all around the North Island NZ

Day 4 Auckland to Hahei
This morning I woke at 7 and met my new driver at 745. Our driver is a fairly new driver—actually he isn’t even a Kiwi –he’s from England—but he had to take some courses in NZ to be qualified for the job—as far as I’m concerned he knows his stuff. First stop was at Mt. Eden which is a dormant volcano inside of Auckland city—I am not quite sure which number he said but there are quite a number of dormant volcanoes that make up Auckland. From Mt. Eden you could tell that this was true. We stopped afterward at the Stray office-located in Auckland to go through a briefing of the online booking process. I asked the woman a few questions because I don’t plan on checking online anytime soon. It seems like all these little towns have even more expensive places than the bigger ones. Ironic don’t you think? Anyway after this we were finally on our way. Our first stop was a little town with a great lookout—I actually have no recollection of what it was called. I neglected to take as many pictures of the landscape because really it’s mostly cows and agricultural land—basically a much greener America. I’ve come to notice while traveling with STRAY it’s a much lonelier experience even if you talk to people—I think traveling with a group and really getting to know them is much better—though I just began my second tour so maybe its too early to tell. Anyway its beautiful here but I can’t help think I’d rather be here enjoying it with someone else. It just takes a lot of the beauty out of it. I never thought I’d say that because I always thought I was a lone wolf—but I guess I’m not really.
So we stopped in Thames for some grocery shopping and lunch—I did some budget shopping and even got food by the brand name budget, how entertaining. Dad you’d be proud of me I made myself some gorp! I have a feeling I am not going to each very healthily this week but I figure its just a week so I can do that.
Moving on we got to Hahei early afternoon. By 2:20 we took a walk to Cathedral Cove. I should say, our accommodation is kind of like a campgrounds except we are in little suites about a 2 minute walk from the beautiful beach! Cathedral Cove was beautiful though my camera didn’t cooperate. There was a nice little hike down and back up from it and a few other look out spots. I talked to one of the guys on my trip—he’s from Canada—30yrs old the oldest in our group. Surprisingly I am on the lower end of the group—30, 26, 24, 21, 20 and 19 and the only American! Yay! I am rooming with two girls from the Netherlands and a girl form North Wales—all are nice and friendly yay. There are several people on this tour that were also on my Bay of Islands tour so its pretty nice to see some familiar faces, but I guess subconsciously I wanted to meet new ones! After getting back from the walk I headed for the beach near our accommodation. It was surreal and peaceful. I love the sound of crashing waves. Again though I really felt lonely and wished someone was sharing it with me.
That night we went to a warm water beach about 10 minutes down the road from where we were staying. This place was supposed to have significant geothermal activity so if we searched in the right place we should be able to find boiling hot water under our feet. What I didn’t realize was how far 150 meters is. We had to walk through cold cold crashing waves to find this area where the geothermal activity was. It was quite an event. I was on a mission—prior to hitting the water to go in and dig myself a hot water spa, but as soon as I hit the freezing cold water I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I also made the mistake of leaving my pants on so they got completely soaked, but it was really entertaining to do this with the whole group. Also an adventure tour group joined us who has basically been following our tracks the whole trip so far—only difference is the food and accommodation are included in their price—I should keep track and see which method is actually cheaper. Anyway, their driver is pretty cool—his name is Alibabar, not that that is significant.
When we got back we were all freezing and hurried into our nice heated rooms to warm up. I then went on to make my spaghetti and pasta sauce from a can—which took only minutes to make. Most of the rest of the group had bbq prepared by our driver Tike—but this took forever plus it was a lot of meat so I think I made the better choice in making my own food. Just from experience from the Tassie trip when we all had pizza one night and the pizza to me tasted like cardboard—so I basically paid 10 bucks to eat two pieces of cardboard. At least when I buy myself crap food I don’t feel regretful about it. But it did look like it was a pretty good meal for the meat eaters so that’s good. I did sit and spend time with everyone as they ate, since I didn’t plan my own meal very well (timing wise). It was quite enjoyable, all the people are pretty funny and try to have a good time. Eventually though too many of them started smoking and I just couldn’t breathe it in anymore so I left and went to my room. Then decided to waste a bit of time I ‘d go and have a nice hot shower. The problem is—there isn’t much to do once it gets dark around here because everything is dark—we stay in little towns with about two shops and no street lights. Oh well should get good sleep for sure! I spent about 40 minutes in the shower because every time I tried to get out I got too cold and had to heat back up. Brrr!! By the time I got out it was basically time for bed so I read a bit then slept. Two of the girls in my room have missing stuff from when they flew from the Netherlands so they’ve been struggling to get that back—we got a few calls in the night—finally it arrived.
