#black water rafting

[joshguidenz]

For thrill-seekers and adventurers, Black Water Rafting through the Waitomo Caves is an unforgettable experience. Strap on a wetsuit, grab a tube, and float down an underground river beneath a canopy of thousands of glowworms lighting up the cave like a starry night. With jumps, slides, and squeezes through ancient limestone formations, it’s part adrenaline, part wonder. Guided by experienced professionals, this is one of New Zealand’s most iconic adventure tours—and a must-do for those looking to explore the mysterious beauty beneath the surface.

www.greatnorthtours.co.nz

[geofflewriter]

Kia Ora days five, six and seven: burrows and caves

Kia Ora days five, six and seven: burrows and caves

Part one. We left Paihai bright and early. Our hosts waved us off with an All Blacks flag. Apparently there’s to be a referendum on the flag and a lot want this as the national flag. Why not I say though its lack of any Maori influence will probably and rightly count against it. We detoured to the last remaining significant Kauri forest. These beasts are huge, competing with redwoods at least in…

[everytingnewzealand-blog]

A quick guide on bike touring in New Zealand

New Zealand is simply beautiful, all the dreamscapes of the world seem united in this small country. Often there are only a few kilometres between the glaciers of the high mountains and lush rainforests with huge ferns and palm trees by the sea. Beautiful forests, volcanic deserts, white sand beaches, wild rocky coastlines, golden plateaus and lush green hills with an infinite number of sheep: The advertising slogan of the “most beautiful end of the world” is really no exaggeration. Therefore, cycling there on a bike would be a great way to experience the countryside. There are a bunch of places where you can go on a biking tour New Zealand. So it would be a great place to find out if you can check into any biking tour companies. It would be an awesome way to see New Zealand up close and personal. Plus, you get some refreshing physical exercise as well.

A few tips for biking around New Zealand:

Our route description is structured in such a way that you can put together the entire route from individual tours, depending on the time budget and interest. The tour description takes into account the main wind direction from the west, even if this is not a guarantee of a tailwind at your back. Even if New Zealand is small in area, you should take enough time for the discovery by bike. For a relaxed travel of the South and North Island, eight weeks is the absolute minimum. In order to really get to know the diversity of the beautiful landscapes, we also recommend some walks. The choice of unforgettable day or multi-day tours, is huge, even if you have no special hiking boots. Backpacks can usually be rented on site.

Article Source: everytingnewzealand.kinja.com/a-quick-guide-on-bike-touring-in-new-zealand-1827340851?rev=1530709282602

Shared By:www.everythingnewzealand.com

[bookloansalongoo]

Look up The Waitomo Partition About Your Drive South From Auckland

If himself are planning a trip in passage to New Zealand, you'll have plenty in reference to places over against choose from versus visit as part of your trip. New Zealand is blessed with many exclusive locations offering visitors a huge array of experiences. From Cape Reinga in Northland upon the Stewart Island in favor the South, there are a wide variety in relation with natural and man made attractions. One location you should in detail strap by virtue of your 'must see' striola is the Waitomo Diocese, in Waikato. Located less otherwise three hours south touching Auckland the area is incomparably magnificent for it's glowworm caves but has also added adventure globe-trotting and cultural experiences to it's repertoire. The tinsel caves are unique to New Zealand, they were the result of volcanic venture and are limestone. The glowworms, which are insects, are the size of mosquitoes and glow through a process known as bioluminescence. Due to their special scientific significance the caves are monitored at all times to ensure air rain and levels are at their optimum to provide the best negative conditions against the glowworms. There are restrictions on visitor bulk in harmony with day as well as the activities that bag be carried out. This ensures the caves carry on in pristine condition and the glowworms will remain a created nature exclusive attraction so that future generations. If you are into adventure tourism then other power steering of the 300 absolute caves in the area offer the show up to take you out of the comfort locale and drive on your adventure boundaries, with black feed rafting. If you are uninstructed with this, it is rafting through underground caves, hence the black moisten signification, arsy-varsy than white water rafting which is on the anvil aboveground inside the open spume. Black water rafting assaults several upon your sensillum as being underground, in caves and caverns means that you may not always breathe able to distinguish where you are going. It's the oneness of caving and rafting. Waitomo also offers some rare accommodation options from hotel and motels into boutique bed and breakfasts to farm stays. Your hosts will not only be hospitable and welcoming but number one pleasure also be treated to their wealth of knowledge here and there the way and other 'must do' attractions and events modish the area. None doubt, one of these recommendations will be found to visit Hobbiton, not modestly for Cock of the Rings fans, this enchanting place is bound to capture the inventiveness of issue and old, and offers a great family day out. Handicap a picnic lunch and adore a magical afternoon.<\p>

[julifilms]

Black Water Rafting - Black Abyss Tour in Waitomo

Erstmal pick up service von “zu Hause” - schöne Sache aber trotzdem 6:30 Uhr start in den Tag. 2,5h Fahrt nach Waitomo.

