SPOILER ALERT!!! WE'RE ENGAGED!!!

Easily my favorite blog post to write... yesterday (July 30th) was the best day everrrr!! After arriving in Turangi the night before and staying in a hostel with separate twin beds, we decided to wake up and check out the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The hostel host had recommended that we check out part of the hike and then go on to Mt. Ruapehu to see Gollum's Pool (from Lord of the Rings.) It was a perfectly clear day and as we got closer to the National Park we could see the volcano, Mt. Ngauruhoe, which was spectacular. We both decided it would be a good idea to hike up to Soda Springs, which was about 3 miles into the 16 mile alpine crossing hike. We got 2 miles in when we came to a clearing with no one around, a boardwalk next to a stream, the volcano right in front of us, and a mountain ridge to the side. It felt like an amphitheater created by nature. Will suggested we take a selfie timer GoPro photo, which we had done many times on the trip. We posed for one photo and all of a sudden he turned to me and said "alright I've got one more thing" and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!!! When I say I have never been more shocked....I was so taken aback I kept asking if he was serious before of course saying YES! I was so happy I couldn't stop hugging him and just taking it all in. He caught it all on GoPro video and afterward, we took a couple of photos. Since we were only 2/6 miles into our hike, we kept hiking up to the springs and I asked him questions about all of the behind the scenes. I had to know how he kept this secret from me so well and how I saw no signs ahead of time. Turns out he had sewn the ring into his passport belt bag, so while we were traveling he could play it off like he was concerned about where his passport was and not the ring. He had decided the night before that this hike seemed like the perfect place to do it so he had cut the ring out of the bag. The last 4 miles of the hike were just perfect and it felt like we had time to ourselves to take in this life step together before sharing it with our people. When we got back to the car, we drove about 10 minutes to get service and began calling our friends and family. Both our parents knew it was happening, but had assumed it was going to be later in the trip, so everyone was shocked when I held up my hand. It was the best hour or so to share the news with our loved ones and feel the excitement from so far away! We drove to grab lunch, drove up to see the ski town of Mt. Ruapehu, and then did the quick hike to Gollum's pool. We had already booked accommodation for the night and it was about 2 hours south of the national park so we kept driving to Palmerston North. It was a gorgeous drive with the mountains in the distance and a great sunset! We got to our, much nicer than a hostel, hotel for the night and went to a brewery to get a beer and a pizza, our ideal celebration. We knew we needed to pop some champagne so we poured a glass and cheersed to our life together, then watched the New Zealand World Cup soccer game. It was the PERFECT day and we are so happy. Today, we woke up and drove down to Wellington. We are going to have a nice celebration dinner and then go to our second world cup game of Japan vs Spain. Can't express how happy we are and can't wait to celebrate with our loved ones when we are back!