Just a bit of history –NZ was considered to be uninhabitated until some massive volcano occurred. We know this by the lack of animal and human remains found by archaeologists before this massive volcano. After that the Maori people were first to come here, supposedly they got here by way of a whale from Hawaitaki (or something like that)—watch Whale Rider and that’s basically it. Basically they think this mythical place was probably Polynesia. The first Europeans didn’t get here until the 1600’s and it was a dutch guy, Abel Tasman who landed—he also found Tasmania-hence the name. The last full blood Maori died in 1979—hence to say since then the Maori people have assimilated to the Europeans coming in and now are mixed blood.
Day 5-Hahei to Raglan
Today we were up and moving out by 8:15---got a few pictures of sunrise which sadly in this neck of the woods isn’t until about 8:15 in the morning. Then we drove on heading across the country to the West coast for Raglan. Raglan is known for having the largest left handed swells in the world. It took us about 3.5 hours to make it to the West coast. On our way we stopped off at a Kiwi Reserve—but it was more of like land reserved for them—so we didn’t actually see any. Same as my other STRAY tour we passed by some Kauri trees—this time I actually got my picture with them—and they were twin trees!! How cool!! They must have been quite a bit younger than the other trees because it was almost possible to hug them—well not really—but a lot more likely than the other tree. Our next pit stop was in this little town known for making some famous drink called L & P. Supposedly it is “world famous in New Zealand,” I absolutely died at this thinking…hmm world famous…but in New Zealand..so really no one else has heard of it. The best part is is that it is basically water with lemon in it. How innovative huh? Next we passed through New Zealand’s third largest city called Hamilton home to 277,000 people. Supposedly there was a big push to get tourists here and their slogan was “Its better than you think,” while Auckland’s slogan for it was “its two hours from anything worth going to” or something along those lines. But what is cool about Hamilton is that it has massive flower shows and gardens and also the longest river in New Zealand flows through here—its 423 km running from Taupo (the last spot on my trip) to S. Auckland. The reason Hamilton didn’t get very many tourists is mainly because it is an industrial town so there isn’t much to do but work. Oh well. Our last stop was in a town just outside Raglan for grocery stores and such. The highlight of this was using a toilet that actually talked to me. Not only did it have automatic doors allotting 10 minutes to use it before the doors opened again but it also had automatic flusher, automatic soap, automatic water, automatic hand dryer, automatic toilet paper dispenser and elevator music. When you left you did have to push the exit button—yuck! And the toilet also said goodbye. Pretty funky for a little town in New Zealand—supposedly they have these in Australia too—but never got to try one.
Finaly about 1:30PM we arrived in Raglan—Tike drove through the little town and then drove us up to the beach. The Raglan beach is famous for summertime surf competitions. It is a massive beach, but today the swells were basically non-existent. After driving to our lodging for the night (part of a surf school founded by a Californian) I went back to the beach with a few people. One guy went surfing and the other running while I did a bit of beach walking and shell collecting (hope that wasn’t illegal). Anyway it was quite relaxing and really was a beautiful beach, I even found a seastar! After doing a walk I sat and talked to the guy who had gone running. He’s been travelling a lot and will continue long after I am done. He’s already been to Iceland, Canada and the US and plans on making his way west to Africa before the next World Cup game. Pretty cool—he even stopped in the Adirondacks! Yup so after the other guy (Canadian) left the water we all made our way back up to the bus again. After arriving back at the lodge I just hung around, watched the sun set with some people and then made my way back to make some dinner. Dinner tonight was powder tomato soup and some crackers. I’m treating my self like a queen I tell ya! After dinner we tried to watch a movie but there are these other people staying here (damn Americans) and they are like in highschool so obviously really loud and obnoxious so that wasn’t very successful. Instead we celebrated Canada day with Shaun the Candian in the surf barn—which actually turned out to be pretty entertaining. I mainly played ping pong—learned a new version where you basically run around a table and each person gets a go. Then right before I left I went out with some people to do this thing called the Flying Fox, basically you sit on this disk like thing attached to a zip line and let yourself go. This was kind of crazy as it was already dark outside, but pretty cool just the same.
