Hello!
So it's been a while since I've written (as usual)so you may want to grab some food (might I suggest a kiwi?! and get a comfy seat. Settle in for the long haul)
We've left the farm hosts, almost a week ago now. Staying there was like having a home for a little while, which was so great. It's nice to be able to unpack and spread my things all over and let everything air out. One of our last nights we slept out on the trampoline, watching the stars. The sky was incredibly clear! We could see the Milky Way, and a bunch of stars I don't know. Now I've got a copy of the southern sky map, so I'll be able to point out a lot more stars when we go tramping. We woke up with frost on our sleeping bags, but smiling faces and it was a great day. What an experience! One night we tried making an Israeli dinner for everyone (falafel, Israeli salad, hummus, and Honey Cake) which ended up being absolutely chaotic an hilarious. Neither Adam or I had ever tried making falafel before, and the recipe was strange, so it turned out to be mush that tasted nothing like falafel (actually, it didn't taste like anything...) But the honey cake (thanks karen!) and the Israeli salad were a success! We also tried to make Brad's caramel corn, but without corn syrup we had to make a substitute, then the thermometer was wrong and it didn't turn out as good as when Brad makes it, but Suzie and Alistair still loved it! The two of them ate almost an entire bowl (and that was before baking it) and my favorite part was watching suzie eating caramel corn while riding on her stationary bike. Cancelling them out...? We were quite sad to leave Suzie, Alistair, Sayshu and Bella, but we have to continue moving if we want to be able to see as much as possible.
Making our way to the Waitomo caves on saturday was a little interesting, and in 4 rides we arrived! We booked a "Black Water Rafting" trip, going through caves underground in intertubes and some really funny and ill-fitting wetsuits. There were even glowworms, which are larva of flies with glowing poop! The brighter they glow, the more they've eaten, or the more they are looking for a mate. Wouldn't it be nice if every single guy has a glowing butt?! The tubing adventure was really fun, including us jumping off waterfalls into the water and getting some time to relax in the cold water! The Glowworms look just like stars, and they usually live in big sections together, so in the darkness of the cave it looked just like stars, but closer and greener! It was beautiful to be underground and see a species of bugs I never even knew existed.
We'd arrived in Waitomo without a place to stay, and as our tour came to an end, our tour guide Ryan, from Louisville, Indiana, said we could pitch our tent in his backyard, so we caught a ride home with him. He and his friends are rock climbers, so we spent an unplanned 2 days in Waitomo climbing with his friends and meeting new people. Even though I don't climb (yet!?) it was still a wonderful time, and "Erica from America" and I went caving nearby. She and I met back up with everyone completely covered in mud, and even though now I have one less pair of pants until we can do laundry again, we had a blast crawling in the mud! Adam was quite happy to be able to do some bouldering (climbing on lower rocks, without ropes), the people we met were hospitable (but really, most of New Zealanders are) and we made quite a few new friends! I am hoping to start doing some rock climbing; it looks like the ultimate brain teaser ("how can I get my body up there") and it should be a really fun new experience.
Monday night we made it to Hamilton for some Israeli folk dancing, then ended up staying in the dance teachers living room (his name is Raymond) for the night, then getting a ride in the morning to a spot to hitch. It always amazes me how much the people here are willing to help out backpackers with helpful advice and places to stay. I love this country!
We went straight from Hamilton to Rotorua, NZ's capitol for tourism. Yikes! We stayed at Planet Nomad backpacker, and had two jam packed days! We arrived at noon on Tuesday, fitting in a hike around the thermal park (with bubbling mud, and natural bubbling pools!), and a Maori cultural show that evening. I had no idea the Maori songs were so beautiful; one of the love songs sounded like the ocean. They fed us a big dinner at the end, and Adam and I ate until our stomachs were cramping. The next day was action packed, with us trying to do as much as possible as well as spending as many coupons as possible. We went Zorbing, which is when you get inside a huge plastic ball with water, and then roll down a grass zigzag track, screaming. It was one of the strangest feelings, similar to what I can imagine being inside a womb must feel like, and at the end of the zigzag track you have to crawl out a little hole in the ball (like being birthed? weird..) It was really oddly fun, to say the least. Then we headed to Skyline, took the gondola up, then rode on the street luge track! That was really funny, and quite wet! It has been raining a lot, but it doesn't stop the adventure!
Next we walked to the "Kiwi Encounter" getting a tour of a kiwi conservation facility, as well as getting to see the kiwi bird up close! Kiwi's are a little bit bigger than a mallard, with huge feet (they're in the same family as the ostrich and the emu!) and tiny wings. The wings are so tiny, in fact, that they are flightless! They are a nocturnal bird, and the females lay an egg that is the size of an emu egg (think of those proportions: bird: size of duck. egg: size of emu egg (think flinstones) that egg is huge! those ladies are tough!)
After our encounter with the national bird, we spent our free tea coupons, then ran to spend our free beer coupon at a bar called "The Pig and Whistle", then running back to our backpacker and heading to the Polynesian Spa. This place had 7 natural hot pools, one of which was a lap pool, so of course, we swam laps. We only had a little bit over an hour there, but we made it into all of the pools. Some were way too hot! It was nearing 11pm by close, so the skys were dark, the seagulls were loud, but the water was warm and Adam and I sat in the pools laughing about firetrucks.
Direct quote: "I'm schvitzing like a firetruck." What a weirdo.
We made it back to the backpacker by half 11, noticing we hadn't eaten dinner and didn't have much left in terms of groceries, but ended up eating a delicious fried-rice style concoction of sorts. We headed out the next morning, bound for Taupo, although it took us quite some time to get there. However, our ride into Taupo was from a Jewish Australian couple in a campervan who saw the hebrew on my shirt once we stopped at Huka Falls, near Taupo.
Speaking of, Huka Falls is from a feed of the Waikato river, which is what we kayaked down in Cambridge! The falls go from 100 meters wide, and 4 meters deep, to being pushed through rocks 10 meters wide, and 6 meters deep. You can only imagine the loud sound of the falls, as well as how fast the water is going! I think the numbers are 220,000 litres per second. WOW! This place was intense, the water was so blue and crisp.
Taupo is apparently the adventure capitol of the southern hemisphere, with huge promotions for Bungy jumping, sky diving, and all sorts of other adrenaline pumping activities. We're staying in the party tent once again, and have already met a bunch of travelers staying in our backpacker as well. Yesterday we went to "Craters of the Moon" which has lots of steam holes, as well as bubbling mud craters that erupt pumice and mud! We went with some of our new friends, Francisco and Francisca from chile, and a german guy who gave us a ride there. It ends up that some of the Irish and scottish girls who we met in Rotorua at our Maori cultural show are in the same hostel, so it was really sweet to see them again and get to chat. They said "Adam is a really nice guy and everything, but how do you travel with a guy, let alone without a lot of stuff?!" (I had made a comment about one of them traveling with heels... that sounds dangerous!) But we're both so laid back and easygoing, I can't imagine traveling with girls!
Well, now that everyone is up to speed I better take a break and get back to having fun! (not that this isn't entertaining, but living in the present is way better!)
Below is a link to Adam's photos on facebook, so have a look if you please and feel free to give me a shout! Just copy and paste the link into your browser!
http://ucalgary.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055714&l=5d1c2&id=120600255
Hope all is well at home, and that October isn't too cold!
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