35 Meter abseilen zu den Caves! Funfact des Sicherheitssystems: Wenn man ganz laut schreit blockiert das Teil und man ist gesichert. Weil ist ja ganz klar - wenn man fällt schreit man laut.

Glowworms gibts nicht! Das klingt einfach nur besser ;) Eigentlich sind das Fliegen (wie man hier sehen kann) und die produzieren ungefähr 78% Licht und 22% Wärme um sich selbst zu erwärmen. Die Lebenserwartung von solch einer Fliege ist auch nicht so lang, weshalb die Hauptbeschäftigung das Fortpflanzen ist. 

Diese Fäden sind quasi das Jagdinstrument der Fliege. Es klebt, Insekten stecken fest und zack bäm - Lunch.

Überall an den Decken waren sie vertreten und es sah aus wie der Sternenhimmel nur hat mir zur Orientierung der ‘große Wagen’ gefehlt ;)

Stalagmiten oder Stalaktiten??!!! Ahh....  Stalagmiten wachsen vom Boden nach oben, Stalaktiten von der Decke runter. Es braucht 100 Jahre damit ein Stalaktit die Länge des Daumennagels hat - krass!

The actual non existent Glowworms :)

Na...?? Wer sieht’s? Berühmter Character in einem NZ Film?? Gandalf!!!

Unterwasser - der Aal ‘Sassels’ - Wird hier wie ein Haustier behandelt. Er ist schon mind. 40 Jahre alt. Irgendwann wird er ins Meer schwimmen, sich paaren und danach sterben. Traurig aber wahr.

Wat is dat denn? Gute Frage und hier die Antwort. Damals als es uns noch nicht gab, da waren die Berge auch noch nicht da und eigentlich nur Ozeane, riesige Ozeane. (jetzt kommt ihr schon fast drauf?) Dann ist das Tier gestorben, vor ganz schön langer Zeit. Anschließend im Boden versunken, bzw. haben sich mehr Schichten über das Skelett gelegt und es haben sich Berge darüber gebildet. Dann hat Wasser die Höhlen geformt und legt nun nach und nach das Skelett eines WALS frei. 100 Gummipunkte wer das schon am Anfang wusste!

Tubing - durch die Höhlen paddeln und Glowworms gucken.

Jumping - weil ma’s halt können.

Caving - durch enge Röhren quetschen.

Jetzt gab’s auch noch Walking & Sliding & Wasserfälle hochklettern, aber davon gibt es keine Pics :(

Der Frosch der uns am Ausgang begrüßte.

Abyss Tour Surviver  Insgesamt super tolle Tour!! Daumen hoch.

[thearthurbellrose]

Karangahake

Karangahake was just a short stop-off for our bus which was such a shame as I could have easily spent a full day exploring this fascinating old gold mine. The scenery was straight out of Indiana Jones and much of the old equipment was still there with informational boards that our group marched past without even a glance (this was as frustrating as being wth someone who runs through a museum), unfortunately we were only given a short time by our driver to complete the smallest loop. This again is something I’ve added to my must-go-back list, there were so many little tunnels and routes just begging to be explored – not all of them strictly meant to be, but also not actually closed off ;).

I’d reccomend taking a head torch for the tunnels, a sense of adventure and a head for heights, the rope bridges are great fun and very wobbly! Only 10 people were allowed on at a time.

  Waitomo

I have been so excited to get to Waitomo for one big reason; black water rafting through the glow worm caves! We chose the Labyrinth tour which was 3 hours of tubing in underground cave systems through both fast moving and lovely relaxing water ways (There is a video to give you an idea on the page linked from ‘black water rafting’ above). The experience was fantastic from start to finish, beginning with a practive backwards jump off a pier to prepare us for the underground waterfall jumps – make sure to pull a pretty face as they snap a picture:

Once everyone had proven their worth we were ready to descend!