Tomorrow we head South for Waitamo Caves and then have a Maori Cultural Night! Cool beans! Till tomorrow then.
Day 6-Raglan to Maketu
This morning we actually had to be up and out on time—7:45 AM because we had an appointment at the Wataimo Caves for some caving activities! The drive was nice—the frost on the hills gave a wonderful winter look especially with the cold sun shining down. Far off mountains also had misty fog on them that added to the peaceful scenic look. Unfortunately the windows were also fogged up so I couldn’t get any decent pictures, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. It reminded me a lot of Syracuse and Ithaca in winter.
It took us until about 9:45 to get to Waitamo Caves—Tike explained to us that in Waitamo alone there were about 360 discovered and mapped caves and probably just as many found but unmapped. You should have seen this land—it was incredibly hilly and the craziest part is that its all agricultural land. The cool thing for the farmers is that if there is a cave under them they rightfully own it under New Zealand law so any company that wants to have tourism in their caves has to pay for a lease and also give commission from every caver. Not a bad deal! The cave that I was going in was owned by a family called Haggas—the tour was called Haggas Honking Holes. I guess the farm land had been in their family for 3 generations—I asked our guide when we got down in the cave how long ago the cave had been discovered and he said probably the 1950’s –I thought wow not long ago at all!!
So we had to drive a good distance from the company location to where the cave we were going in was located. There are tons of companies there and beds and breakfasts all geared for tourists. Most are closed due to the season, but I bet in summer its booming. I am quite glad I’m not here in winter because too many people would just ruin the scenery. Its nice to be places all alone. Anyway, back to the tour. When we got on the farm property we again had to drive through rolling hills to get to our spot. There they had their own facility equipped with gear—helmets, wetsuits, lights and boots! First we got a less on repelling to make sure we all understood what we were doing because there were several points where we had to abseil down—including the very first part which was a 30 meter or 90 foot abseil. I was a bit uneasy about this because ya I’ve repelled before but never in a cave and also not very recently. We got to meet the other people on our tour—there were probably 12 of us in total and 3 guides. There were two med students from NYC so that was cool—had a little chat with them. Yup so the cave opening was actually larger than the caves I’ve been in before—however I’ve never had to abseil down into a cave. This was intense because this is a wet cave so you have to deal with slippery surfaces and water in your face.
It wasn’t really hard to abseil down 30 meters but it took a really long time—I kept trying to go faster because it actually hurt my abs—you know you have to lean back so you are basically perpendicular to the surface and then lower yourself down—but I think because the guide at the bottom had me on belay (when they kind of have you on a safety) I wasn’t really able to go super fast. But still I was definitely in control of my own decent. At the bottom was a pool of water—when I looked up and down at about half way down the decent I actually thought the bottom went down forever—but it was just the pool of water. In the end I touched the bottom but also got a boot full of water—ice cold water—but that was nothing to what was to come. The cave wasn’t as narrow as the caves I went in in NY on my caving orientation—but it was definitely more wet and I think this was more threatening than the tiny holes—but maybe that’s cause this is more recent. Anyway I can’t remember all the nooks and crannies we went in but some memorable ones were: had to duck into waste deep water and go under a ledge—while a waterfall is pouring down on you—everyone said when the guide told them to do this they were like you’ve got to be kidding me—and really it was that crazy. Then we had abseil down several waterfalls—which isn’t too bad until you get to the bottom and you are trying to get your feet under you but the water is either pulling your boots off or just plunging onto your head so you get completely disorientated. Then there were several ladder climbs and pure rock climbing where it was just you and the wall and all the bottom below you—this was really heart pounding—even when I didn’t look down I was petrified. There was another abseil in which we only had to go maybe 2 meters down but you couldn’t actually tell at first and the guide just said you had no control he would just lower you down like a sack of potatoes. When I first started going down I had my hands over my head and my legs tucked in and then he just stopped me and was like you are stuck-hold on—come back up—so I look up and then he just instantly drops me—and its only