Glow worms and jumping

Hello all,

Another quick post from New Zealand! I have been having a thrilling first couple of days. I joined my bus tour on Sunday morning at a bright 7:35am. We took the bus to the top of Mount Eden for a view of the city (which I had already walked to the day before...I read a brochure and realized my walk had been 16km one-way so in total 32 km for those that cannot do math).

From there we headed to Waitomo, about a two hour bus journey through sheep/cow country. Waitomo is known for its underwater caves filled with glow worms. We did a 45 minute tour into the caves and were able to see millions of little glowing dots above us. These worms use the light to attract insects into their feeding strings (some strings can reach about 14cm in length and each worm has about 35 feeding strings, so it can get pretty messy). After the cave hike and boat ride we surfaced and went for an hour hike through the mountain side.

That evening we pulled into Rotorua, known for its out of this world geothermal activity. The entire town smells of sulfur and even the gutters release steam. We did not have much time before dinner so I quickly checked into my hostel, the Hot Rocks. The reason for the name is that it had three pools of hot water from underground. I jumped into my swimmers and took a quick 30 minute "swim." After a shower it was dinner time.

Dinner was amazing. I went on a cultural Mouri (indigenous people that arrived in NZ around 9oo) dinner (I do not have all the brochures in front of me so the spelling will be pretty inaccurate). I was a bit hesitant on booking this dinner because the cultural experiences I find to be pretty lame and degrading to the actual culture. However, the majority of the group was going and I had heard pretty good things about it from everyone and everything. Low and behold it was brilliant! My waka (mode of transport) voted me to be the chief and to represent them at the peace ceremony. How lucky! I had to do some embarrassing chanting on the bus but it was not too painful. Once we reached the actual site I had to take part in the dance. I basically had to stand in one place and not move or laugh. Now laughing was the hard part because Mouri tradition uses very guttural sounds as well as crazy facial features (eyes bulging and lips and tongue protruding). The four warriors were in my face making faces and nearly hitting me with their weapons. The whole purpose of the dance is to intimidate so it was pretty intense. At the end, they picked a chief (there were three of us) to accept their peace offering, a silver fern. I had the honor of being selected and was therefore the VIP of the entire event. I was leading over 150 tourists around the village, to dinner, and in the after dinner ceremonies. How special I felt!

The did several demonstrations on their traditional means of living (pre-European) and some song and dance, which explained childhood games and weaponry. They also performed a traditional love song for the group.

Dinner was out of this world. The traditional method of preparing dinner is called Haigi. They dig a whole in the earth, heat up volcanic stone, put the food on top in baskets, cover them in wet leaves, and then fill the hole with earth. After about four hours, the meat was juicy and fell off the bones, the potatoes and carrots were lush, and the custard was amazing. In addition to all of this, we had fish, mussels, some root vegetable, cole slaw, pasta salad, egg salad, chicken, lamb, cranberries, pavalova, fruit salad, chocolate bread, and what tasted like fry bread. The best part of this was it was all you can eat!!!!

I took a quick stroll around town before heading to bead with one stuffed stomach.

Today was another action packed day. I started the day with an early morning stroll through the city park (full of hot bubbling mud pits) and other geothermal features. Once on the bus we took a quick journey to a local geyser. From here we entered the park and walked around Champagne lake (due to chemical reactions, the water is bright yellow, green, blue, and red). The lake and the 1.5 hour hike we went on was incredible!

On to the bus to Haku waterfall. The waterfall is not known for its height but its sheer volume of water. Every three seconds it can fill up an Olympic size pool. The water was an unbelievable blue and the small channel it flows through was very fascinating.

Next I decided to pick up the adrenaline rushing side of New Zealand. I went sky-diving in Taupo over the massive lake, mountains, and forest region. This time I only went 12,000 feet (much cheaper than 15,000 feet) and was not scared or nervous at all. I properly enjoyed the jump!

Tomorrow I will be embarking on an eight hour mountain hike. There is a group of us going on the trek with no guide! We went to the grocery store tonight and purchased loads of food for our journey. The most exciting part of it is that the area is where Lord of the Rings was filmed. Imagine hiking through that! We are hoping for good weather because rain would be miserable.

For now that is it...an action packed two days (only to be followed up by more). I really wish I had more time to blog and email, but the days are long and internet cafes close early here (sometimes before we even make it into town). One more night here in Taupo and then off to Wellington!