Side note – the guide took plenty of pictures along the way and you could purchase the lot at the end for $32 which split between the group was only around $3 each.

I was at the front of our group so was first to come accross the first patch of glow worms, and being the muppet I am I thought they were a display meant to show us what we were expected to see (and embarrassingly said so out loud). I’m not kidding they honestly don’t look real, they are out of this world. Helpful tip, don’t put your face right up to them trying to see if they’re real, they have slightly less beautiful hangy downy sticky trails…

(not my image)

There are two waterfalls to jump off, nothing too big or scary, and some moments where they have you turn off all the torches and you drift through complete blackness gazing up at what looks like bright turquoise stars. I came out of my tube once when it got stuck on a rock, it’s no biggie there’s a guide out front they catch it and you float to them! At the end you are rewarded with complimentary toasted bagels and hot tomato soup.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Tip – If your wetsuit is too big say something. It will not work if it doesn’t fit and after 3 hours the cold can really start to distract you from the adventure.

Into the dark – Karangahake and Waitomo Karangahake Karangahake was just a short stop-off for our bus which was such a shame as I could have easily spent a full day exploring this fascinating old gold mine.

[rubber-cover-uyf]

Visit The Waitomo District On Your Drive Northwesterly From Auckland

If you are planning a trip to New Zealand, you'll have so of places to choose from to visit as period of your trip. New Zealand is blessed with many unique locations bid visitors a king-size array respecting experiences. Save Cape Reinga in Northland to the Stewart Air base in the Westernmost, there are a wide variety of natural and nose made attractions. One grassland you should most certainly put on your 'must see' shred is the Waitomo State, ingoing Waikato. Embosomed less than three hours south of Auckland the area is most famous being it's glowworm caves but has also added adventure tourism and teaching experiences to it's repertoire. The fire beetle caves are passing strange against New Zealand, they were the concoction of volcanic activity and are limestone. The glowworms, which are insects, are the size of mosquitoes and rosiness through a process known as bioluminescence. Due to their special scientific significance the caves are monitored at be-all times to dismiss all doubt air flow and levels are at their optimum to provide the top-notch reciprocal conditions for the glowworms. There are restrictions on sirdar mass per fortnight forasmuch as well as the activities that can be carried out. This ensures the caves remain in pristine condition and the glowworms will carcass a world picked attraction for future generations. If you are into adventure tourism next other parts of the 300 odd caves in the area offer the chance to take you out of the comfort zone and puissance your achievement boundaries, with coal hydrometeor rafting. If you are unfamiliar with this, yours truly is rafting done for underground caves, hereat the dour water reference, rather than white water rafting which is covenanted aboveground in the open air. Black water rafting assaults distributive of your senses as things go being underground, in caves and caverns means that him may not always endure able to call to mind where you are going. It's the disjunction of caving and rafting. Waitomo also offers some staggering accommodation options excluding hotel and motels to boutique water channel and breakfasts to farm stays. Your hosts striving not not comprehensively be hospitable and receivable but you will also persist treated to their wealth pertinent to knowledge about the area and other 'must do' attractions and events mod the area. No doubt, one of these recommendations imperative be to visit Hobbiton, not only in aid of Lord of the Rings fans, this enchanting place is bound to capture the thick-coming fancies of unversed and white-bearded, and offers a great family day out. Pack a sinecure lunch and enjoy a magical afternoon.<\p>

[dropmeanywhere]

The Good, the Bad, and the Thank-you's - New Zealand

The Good, the Bad, and the Thank-you’s – New Zealand

It’s time to close-out these New Zealand posts. I’ll spend a bit more time here as, now that I’ve left Frank, The Dog, I’m staying with a cat named Solie, fourteen sheep, and a dead bird (Solie brought me a present this morning). Anyway, this is where I tell you what was good about New Zealand, and more specifically Auckland), what was bad, and who I need to thank for helping me along the way.…

[missfrodo]

A friend told me about this before I left home and after seeing too many horror movies like The Decent I swore I would never, ever do it. It basically involves crawling into a pitch black cave system half-full of water with a head torch and an inner tube, hoping you make it out alive. Naturally I ended up doing it, because peer pressure.