like a half a meter down but it was the scariest thing ever because I didn’t see it coming. Then after that I see everyone else who went below me—about 6 people crammed into this insanely tiny space—and then more people were suppose to come down. I was like what?! But then after me a guide came down and took us away –under another insanely powerful waterfall—mind you you are also walking knee deep in water so if you lose your footing you are basically going to be pushed down into the water—unable to see and unable to hear anyone. Crazy! But then after this we had a few minutes to enjoy the cave. The caves here are actually known for this thing they call glowworms but they are really some kind of fly. In their larval stage they luminesce to attract prey which is basically other flies that come in via the water. And they have these long threads that dangle from where they are that basically acts like a spider web that their prey gets caught in and then they can devour it. The funny thing is they spend 9 months in this stage and only live to be 11 months old. In the other time they basically reproduce as fast as possible, and when this is over the males are basically too tired and end up flying into other larvae’s dangling threads and are eaten. The guy said that 40% of the larvae’s food is their own species! Crazy! Oh and also what luminesces is actually the larvae poop, not sure of the process but similar to other creatures. Oh ya we also learned about the formation of stalagtites, stalagmites and all the different morphologies of them. I didn’t realize this but they are actually made of calcium carbonate the same thing that corals are made of. I guess it makes sense—and they are also affected in the same way as corals—so acid rain degrades them as well as people touching them. They also take thousands upon thousands of years to be formed—so cool. I am sure I learned this a long time ago but I didn’t remember.
What else? So we probably got about 80 meters down. Oh they don’t have bats in this cave and the only native bats in New Zealand are fruit bats. Kinda cool. I guess these caves mainly have spiders and eels though I didn’t see any. We had to crawl through passages that were basically neck high with water—it was cold and also made me go a little crazy with claustrophobia but then again that’s exactly why I do this kind of stuff. I guess you could call me an adrenalin junky. Overall we were down there for 4 hours—but it really felt like it flew by. It was so cool!! Definitely a big adrenalin rush—completely exhausted and chilly on the way out. Tomorrow a skydive is on (hopefully)!
So after this it was about 2:30 and we had to make our way to Maketu where we’d be having a cultural Maori night. Overall it was going to be a great day. We arrived about 5:45 and got a big welcome from the head guy called Uncle Boy who had actually built this Maori meeting house. I guess the big information on this is that in order to go into a meeting house you have to be invited and there is a big ritual that goes along with this—we had to take part in this. Also part of the tradition was to have a meal called hangi—which in the old days was cooked in the ground but they don’t do that anymore. Basically to me it tasted like a Thanksgiving meal. It was really yummy and I was thankful for it as it was probably the only proper meal I would eat here in New Zealand. In all there are 7 Maori tribes in New Zealand and they worship many gods—gods of the elements like the earth, water yada yada.
So when it was finally time to do the cultural experience we all made our way next door to the meeting house. We had to take our shoes off as is tradition. Uncle Boy strongly encouraged video and photography—so I strongly went ahead and listened to him—he even let me stand is a special spot to capture the whole traditional meet and greet. I guess on seeing a tribe (as we were called) Maori people assume that you are an enemy and they blow their horn—which they did. We had to send our chief (the oldest guy in our group 35) to receive their offering. Basically the Maori people did this little dance and then offered a leaf to our chief—John. All captured on a video you’ll have to ask me to see. It was quite impressive. One thing the Maori’s do is stick their tongue out and bulge their eyes—this I guess is done to try and intimidate their enemy. To thank them they spank their butts and also do this nose thing and shake hands—we all got to participate in this (again there is a video). After all this we were supposedly welcomed into their tribe and now part of their extended family, yay! Then they did a dance and show for us and we also got to join in. The girls learned this dance called the Poi-which originally was an exercise that the male warriors did to work out their wrists because a lot of the warrior stuff is swinging around a spear. Then the boys learned the haka which is basically the warrior tongue dance thing. We each had to perform it for the others. It was challenging but quite fun.
