amaaaazing...

hi all.

so i had the most amazing day two days ago. I left raglan at about 8 in the morning on the 26th and hopped onto a new stray bus, this time driven by this absolutely psychopath named Rob, who was absolutely out of his mind but hysterically funny. It was a smaller bus, about 22 people, which was rather nice. We drove to Waitomo to check out the Waitomo caves, a series of limestone caves with rushing waterfalls and rivers, etc. I signed up for a tour called the Haggis Honking Holes, which turned out to be one of the most amazing things that i've ever done... wearing wetsuits, boots, and helmets equipped with lights, we rappelled down into the cave-- the first rappel was down a 30 meter rock wall to the cave floor. the second was down a waterfall, about 15 ft, and you drop splashing into knee deep rushing waters. then we squeezed our way through impossibly small holes and crevases, one of which we were lying on or stomachs in water, pushing ourselves through. we stopped in a few open caverns, where you can shut off your lights and look up at glowworms that dot the ceiling like tiny little blue-green stars. then we rock-climbed out way out, which was absolutely exhausting. in the end we drank lemonade and ate a chocolate bunny before climbing a long long ladder out of the caves. it was an absolutely stunning experience, i was smiling the entire time despite the fact that i was freezing and shivering and banging my knees/elbows/head on stalagtites...

that night we drove into Maketu for a cultural night at Uncle Boy's, an old Maori man who runs a sort of touristy maori extravaganza. On the way we had a bit of a karioki (spelling?) display, where we passed the microphone around and sang all our different national anthems (french, english, new zealand, scottish, irish, german, etc). since i was the only american on the bus, i warbled my way up to "and the rockets red glare" before someone mercifully cut me off in applause. it was pretty amazing.

at Maketu, we ate a huge huge traditional Maori dinner of beef, chicken, mutton, pumpkin, sweet potato, stuffing, and coleslaw-- it was amazing, i considered it my thanksgiving dinner. then we watched a cultural show, in which this nearby family (composed mainly of adorable kids) performed some tradition songs and dances. Then they took the boys outside to learn the Haka (a dance in which you basically try to intimidate the audience) and us girls learned the Poi, where you swing cloth balls on strings in a rythmic manner while singing a song. Our line (we formed two lines) one for the most enthusiatic rendition, which began with me yelling out "KIRARO" at the top of my lungs.

that night we slept in the main room on the floor, and at one point i woke up to a loud "thudthudthudthudthud" and laughter, only to see Rob (crazy bus driver) doing naked laps around the room with a sheet tied around his neck like a cape. luckily i wasn't wearing my glasses... we all had a pretty fantastic time, it was a great group.

yesterday we stopped in Rotorua, and i fulfilled my lifelong dream of rolling down a hill inside a giant plastic ball half filled with water... also known as zorbing. it was so so so so much fun, like a sort of crazy circular waterslide. i was laughing the entire way down. i got some pretty amazing pictures of the whole thing which i will post soon...

i'm staying at the hostel here in a room with Linda from england, and a couple Matt and Kelly, also from England. I've known them for basically my entire time here, since we have overlapped in various areas. so we're having a lot of fun. i'm exciting to move onto Taupo tomorrow for some bunjee-ing and possibly sky diving... even though my parents might flip out (sorry mom and dad... we'll talk it over...) Rotorua is fun and all, but i can only stay in a place that smells like rotten eggs for a short period of time (its a thermal hot spot)

ok i gotta run, my time is running out on the computer. so apologies for any bad grammar or typos, no time to edit!!

cheers,
alli