As I was riding around New Zealand on the Kiwi Bus we stayed at one big hostel together, and got very drunk. Dutch courage maybe? Or perhaps I thought the hangover the next day would distract me from the fact that I was throwing myself into a small, dark space full of water. I chose to do the short tour, which was still three hours of torture for me, but you can chose to do a longer one with a few terrifying waterfalls to either jump off or climb up.

They start by kitting you out in some very attractive gear including a wetsuit, booties, shorts and a helmet with a head-torch. Safety first, right? They load you up in a van and drive you down towards the entrance of the cave, to take some more attractive photos, and to have you practice jumping into the water backwards so you don’t hit the rocks when you’re jumping off the waterfalls into the darkness…

Once everyone is dripping with muddy water they lay you out to practice how to link up while you’re floating through the caves in the pitch black to admire the glowworms, and all of a sudden your crammed into the first room of the cave, surround by wetas. So not only are you now in a dark, enclosed space full of water and facing certain death, you are surrounded by giant cricket-spiders. OH GOOD.

The worst part for me was the first five minutes. As you submerge yourself into the cold, brown water  you have one option. To lie back flat in your inner tube as far as you can, with about a foot between the water and the rock face above you, and drag yourself through to the next section. This absolutely terrified me and I probably would have bailed then and there if it wouldn’t have made me the biggest wimp in the world. Literally seconds later (it feels like an eternity when you’re claustrophobic) I was able to stand up again, after that it was easy. And fun!

We tracked through rushing water, careful of our footing so we didn’t get sucked into any subterranean caves and drown. We jumped backwards off two waterfalls into darkness so black you could have been jumping into the pit of hell, when in reality it was only a meter or two. My favourite part was laying back, linked together in a congo line, floating through the caves in calm water with all our torches shut off so you can’t see an inch in front of your face, but you can see galaxies above you. There are so many glow worms it looks like the night sky, it’s magical.

We paddled through the last section in the dark, hitting either rocks or each other, and finally reached daylight. Alive and well. It was an unreal experience, one that I would recommend to everyone, even if you are scared of the dark, or small spaces, or giant cricket-spider monsters.

I went with The Legendary Black Water Rafting Company, they also do regular glow-worm tours for people who have no desire to be put through this ordeal, and our guides were amazing.

Check them out at http://www.waitomo.com/Black-Water-Rafting.

Black Water Rafting in Waitomo A friend told me about this before I left home and after seeing too many horror movies like The Decent I swore I would never, ever do it.

[everything-is-upside-down]

Managed to convince the other people in my group to buy the photos. I was the one buying them so I got the usb, heh! ;D Think everyone except one paid me 3 dollars each and we were 12 people.. so I'm not sure if I paid anything for this, but shhh. (think everyone paid me at least, I did not write down who did and who didn't) '^^ Here is some pictures anyway!

[everytingnewzealand-blog]

New Zealand Food & Wine Tasting Tours

[alexhoult]

Black Water Rafting in Waitomo Caves

[roundabouttoreallife]

Auckland to Rotorua | The big green bus, black water rafting and a Maori style feast!

After arriving back in Auckland in the early evening, I headed to my cousins in Remuera for an amazing dinner. It was also the first time I'd seen my cousin Anabel in about 12 years so we had a LOT of catching up to do! It was so great to see her and we arranged to meet up in Wellington again where she kindly offered to put me up. I'll be returning the favour back in Scotland, hopefully sooner rather than later! Dinner was delicious as always, and we had a beautiful spread of sirloin steak roast. It was a lovely evening and sadly it was time to say goodbye to Christine and Hugh who I'll hopefully see again at some point in the near future.

The following day brought more reunions and I met up with my cousins Jeremy, Kate and Martin for lunch. Martin picked me up and we ate in Ponsonby which is where all 3 of them work. It was amazing to catch up with them - New Zealand has been such a good opportunity to meet up with family that I hardly ever get to see. Martin kindly gave me a lift back to St. Kevin's Arcade and I wandered back through the city for the rest of the afternoon.

