East As!
On Monday I started a week long adventure down the east cape region of NZ. This whole area is absolutely brilliant! The people are nice, weather is fantastic, and the scenery is stunningly tranquil. Most of this trip was watching the landscape as we drove by and captured pictures that were never as good as the real thing. The water was so green and lush; and I even got to see NZ's Hawai!
One night we did stay on a farm and were able to go horseback riding. I, of course, was given the horse with 'spirit'. All though, so were others. These horses were not trained well at all and one girl was actually thrown from her horse, twice! I ended up tearing my jeans trying to hold on! But the views from the top of the trek were amazing, galloping on the beach made it all worth it as well!We also saw many churches along the way and learned how the Maori beliefes were easily merged with Christianity,because they to, only believed in one god, the rest were said to be gaurdians. These churches had the most intricate carvings on the inside, each done with tremendous care and passion.
On this trip, we also got to visit Whangara (Fang-ga-ra), the town where 'Whale Rider' was set and filmed. This town has a very interesting history, most of which is explained in the movie.
Another highlight on this trip was a place called Tatapouri, outside the surfer town of Gisbourne. The hostel here was on the beach and filled with some great people. I could hear the ocean as I lay my head down. I stayed here for 3 days to store up some energy :)
While I was hear, I traveled inland a little bit and went rocksliding! This is where you ride on a boogie board down the face of a rock with water flowing over it. The distance you travel is about 50 m and at the end you are 20 m closer to sea level than when you started! It is a pretty good time :) Afterwards, we went by this A-mazing waterfall. About a month later I was watching Lord of the Rings 1, and saw the little Froto and Sam crossing this very same waterfall. I apparently wasn't the only one to admire it!
On Saturday, the 22nd I took a city bus 10 hours to Wellington, met up with the Kiwi Ex crowd again and had a good night at the hostel bar. We had to rise early in the morning (Easter Sunday) to catch the 3 hours ferry over to the South Island where more adventure awaited us!
FRIDAY-MONDAY, MARCH 14-17, 2008
Taupo
Taupo is a big town filled with fun things. It is home to the biggest lake in NZ, cheapest skydiving, bungying and natural hot pools. The lake is gorgeous and provides a home to black swans! When I arrived here I met up with an old Austrian friend I met while living in Adelaide in 2005, Lukas. He happened to be in town the same weekend on business, again proving how small the world really is. We had a great night out, it was Toga night and everyone knows theme nights always go off!
The next day we went skydiving, which I don't recomend a hangover for! Ha, but really it was a wonderful, terrifying, exhilerating experience in which I honestly and truely believed I would pee myself. I didn't though, whew! We jumped from 15,000 ft. and when I first saw the openness of atmophere in front of me, I thought, "What am I doing? This is crazy, the plane's not on fire, why am I jumping?!" But before I knew it, we (my tandem instructor Des, and I) were flying through the air, soaring along. Once the inital feelings of shock were over, I stopped to look around. The lake was unbelievable from up there! OH what a feeling!
FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 2008
Waitomo
Now this was a very sleepy town, so tired it was in hiberbation! However, it was the home in NZ for what they call 'Black Water Rafting'. What is this you may ask? It is floating (and more
walking then they lead you to believe) down a river that flows through caves in the complete dark. Since it wouldn't be New Zealand with out making it 'extreme', as if in the cold, dark, not knowing where you were going wasn't enough for you, the caves come complete with eels and waterfalls!! EEeek! We had to wear shorts that were sprayed with eel resistant spray so that when your bum was the only thing in the water, you wouldn't be bitten! The expereince was great and full of wonder. What made it even more magical, are the glow warms. These tiny little guys sit on the ceiling of the cave and glow this bluetiful blue color. They reminded me of Julia, my neice who was a glow warm when she was first born. Later I found out that these 'glow warms' were actually magots and the glow came from their behinds, and actually were their 'wastes' used to attract new food sources... yummy :)THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008
Rotorua -> Waitomo
Before we left Rotorua, we went to Te Puia where there were mudpools, geyesers and other geo-thermal activity on a scale rivaled only by Yellow Stone
National Park. The water here was hot hot hot, temperatures one can not imagine. Not only was this a place reserved for viewing these sites, but Te Puia also had a carving school let up for chosen Maori men, likewise a weiving school for girls. The girls in our group also learned a song to sing while using 'Poi' balls 
and the guys learned the 'Haka', another traditional dance.
