I wrote this on my phone and was unable to upload any photos. However, I have provided links to enhance your reading experience.
My original plan for New Zealand had been to work in Auckland for a few months before traveling at the height of summer. However while Auckland is a perfectly agreeable city it is not what I travelled to the other side of the world for. It was time to get of the city and see the land of the long white cloud while finding some waterfalls to immerse myself in along the way. The first place the kiwi experience tour bus took myself and fellow travellers to was hot water beach. Hear you can dig a hole in the sand and bathe in water heated by the molten rock which most of our planet consists of. Our tour guide/driver made it sound as if the exact location of the hot water on the beach required specialist local knowledge. In reality you simply need to look for the part of the beach full of people digging holes and the vising water vapour.
The following day involved an exciting trip to the waitomo caves. I had naturally picked the most exciting tour which involved an abseil in followed by a zipline and a few hours floating in an inflatable ring. Our party of nine descended with no difficulty and were amazed by the plentiful glowworms which inhabit this subterranean world. They have the appearance of small green LED lights and live on insects that have the misfortune of wandering into the cave systems. I also saw some glow worms in an old mine shaft and on a night walk, they get around. As we entered the 8 degrees C water there was much high pitched squealing from all of us. I figured I was going to freeze to death so may as well enjoy myself while I could. Anyway we all made it out without dying of cold or disturbing any balrogs. There was even a nice strong flowing waterfall to go through.
The next destination was Rotorua which I had decided to spend some extra time at, mainly to stay at somewhere other than Base Rotorua. I had picked A hostel called Funky Green Voyager which was as delightful as it's name is weird. The rooms are richly decorated with posters and paintings. Plus their no wearing shoes inside policy really makes it feel like home. Before settling down for the night I had a trip to a Maori village. Here we were taught some Maori words and attempted to do the haka. The highlight was a feast prepared in a hangi. The hangi method of cooking involves heating rocks in a fire then using the white hot rocks to oven cook food in a pit. Our hosts were quite insistent that we could have as many helpings as we liked. This is why it truly was the highlight. Feeling invigorated by this meal I spent the night at the hostel playing taki. For those of you who don't know taki is the mental Israeli version of uno.
My time in Rotorua was spent admiring the stunning geological activity and exploring the nearby forest. In the process I managed to fall off a mountain bike. On my last day I decided to try and find a hot water spring up rainbow mountain (yes that's real). After breakfast and second breakfast I set off on a 30km bike ride in torrential rain. The weather in New Zealand is remarkably changeable so I was confident it would clear. It didn't. I arrived at the bottom of rainbow mountain soaked and later than expected. I decided to head back but not without swimming in a warm lake while taking care not to let a drop of water near my mouth.
On the long ride back the weather actually did clear and I had some pleasant views.
Now it is very easy to put your name on a skydiving sign up sheet. Going up in a small plane to partake in said sky dive is very different. I giggling nervously on the way up while making the most of viewing lake Taupo from the air. You might imagine it takes some great feat of courage to make the jump but in reality your skydiving partner (who actually knows what to do) just sits you on the edge of the plane and then throws you out. I paid close attention to the banana position you should put your body in for the initial leap. For the rest of the fall popular culture had taught me well. So initially I made a kind of AAAHHH sound but soon I was completely loving the experience while being oblivious to the obvious danger. After crashing through a cloud I felt the yank of the parachute and I felt sick. I spent the gentle part of our decent focusing very hard on not throwing up. Now the skydiving people had a video package on offer which involve pre and post dive interviews along with a music video of the dive itself. Anyway there was no way in hell I was paying the extra 100 and something dollars for that. Besides I have already been interviewed this year and they didn't have the song I wanted. So instead I ask you to picture in your mind me falling from 15000 metres to the tune of robot rock.
No comments:
Post a Comment