St. Kevin's arcade hosts an array of retro op-shops and the back of it leads into Myers Park where there is a replica of Michaelangelo's Moses. It was a beautiful day for a walk through the city and my next stop was Auckland Town Hall. I walked past Aotea Square and the impressive Civic Theatre and made my way on to Khartoum Place where there are murals about the suffragettes. Behind the fountains here, steps lead up to Auckland Art Gallery which I explored for a couple of hours. There's a good Maori section and it was just quite nice to get lost around the gallery. I headed on to Albert Park after this behind which are some Victorian merchant's houses. Across the road is the University Clock Tower and the old government house and I took a wander around Auckland University campus. After this I made my way back to the hostel via Chancery precinct and High Street where there are some really nice shops (a bit too upmarket for a backpacker but nice to see!)

That evening I went to Father Ted's Irish pub with a group of people from the bus: Adam, Rory, Laura, Annika, Harriet, Lorraine and Eddie. We had dinner and drinks and played a few games of pool and Laura started working on me to persuade me into doing a bungee. They're a great group and the next few weeks was amazing with them - some of the best weeks travelling I've ever done!

The following morning we made our way to Hot Water Beach. Our driver for the north island was called "Scotty" or "Nancy" (Nancy boy because he's scared of everything!) As fate would have it the heavens opened as soon as we got to Hot Water Beach but unfazed we headed down to the beach (getting absolutely drenched!) and dug holes in the sand. There are hot springs just below the surface and you are able to build your own spa pool right on the beach which is pretty awesome.

After a quick change into some drier clothes, we were taken on the big green bus for a walk down to Cathedral Cove. This was really cool to see (I could just imagine how perfect it would be on a hot summer's day) and it was nice to get out and go for a walk.

After dinner we played some drinking games at the hostel which was a lot of fun and led to a few of the group heading back to the beach after midnight to dig more spa pools!

The next day we made our way to Waitomo where the famous limestone/glowworm caves are. Unfortunately, the black water rafting which we had all been looking forward to was cancelled as the water was too high in the caves from the previous day's heavy rain. I was so disappointed!

The hostel in Waitomo (Wai = water and tomo = hole/shaft) was really cool (Kiwi Paka) and it was one of the only places that we stayed that didn't have bunk beds which was SO nice! So everyone got the bottom bunk. I shared a room with Harriet, Annika and Laura my new bestos!

On the way to Waitomo we went for a couple of walks. Firstly, Karangahake walk through goldmines (without torches - Nancy knew we'd forget!) and WITH spiders - ah! There was a river cutting through here and a couple of swing bridges that could hold a maximum of 10 people! The second walk was the Ruakuri Caves where there are spectacular caves and waterfalls. Everyone was hoping that the black water rafting would go ahead the following morning as the caves are so cool and it would be loads of fun.

Later on that afternoon the black water rafting got the GO AHEAD! Everyone was so excited and we were scheduled to go the following morning.

That night, we cooked up a spaghetti bolognaise for a group of 10 of us. We did this loads throughout the trip and I'd highly recommend it in order to save some money and eat a decent meal.

That evening we played pool (Harriet and I beat Rory and Adam which I can't say they were best pleased about!) and we watched Kiwi X Factor...pretty different from the UK or US versions!

The next day was one of my favourite in New Zealand!

The first part of the day was spent in Waitomo BLACK WATER RAFTING! Getting kitted out for it was a lot of fun besides the actual rafting! There was a good group of us doing the 'Black Labyrinth' which is a 3 hour experience involving some walking through the caves in the water, some tubing and jumping backwards off waterfalls! The wetsuits were tight, wet and cold which isn't ideal in the cool New Zealand weather but we were going to get wet and cold soon anyway! We headed to collect our tubes and practise jumping off the waterfalls by jumping off the pier. The water was FREEZING! We headed up to Ruakuri cave and repeated after our guide several things that we promised not to do : I promise not to fall and hit my head, break my legs or complain about the cold! Thankfully, all of these were kept by everyone involved! So, off we went down into the caves with just our 'gumboots' for grip. It was awesome! Highlights were jumping off the waterfalls, ducking below the rocks as the water was still quite high, the eel (grabbing each others legs and floating down with the lights on our helmets switched off) - our guide sang a beautiful rendition of 'A Whole New World' from Aladdin at this point! The glowworms were on the ceiling of the caves were so spectacular as well - especially when we had our lights switched off. Our guide joked that during the eel it is not good if the foot of the person behind you is upside down. This would probably be breaking one of the many promises we made!

I had so much fun and it was very satisfying to have a hot shower and a hot soup afterwards! Fantastic morning - so glad we were able to do the tubing.

