, stuck a bag full of eggs into a boiling hot geyser, and got to cookin’. Don’t worry, we’ve done this once before.

**Sammi and Rachelle’s Wild Boiled Egg Recipe (with pictures)

Step 1. Buy a carton of eggs (and Tabasco for extra flavor) and find a (literally) boiling hot body of water

Step 2. Place plastic bag on stick; place eggs gently in bag

Step 3. Let eggs cook.

Step 4. Contemplate various – terrifying – diseases you can get from unclean looking water.

Step 5. Rinse off and try to forget about said potential diseases.  FULLY enjoy!

We followed the recipe steps to a T, including contemplating the diseases we might get from the sketchy looking water. So, sufficiently scared from our Google search but also equally determined not to waste our HOT FOOD, we decided to only avoid the ones that were cracked.

We washed off the rest of the nine eggs and NOM NOM NOM!  While we ate, Rachelle and I audibly talked about how we hoped that our dinner wouldn’t wreak havoc on our stomachs before our 12-hour hike the following day.

All the while, I was posting to Instagram and keeping Collin updated. He wasn’t the only one who thought we were a bit crazy.

Normal is relative.

We ate most of our boiled eggs smothered in a a gourmet Tabasco glaze, packed a few for the next day, and headed to a hotel where we were treated very rudely.  So, onto the next one.  We got a room and set about doing prep work for our extremely early and very challenging tomorrow.

While our stomaches were full from our hot meal…
Rae and I decided to practice gratitude: We professed how thankful we were for the incredible weather we would experience AND for how healthy (and not sick) our bodies would be.  I’ll tell you, despite that ugly looking water, gratitude practice must work because there are more eggselent adventures to come.

‘mi