So the story of the haka-it’s a trible dance-for males. Basically an old Maori warrior got into trouble with a chief from another tribe and ran away so they wouldn’t kill him. He went to another island to try and hide and his wife had him hide in a hole which she sat over. When the other tribe came in search of him she lied until they left—saying she hadn’t seen him there. When they left and he came out the sun shone again. Yay.
So when the show was over we basically hung around and listened to Uncle Boy tell us more about Maori culture especially its present condition. This was quite interesting—it seems like it is fading quite a bit. Oh yeah the most important part is that Uncle Boy has a Fox Terrior (or so he says it is) and it is the cutest little puppy ever—I couldn’t stop holding him. His name is Powa and he’s only 10 weeks old (again see video). That’s all for now, cross your fingers that sky diving will be on tomorrow.
Random facts of the day—20%of NZ is National Park. The deepest cave here is 898 meters deep and Lake Taupo which I’ll possibly skydive over tomorrow is the 2nd deepest lake in NZ.

Day 6-Maketu-Rotorua-Taupo
Can I just say what a great few days. When I first got to New Zealand I thought it was just going to be crap weather and no fun. It turns out it’s been a hell lot of fun! Woohoo!! So today we kind of were allowed to sleep in but since my internal clock has been waking me up at 7 AM for the last two weeks I again woke at this time. However this morning was different because after going to the bathroom I found the cute little puppy to cuddle up with. Aww how I miss Ursula!! Anyway I laid in bed with this puppy who basically curled up next to my chest and we slept until Uncle Boy turned on ABBA music as he promised he would. Breakfast was delicious because again it was an actual meal: tea-toast-two kiwis (the golden brown type!) and a big bowl of cereal. Yumm. We packed up and were out by 9. Down to the beach for some ocean sunrise pictures as we seem to do everyday and then on our way to a place called Rotorua. Yes I did forget to mention that I didn’t get to say goodbye to my puppy dog friend, awww.
So along the way to Rotorua we stopped at this waterfall called Okere Falls—which is basically home to the largest commercially rafted fall in the world standing only 7 meters high—but I guess this is considered a level 5 rapid. Tourists do come here to raft—none of us had been interested in doing it however. We watched a few rafters and kayakers and then were on our way. When we finally got to Rotorua there was only about 2 hours of time to hang out there before those of us who weren’t staying had to move on to Taupo. Most of the people who had originally gotten on the bus with me got off here, so this was sad as we all had really gotten to know each other and be comfortable together. Anyway it was a good place to get off—Rotorua is known for its unbelievable sulfur smell and its geothermal activity. All over the place there is steam coming out of the ground. There are numerous parks within the township that have hot sulfur pools gurgling and blowing out who knows what (ask for the video!) A few people got off at this geothermal village, where the people who live there are Maori and have to be in some way related to full breed Maori to be able to live there. Anyway it was another tourist attraction but since we had so little time there I didn’t bother paying to see it. Instead I went with the rest of the bus to get a tour of the town—through a little geothermal park, by the Polynesian spas, by the museum and up and down all the shopping streets. Since I hadn’t done any tourist shopping since I got to NZ I decided this was the place to do it. This pretty much took up my entire time in Rotorua. Oh I should mention that when I first got off the STRAY bus in the town I had to pee really bad, having tunnel vision from my current condition I found a public toilet—but you had to pay! How nuts! 20 cents to use the toilet—so you better believe I took some photos of that 20 cent toilet I used. Haha.
So at about 12:45 I got back on the STRAY bus after saying bye to John—one of the English guys who was on our bus—he had been our chief at the Maori culture night. At this spot about6 more people got on the bus—obviously not in any way as cool as the people we had hung out with the last few days. But it was okay. Yup so our next stop was Waiotapu Mud Pool, which was sooooo cool. Basically just a pond of geothermal activity. It was beautiful and extremely stinky and hot! We drove on for a while and as we neared Taupo we took a stop at Haku Falls which are supposedly the biggest tourist attraction in New Zealand. Every 1 second enough water passes down the fall that it could fill 3 olympic size swimming pools. The water of this fall was soo green, it was gorgeous! Haku Falls is 11 meters high but ya no commercial rafters are allowed on it. You can understand why.
