One of the highlights of Devin’s trip to see me was our visit to Hobbiton. (He may not remember this, but The Hobbit was the first movie we watched together, a couple of weeks after meeting. I was going to see it with his friends Caleb and Trent, and we managed to drag Devin along. It wasn’t really his type of movie and he fell asleep halfway through!) It was fun to take a tour of the movie set and see the hobbit homes “in person”. It was just as overcast as my trip with Rachel had been, and we tramped through the mud to get to Bilbo Baggin’s door.
After the tour we started driving back to Auckland, only to take a detour along the way to the North Island’s tallest waterfall. We love waterfall hikes but were wary of the quickly disappearing sun. It was an hour till last light and the winter isn’t particularly forgiving to nighttime hikers. We did a quick google search for information and the online reviews mentioned that it was “a bit of a hard hike” and recommended 45 minutes. We figured we’d skip the full hike, walk till we reached the base of the fall, get a good view and some pictures, and be out before dark.
Little did we know, the track is a 45-minute climb before you can even see the waterfall! We kept going, sure the view would be just around the corner, only to climb 250 ft. in elevation for a glimpse of the towering beauty.
The sun was setting on the waterfall when we finished dragging ourselves up to the viewing platform. (I dragged and Devin was definitely puffed) A rainbow was stretched across the falling water and we stood stupified in amazement. It was beautiful! One of the most impressive falls I’ve seen – and I’ve seen all the big ones. I had forgotten my phone so begged Devin to take a picture of us with his. (He had brought it with him to find Pokemon in the forest, oy vey!)
“In a sec Becks… I have something to ask you first.” And right there, covered in sweat and dirt, still out of breath from the ridiculous climb, Devin knelt and said some nice things and asked me to be his wife. I think I said yes, or I nodded or something. 😉 I was a little lost for words. SHOCKING – I know!! I’m so excited to marry this man. We are the best of friends and though I’m enjoying my time in NZ, I can’t imagine what life would look like without him. <3
BTW, when I asked him why he chose the end of a hike to propose, he teased. “Oh, you know, I wanted you to work for it…” Gah!