We went to Rotorua, which is a natural hot springs town. All the water is heated naturally by the boiling water running through everywhere in the town. It is full of sulfur too so it smells mildly like rotten eggs, it wasn't too bad though. I dipped my hand (finger) in the water, way to hot to have a swim in though I wanted to! I got some really cool pictures of the hot springs which I will post to facebook shortly and have a link to at the bottom of this post.
On Tuesday night in Taupo we met up with Rosie, a girl I cleaned and lived with for the month I was in Paihia up north. She was there too and we met up at a bar, where we met a couple of her roommates, both from the states! Amazing, 3 of us in the same place at the same time abroad! I think I've met a total of 7 Americans since I've been in NZ. Anyway, they were pretty cool guys and through the night we all decided to go to Waitomo the next day for a day trip. It was perfect because we were going there anyway and the bus would have cost us $45 a person and we got to ride in an old beast of a van on a road trip over for free! When we got into Waitomo (known strictly for it's caving, which is the reason we were there) myself and the other guys went down to the local rugby pitch and had a toss/kick around. It was quite a fun time.
The next day LiLu and I went on an amazing caving experience. We went with absolute adventures, which is basically the non-tourist group in the area. They don't hold your hand going through and the concept is to teach you about caving as well as challenge you and push you beyond your comfort zone. I never really got out of my comfort zone, but I live for this stuff! Even so it was an amazing experience! We repelled 20-30 meters down waterfalls, had to hand over had climb ropes up wet rock to get into the next bits of cave, and many other crazy things!
Probably the hardest bit for me was a spot where you had to stand on one side of a cliff edge and reach your foot across to the other side, free falling a couple feet before your foot hit the other side and you were straddling a 20 meter fall bouncing down the crevasse. Of course we are clipped in to ropes so you wouldn't fall, but it's still a little tough to let your body go and you would still fall and bang yourself on the rocks if you did slip. Being the guy I am I kept asking the guide to give me some particularly challenging bits to do. Towards the end he tried to step it up a bit. One of those bit was a squeeze flat on my stomach through a passage that was 3/4 full of water! We were in overalls and two layers of thermals and the water was still freezing! Granted we'd been in the water the whole time pretty much, but only half way up to your shins up to this point. I was pretty much submerged in the water except for half my head which was turned up so I could breath going through the squeeze. It came out into an opening and the only way out was to squeeze through another whole which would put me right back into the water on the other side. I couldn't where my helmet through these bits because it was just too tight, so I had to take it off and let it float backwards pointing at me so I could see. It was pretty intense but not too scary. Another really cool bit we did was in a part of the cave that was more or less straight (I think), our guide had us turn all our lights off on our helmets. Then continue to follow the river/stream forward (upstream) in the dark. He went ahead and we could hear him whistling. I was leading the group at that time and so we continued in the dark. Then I realized part of the reason he did it. There were glow worms on the ceiling and walls around us! It wasn't packed full of glow worms like in the tourist caves but you could still see there blue light shining on the walls. It was amazing to see! As one point I passed within inches of one, right at my face level. They are so small you can't see anything, even from that distance, but it was really neat to be that close. One we saw was so bright I could see the rock around it in a 7 inch diameter! He must have been hungry! We continued on for about 80 meters winding through this cave following the river. In some spots I could hear Doug's whistling echo so I knew we were coming into a big cavern, as well as being able to hear my own voice echo once I reached it. It was really cool to completely lose your ability to see and try and rely on your other senses to navigate. In total we spent 4 and half hours underground, with the end having a bunch of waist and chest deep pools to wade and climb through before we saw sunlight again. Overall the trip was a ton of fun and a great experience. By the end of it Lijanne was beat to a pulp, bruised from head to toe, but she loved it.
Tomorrow we are going to do the Tongariro crossing, which is meant to be the best hike in all of the North Island and if you do just the day trip it's supposed to be the best in all of NZ. We are going to do a couple more days after the day trip and head up to one of the summits so we should be up there for 3 days in total. This is where Mt Doom is from Lord of the Rings and Mordor, so hopefully I can get some awesome pictures of it and we can match them up later! I won't be on a computer again for 4-5 days probably, until around my birthday I guess. Then I'll have some amazing photos! I put a video up you can find from my profile on facebook of the huge tree Tane Mahuta and our guide Taf singing in Maori for those that have access to that.
I have a bunch of video's too, and a couple I've already put up, but it's really slow to load them and costs my a lot to stay online for that amount of time. I've been thinking of sending you a CD with a bunch of video's to put online or pass around Timmy, send me your address and maybe when I get a chance I can send a bunch out to you.
Sounds like everything back home is going well from those I've heard from. Things continue to be amazing around this way! More in a 5 or 6 days!
Here is a picture of Lijanne for those who care!
Links:
I put a video up you can find from my profile on facebook of the huge tree Tane Mahuta and our guide Taf singing in Maori for those that have access to that. This is the link, but it may not work for everyone...
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=522233123730
This is the link for the Rotorua Hot Pools and the Caving Trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2106890&l=d1e70&id=25904364
4 comments:
Sure thing, send it to my work:
Tim Morrow
14711 NE 29th Place
Suite 216
Bellevue, WA 98007
Or just hang on to it - you'll be back in a month.
Back to work :(
Sounds like you're having lots of fun, buddy. Although, I think staying here would have been much more exciting.
Yesterday, I trekked far north to a magical place where there was a mystical box that becomes filled with cryptic documents every day. I proceeded to research the documents and soon found they were cursed. They cast a terrible curse upon me that would take away any sense of comfort from me: heat, shelter, water... the curse could only be broken if I "paid" special homage and put them back into the magical box to be sent away to a far away place.
And then I ate Ramen with Sriracha sauce.
Anyway, sorry you're missing out on all the fun over here. I don't mean to make you jealous. But it sounds like it's aight down there too.
Sorry about missing your IM's. You thought I was at lunch when it was actually 6:30pm over here. hehe. So an update on my life back here in the States. I finally got back to the gym consistently and have been working out about 4-5 times a week. Startin' to get buff again, booyee! The only way it ever worked out is that I have to work out before work at 6am. Ugh. But the afternoons and evenings are reserved for FISHING. The weathers turning and I'm ready for some spring trout and bass. I finally took up fly fishing seriously and I'm getting pretty good at it. It's really a fun way to fish. I'll have to take you out sometime when you get back, I got 2 extra fly rods for you to choose from.
Other than that, I'm just workin' and hangin' with Kara and Steve. Sounds like you're having the trip of a lifetime, man. I'm happy for ya. Keep these updates coming so I can live vicariously through you. Next year, Vietnam? ;)
Yo man. . . mom shari here to let you know I so far have 2 thumbs up for LiLuu. It is exciting for you . I know!
Terri & I are flying to Tucson, AZ the 23rd for the week. HAPPY EASTER and HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON THE 26TH.
All is well on the homestead!! Lov Ya Man
Hey Dain!
Your human girl is very pretty, for a human. But where are the rest of the cats? The pictures are not very interesting because they are not moving. I like moving objects. But it sounded like Primrose thought they were good.
We had a little tussle last night in front of the storm door because an unauthorized cat appeared outside. Nantucket tried to stop me from attacking so I had to attack her. It made Primrose scream and come running. There were a few tufts of fur on the doormat afterwards, and our tails were frizzed out.
What are you doing on your Birthday? How was your Easter? Would you like two dozen Easter eggs in honor of your two-dozenth birthday? When are you coming to pet us here?
Best, Meriwether the Man
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