We then made our way to Rotorua. Once we arrived, Nancy drove us through Government Gardens which were really pretty. The eggy, sulphur smell was upon us as soon as we hit Rotorua - it's a really active place. We were dropped at our hostel "Hot Rocks, Base" which again was great for a Base hostel - it had an outdoor heated pool!

That evening, we went on Tamaki tours Maori Concert and Hangi. This was an incredible evening filled with culture and amazing food. Our driver was absolutely fantastic and rang off "Kia Ora" (Maori greeting) in 62 different languages! When we arrived it was the welcome which is the formal part of the evening. We had nominated Will as our 'chief' - lucky him! The formality of this part of the evening is important. Apparently, 2 years ago, a Dutch guy who'd been nominated as chief was promptly knocked out for laughing!

We were shown around the village following the welcome ceremony. Some of the boys learnt the Haka (the Maori war dance - the All Blacks famously perform this at the start of their matches), and a couple of the girls and I learnt a dance with a 'poi' (a ball on the end of a piece of string); we saw the carving lodge, the weaving part of the village, how Maori fitness training operated, and we were shown some Maori style games.

The concert was next with many performances including the famous Haka, singing and a video on Maori culture. It was very interesting and we all built up a healthy appetite for the final part of the evening - the Hangi feast.

The food was just incredible. It is cooked in the ground and it has a delicious smoky flavour. I ate...a lot...! The lamb, chicken, mussels, kumara (sweet potato), stuffing and beetroot were all highlights (so basically my full plate of food!) For dessert we were served steam pudding and custard AND pavlova. We ate like kings! We saw the boys perform the Haka - job well done and after a couple of songs and a closing speech it was home time. The bus back was fun - our driver sang us about 15 national anthems including the Flower of Scotland! He took us round each roundabout about 10 times...on every roundabout which wasn't great after such a huge meal!

Fantastic evening - one of the best in NZ and it was very interesting to learn some of the Maori culture. Once back at the hostel, a few of us did the pub quiz. Our team actually won and despite struggling to drink (due to the amount of food we'd all eaten!) we had a $40 bar tab to use up!

It was an amazing day, the Hangi was definitely a highlight of my travels and the black water rafting was lots of fun and something different, especially because of the glowworms and the caves! Onwards to Taupo the following day!

[abroadinhobbiton]

"I really like your accent": Kiwi Family and Black Water Rafting

If you do not recall, Tim Gunn's doppelganger is my theology professor in the form of a Catholic priest. He may be disorganized and make zero good points in class, but he is a really nice guy. He invited the eight of us in the class to come with him to his church (I know, stranger danger), and spend the day with some Kiwi families. Sara and I already said that we would, but only Kim out of the rest of our peers could make it. We were picked up in front of a disintegrating Newmann Hall by a parishioner also named John. He used to work for the Cadbury Factory and as a result had the license plate, "PRPLX". He joked that originally it had mean X as in "Kisses/ Love", but now that he had left, it means "EX." We arrived in mission bay after a lovely tour of the beaches. Before we knew it, we were at the church which was small, but had large and beautiful plain stain class windows shining in light onto the alter. We first met Kathy, the lady who had emailed Sara about me and her coming with her. However, since there were only 3 of us, we soon realized that we were all going to have to be split up. The service was wonderful, with many children running amuck on the alter. Fr. John went on without a care. It was beautiful really. Afterwards, I met Karen and Murray, who would be my host family for the day. We chatted for a while, and I also did with some boys who heard I was from Baltimore and wanted to talk football. It was nice being seen as a special guest.  Karen and Murray took me over to meet their two children: Macy, who was 11 (turning twelve in a few weeks) and Ben who was 10. We all jumped in the car and they warned me about their dog. I told them it was no issue, since I have a crazy one at home. They spoiled me. Between talking about the sports that Macy and Ben were into, they wanted to know a lot about me and what my life was like. We went to their house, and I waited on the table as they gathered the grocery list. Their house was split style with a 50s air about it, but a huge sliding door window that was 1/3 of the house long and displayed a perfect view of Rangitoto island. Their dog was nothing of a nuisance and his name was "Lickey" appropriately. We all went to the supermarket. While Karen shopped, Murray and the kids bought me and L&P and we talked further about business and what I'd been doing.  On the way back, they stopped by a memorial at the top of the hill, the view was gorgeous and I couldn't have been more thankful.

