Day 6

Dateline Rotorua:

We got picked up for sledging and white water rafting this morning. I've decided to go sledging because I've seen them do it on The Amazing Race (my motivation for quite a lot on this trip). Pretty much you get a wetsuit, a lifejacket, and a helmet, plus a big plastic kickboard. The sledges are really heavy, and we had to hike about ten minutes down a trail with them. Once at the river we had to jump in with the sledges, and I flipped over immediately. I did get pretty good at turning myself over again, since I kept flipping upside down :) It was really hard as we had to fit our arms in the sledge and the arm rests were too long for me so I didn't reach the end where I could rest my elbows. I pretty much had to keep myself hitched up to the top of the sledge with upper body strength alone. Ha! Plus, I had to keep kicking with my toes pointed in my flippers to move and centre myself, which was really hard on my legs. The worst part was that I bashed my knee on a rock going over a rapid, and it really hurt, plus all the kicking gave me a cramp in my leg. While some of the group was doing river surfing, I hung back because I honestly didn't think I had enough energy or strength to not get swept down the river and over a 6 meter waterfall. I was very happy when it was over. It was kind of fun, but the only activity I would not repeat.



After the water sports, we headed back to where the Zorb was to watch Joe bungy jump. It took forever for them to take him up on the crane, so I hung out with some sheep and ostrich. The farm show demonstration sheep are let loose between shows, so they have free reign of the carpark.





Back to Rotorua for lunch at the Fat Dog. They have really cool custom plates made for the restaurant and very good food.



Since I finished lunch early I had a wander around the downtown and finally found some earplugs - definitely a necessity in a 6-bunk hostel room.

Onto the bus again for a road trip to Wai-O-Tapu, a geothermal area with craters and boiling mud and sulfur pools and such. It has a geyser also, but we missed the 10:15 AM eruption. Susan and I motored through the stinky park trails and were back out by 5. She says it's just like Yellowstone, so now I don't have to go there :)





On the way out of Wai-O-Tapu we went to a hot river. It looks just like a regular river, with vegetation and everything, but it is hot like a hot tub. We lolled about a bit in the river (and saw a couple with the most amazing dreads - the guy's were down to his knees!).



We then headed out to Taupo, on the shore of Lake Taupo - New Zealand's largest lake. We stopped at Woolworth's (a grocery store) to let the people doing the Tongariro Crossing the next day load up on snacks and such. I found Tim Tams, which is a rectangualr chocolate sandwich cookie coated in chocolate. Evidently what one does is bite off each end and then suck up hot chocolate through the resultant chocolate straw. Must try that soon. Susan and Andrea and I ended up at an Indian Restaurant called "Mr. India", had a delicious Indian dinner, and then headed off to bed. We are staying at the Taupo Urban Retrat, which is completely opposite to how it is named. It's got a really loud bar and really small cramped rooms with walls like tissue paper - you can hear everything though them.

Day 3-5

Monday - We drove to Whitianga on the Coromondal Peninsula is a teeny van that was made for 12, but we are 14. We're getting a new van tomorrow. Steve, the tour guide, is driving back into Auckland tonight and picking up a new van for us.



We stopped at Hot Water Beach for lunch and then went to a place that lets you do your own bone carving. We all made little tiki necklaces. It was a lot of fun - I got to play with power tools and ended up with a lovely little fishhook carving.



Since Steve went back to Auckland, Roger, the proprietor of our hostel (Turtle Cove Backpackers) drove us out to Hot Water Beach again to dig for hot tubs. Indeed, the water there is very hot. If you wiggle your toes just a few inches in the sand you can burn your toes. There is boiling hot water just under the sand. You can actually see it boiling. Since it was Auckland Anniversary Day the beach was super full of people so it was hard to find a place to dig. Unfortunately the low tide was still pretty high, so no matter how hard we dug the sea kept filling in the hole.



After playing in the water Roger took us on a little tour to see kiwifruit orchards and Cook's Beach, where Captain Cook landed to record the Transit of Mercury.





The ladies at the hostel had a big meal of spag bol (spagetti Bolognese) and garlic bread waiting for us.



After that Ed and I took on Ronnie and Norrie, the Scottish guys, in doubles pool. Since neither of us were very good it was a lot of fun, and Ed and I ended up winning! Yay!

Tuesday - We woke up at 7:30 to find out that the girls had all spent the night in the boy's room - nice and quiet in our room :) Since Steve was still in Auckland we got more beaches. Yippee (that's me being sarcastic). Roger took us out to Cathedral Cove. He neglected to tell us that the parking lot was 45 minutes away at the top of a cliff, so we had to hike down to the cove in the scorching heat. For those of you who know me and heat you're probably already aware that I was pretty cranky by the bottom. I took some pictures and then took a nap in the shade.



After hiking back to the top of the cliff,



Steve picked us up in a shiny new van (the fire truck)- bigger seats, more headroom, less windows that open and no air conditioning.