The rest of the day was spent going to Waitomo and relaxing/recovering once we got there.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2008
Hobbiton -> Rotorua
After waking up way to early in Hamilton, I made my way to a town called Matamata, more widely recognized as J.R.R.Tolkein's Hobbiton, made into a visual reality by Peter Jackson. It was a sleep little town, in which you can buy a tour of the actual set for Hobbiton for about $100. Seeing as that is ridiculous, I did not do this; rest assured though, I did get a picture with Smeagol! It was in this little town that I met up with the Kiwi Experience Bus, which was to be my way of transport across NZ the rest of the way (Kiwi Ex is a tour bus filled with 18-25 or so year old's traveling around NZ, they stop at special places to hike or swim and set you up with all your activities). After lunch, the bus made its way onto Rotorua.
Rotorua is a very interesting place, it is home to the most geothermal activity in NZ and it smells like rotten eggs due to the sulfur pools. We stayed at a hostel, appropriately named 'Hot Rocks' whose bar's name was 'Lava Bar'. The pool was heated up by the surrounding ground as this town is over a hot spot. The whole pool was as hot as a hot tub! If you know me, then you would know I loved this :)
In this little town, there was a lot to do. First I went white water rafting.
We went on grade 5 rapids and went over a 7 m waterfall. Oddoly enough, this wasn't at all as scary as it sounded and the rapids were not that bad seeing as they did only lasted for maybe 10 m. The last whaite water rafting experienc eI went on was when I was 15 with my mom in Bali, those rapids were much more thrilling! Still though, it was a beautiful day with good fun on the water.
We went on grade 5 rapids and went over a 7 m waterfall. Oddoly enough, this wasn't at all as scary as it sounded and the rapids were not that bad seeing as they did only lasted for maybe 10 m. The last whaite water rafting experienc eI went on was when I was 15 with my mom in Bali, those rapids were much more thrilling! Still though, it was a beautiful day with good fun on the water.In the evening we went to a Maori cultural center, Tamaki Maori Village. After being invited in 
with song and a stick 
rivalry bit (of which, please don't ask me to explain) by their cheif, they performed a live concert for us while briefly going over their history and ways of life. At the end we were served a MASSIVE buffet meal, it was sooo much better than the pasta we all had been eating for days! Oh yeah, at the end of the night we got to "share breath" with one of our guides for the night. 
This tradition is called 'hongi' and is actually supposed to 
be used at the beginning of the night when you are welcomed by the host of the party (note, that instead we were greeted with a challange over a stick..hmm??.. puzzling). So anyway, this is the hongi...
with song and a stick 
rivalry bit (of which, please don't ask me to explain) by their cheif, they performed a live concert for us while briefly going over their history and ways of life. At the end we were served a MASSIVE buffet meal, it was sooo much better than the pasta we all had been eating for days! Oh yeah, at the end of the night we got to "share breath" with one of our guides for the night. 
This tradition is called 'hongi' and is actually supposed to 
be used at the beginning of the night when you are welcomed by the host of the party (note, that instead we were greeted with a challange over a stick..hmm??.. puzzling). So anyway, this is the hongi...
All in all it was a great evening where I met man new friends who I would be traveling throughout NZ with. 
TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2008
Hamilton/Raglan Beach
Today was another great day. I took the bus from Auckland to Hamilton to meet up with my newest life long friend whom I met in Fiji, Joey. Well Joey is Canadian and now living in Hamilton so I 
went to say hi. He and his house mates took me Raglan Beach on the west coast of the north island. This is a beautiful beach, said to have the longest left in the world for surfing!Also with us was their new 
puppy, Muse. This was Muses first day on the beach and oh, how she loved digging in the sand. After a beach fun filled day, we went on a little hike to a beautiful waterfall. It was a very relaxing day filled with memories. 
No comments:
Post a Comment