Finally we made it into Taupo, however the area looked entirely covered in clouds—not very conducive to skydiving. As Tike stopped the bus and rambled on about Taupo in general I thought that the skydive wasn’t going to happen. But then he said we were headed to the airport and that we were booked in for after 3 oclock. STRAY has a very laid back way of doing things—that keeps an organized person more on their feet than anything. Keeps it interesting! Yup so when we got there there were supposedly 4 of us doing it but two girls chickened out so it was just me and this kid named Andrew from England who had actually been on the bus with me this whole pass, but I never really talked to before this. So that was good—kind of got to do a bit of bonding with everyone.
So the first thing we had to do was fill out a medical sheet—which was actually far less information taking than I imagined. Then they had us watch a DVD of some hyped up girl going on her sky dive. This was actually quite scary. Then we had to decide how high we wanted to jump from. I was going to go with the cheaper deal but figured to just go all out if I was going to do it –when it came down to choosing. Yup so then we waited for a while—talked with three Irish girls—two of which were going to jump out of the same plane as Andrew and I. They were clearly much older but pretty much just as excited. Finally they called us in to get suited up. We got to wear these little blue suites and we had to wear these funny hats and eye coverings. I finally got to meet the guy I was going to be attached to. He was quite young but seemed to be confident in his abilities. It was surprising a lot of the people there as instructors didn’t seem to be from NZ but mine was so that was comforting. Supposedly to be an instructor you have to have at least 1000 jumps. Can you believe that? My guy’s name was Alex. He insisted that I blow my nose so that I didn’t snot all over the place—I found this quite funny but did as I was told. Then we made a bit of a video and took a bunch of sweet photos that I can’t wait to see again. Everyone else was already loaded into the tiny tiny plane which meant that Alex and I were first out. Which I couldn’t have been more happy about, honestly. Oh yea I forgot to mention they told us the position we should be in –the bannna—basically rest your head on his shoulders and tuck your feet under the plane. Tucking my feet around the plane was no problem for me because as soon as he opened the door I was scared to death and thought I was going to like explode with adrenalin. But before I knew it we were out the door-falling fast and then faster and even faster. I couldn’t even breath that’s how fast the air was rushing at my face. I could feel my stomach fly up to my throat. It was so crazy, but so cool at the same time. Alex turned on the video and caught me with some really great expressions—I was definitely having a great time—just couldn’t catch my breath long enough to smile. Finally though I got okay with it and tried to make faces and thumbs up at the camera. Then he pulled the chord and we were floating. This part was actually super relaxing and the view was incredible! The sun was setting on the far side of the Lake and there we were drifting around in the air! How cool!! It felt like we were just hanging at the same height forever, but then slowly the ground came. At no point after the initial freefall did I get scared, which was kind of crazy. When we got close to the ground we both had to lift our feet as high as possible and we kind of just sailed down on our butts. When I stood up I felt dizzy but not in a nauseous way-more like a vertigo thing. It was pretty cool and my stomach was still up in my throat. I wasn’t shaking as much as I thought I would be but wow I was just on such a high. I can’t believe I did that!! And I would totally do that again too!! I really think it would be fun to do with Maggie. And I totally believe that it would be just as insane the second time as it was this time. I am really glad I had the instructor I had—he really made me feel comfortable and he really made it fun. Yay. Afterward we waited around for them to make our trip into a DVD and then we watched the other people’s as well as our own. They were all pretty cool—we got to pick out the music to them so it was interesting to see the combinations and how well they worked with the different parts of the dive. One of the Irish girl’s seemed to hate it—she was crying by the time her parachute came open—she said that she would never do it again. The other girl had already gone once in Australia—she seemed to enjoy it but didn’t really give much expression in her video. Me on the other hand—I tried to rock out with my socks out! WOOHOOO!! I feel great!
Yup so after we all got our dvds, pics and tshirt they took us to our hostel—Taupo Urban Retreat—which is quite a friendly little place—they even have free internet!! Yay. And I had powdered tomato soup for dinner along with some crackers and ya that’s about it! Just a relaxing evening cause I am exhausted!! Tomorrow I will probably walk around Lake Taupo and check out the shops around here. Then I catch a bus back to Auckland at 3:30—and so will end my trip around NZ! See you soon America.