He wanted to get some surfing in, so we ended up back at Hot Water Beach for lunch as he surfed for an hour, and then on the road to Waitomo. We got stuck behind a timber truck for miles on a single lane highway, so our progress was pretty slow.



We finally hit Waitomo at about seven-ish, checked into the hostel, and then met at the pub to discuss how the next few days would be going.

Wednesday - Massive day! It's cave day. Susan and I signed up for the Ultimate Caving Adventure, so the two of us, along with Norrie and Ronnie, Steve (Baby Whale), and Joe were picked up at 10 am by the Legendary Blackwater Rafting Company. We got taken to the caves and kitted out in wetsuit, boots, and helmet and then got a few minutes of practice abseiling (rapelling) before abseiling 30 meters down a hole into a cave. There was a lot of walking though underwater streams, jumping into a river with an inner tube, floating down and seeing glowworms, and climbing up waterfalls. Then they gave us bagels and soup. It was fun!



We then hopped into a van and headed to Rotorua. Then came my absolute favourite bit so far! We stopped at the Zorb and went rolling down a hill in a big hamster ball. I was screaming with glee all the way down! It was so much fun. The inner chamber is filled with water so you go slipping around inside as you go. I went twice :)






We got to Rotorua, checked into the hostel (Base Rotorua) and headed out to a Tamaki Village (a Maori historical recreation - like Fort Edmonton) for a hangi (a traditional Maori meal). Norrie dressed in his kilt, and he got elected chief of our group, so he got to participate in the challenge/welcome ceremony.



There were dancers and singers and it was really interesting. The village itself was more like a series of tableaus with Maori people demonstrating and explaining aspects of Maori life. We then saw a concert with songs, stories, and a haka (war dance). Then it was dinner time. The traditional method of cooking is underground, so we had a ton of food cooked underground - we had lamb, chicken, carrots, two types of potato, fish, and some Western sides like coleslaw and egg salad. Everything was delicious, and for dessert there was pavlova, which I've never had before - it's yummy - and steamed giner pudding (cake) with custard. Yum.



We then went back into town and while some of the group partied, Susan got to drive the van to the grocery store for breakfast stuff - it was so much fun to be in the van with her driving on the wrong side of the street!

Day 2

So far today has been great. Ed was going rollerblading and promised that he'd teach me how to stop without just aiming for the nearest tree, so we went out along with Vicky and Jess and walked a good long while down to the waterfront and rented rollerblades (rollerskates for Jess).



It was really sunny and hot and I've managed to get a burn already, even though I used sunscreen. After blading a whole group of us met up and we went to Piha for canyoning, and we abseiled down a waterfall, waded and swam through pools, jumped off small cliffs, and generally had a great time. We then went down to the beach briefly - took a few pictures, and headed back into town.



Susan and Andrea (and possibly Ed) and I are going out for donairs in a few minutes and then I'm coming back to take a shower and crash. I'm so tired after a completely physical day.

One really neat thing is that our driver spent some time in Edmonton for the Police Olympics in 1990, so we had a great chat about Edmonton and everything he did there. Plus, he got silver in marksmanship, which is cool.



Tomorrow we head out to Mercury Bay.

New Zealand, Finally

It's been a long few days of travel - I headed out to the airport in Philadelphia at 7 am on Thursday morning, and arrived today (Saturday) at 2 pm. I had no idea how far away Las Vegas is from the East Coast and was quite shocked by how long that leg of the flight was.



Of course, the really long haul was Los Angeles - Fiji, which was supposed to be 10 and a half hours, but turned into 12 and a half because we sat on the tarmac for two hours before taking off.



Fiji is hot and humid and full of extremely expensive duty free items and deep fried food. As you might have guessed, we did not make it out of the airport - but the walk from the plane to the waiting room was outdoors, so I at least experienced a bit of Fiji.



We then flew to Auckland, which is only 2 hours, so that was an easy trip. I watched "Balls of Fury" - high culture indeed!



Susan and I landed at 2 pm, and quickly grabbed the airport bus for the hour long trip into the city. We're staying for the next few nights at the Auckland Central Backpacker's hostel. We met up with our tour group, which is comprised of a bunch of young British girls, a couple of older guys from Edinburgh, an English teacher from Germany, a young couple from England traveling the Pacific for a few months, and some other guys I haven't really talked with yet. We all went for dinner tonight to a pub so we had an opportunity to get to know each other a bit, but the table was so long we ended up just talking with the people nearest us. Not much in common with the British girls - they are the dancing and drinking all night types, and I am old. Luckily Susan and I are in the old lady room with the teacher, so we won't have to deal with drunk giggly girls all the time (hopefully).

Tomorrow the adventure begins as I go canyoning with most of the group for half a day at Piha. I think I'm going to sleep in tomorrow morning - actually, I'm probably going to go to bed soon.

Oh, and books are insanely expensive here - yes, I checked :)