Lunch was amusing, as Ben told me that I didn't "need cheese on a cheese roll". He didn't say it in a mean way, he was merely suggesting it. I guess that's what I get for being American.  For dessert, we moved to the couches and they gave me hokey pokey ice cream and "pudding" which is basically hot chocolate cake with chocolate syrup. YUMMM!

We had a very deep conversation about politics and society and it was beautiful. Murray started talking about the bridge in Auckland where people often commit suicide, so they had to install tall barriers. The children wanted to know why people did that, and he did a wonderful job of just explaining their sadness as something we can pity them for.  I want to be a parent that can be that honest with their children.  Before Long, our engagement was finished and they dropped me off at Huia. I got their email address and sent them pictures from home. For once it was nice being with a family again. It made me miss mine a ton, but happy that I could share this unique and wonderful experience with them. They said I'm always welcome back! /*******************************************************************/ Black Water Rafting

Our final "adventure" trip was this past weekend. My adventure started 5:45am on Saturday Morning. After being awoken many times by people coming back from the Huia Ball, drunk and looking for excuses to do the things they want but blame the alcohol. I however, was looking for sleep. I did not find it. By 6:30am, I had printed Megan's confirmation slip, gotten all of my stuff ready, and was heading towards Unilodge (where the others live). By the time I arrived, they were all ready (minus a few numbers), and we made the trek to the bus stop. The Naked Bus ( which is their MegaBus/ BoltBus equivalent) was surprisingly busy for 7:10 in the morning. We lodged ourselves in the back seats minus Kate and Amy. Two girls (Lacey and other girl) decided to sit in between us. They were on a summer study abroad trip in Australia and decided to take a weekend trip to NZ. All power to them, but Lacey was sick of the Indian families and their young babbling toddler. I just smiled and turned my music up. We had a transfer bus in Hamilton. I decided to stop and get a pie in the between time. It was Steak and Cheese / also delicious. We moved quickly to the bus to find our Sydney friends sleeping on seats in the back.  The bus driver was kind enough to drop us off right at the building, after telling us to find a Frasier cow with a tail coming from a white spot. I found about 4 before I stopped playing the game. Nevertheless, when we arrived, Madi and her mother were there. They were taking the "Abyss" where we were doing the "Labyrinth". Theirs was five hours whereas our was only three.  We ended up reading/ doing assignments/ playing cards before it was time to leave. We would've had to wait about 2.5 hours if it wasn't for Kate and I asking if we could move our time up. They said they had a free spot at 12:45pm.  After filling out more "toe tags", we were set to go and we met our two guides: Matt and Alex. Alex was apparently a university student, hot, and only working their three days a week while working on his degree in Tourism. He was a great singer too. (I'll tell you how I found out these things later). Matt was a recent graduate of AUT in auckland. He was quirky, funny, and somehow assumed I was the bravest one in the group. That may or may not have been true. 

After taking about 20 minutes to put on our wetsuits (they were already wet and cold and clinging to our bodies), we strapped up our gear with shoes, waterproof miners hats and jackets. They drove a van to a training area. There was took embarrassing pictures of our asses in inner tubes, learned how to "eel" up, and practiced jumping backwards off wooden boards (apparently we would have to do this off real waterfalls!). After a 10 minute trek through the rainforest, we learned how the cave of Ruakuri was named - two dogs got skinned and they named it after them for "their wonderful gift of food." Sounds like a butchering to me. 

At the cave entrance, Matt decided since I was in the front, I should go first. GULP! I climbed over a mini waterfall, threw him my inner tube (poorly) and then jumped inside. We all got in the cave, took a picture and then Matt volunteered for me to lead the group. He said, continue as far as you can until you hear rushing water. Megan started screaming as she followed after me, "Rachel, WHERE ARE YOU?" Alex and I made it to the end and turned off our lights to see the glowworms and then, more importantly, to scare Megan. Alex slapped his innertube against the water as she approached. She was terrified. It was great.

We talked some more and continued. All of the sudden, Matt takes all our innertubes. I was confused. He looked at me, and then at this big whole on top of the rock to his right. He said, "I want you to climb in there, make a left, a left, a right and a left." We all thought he was joking at first, until he didn't stop me when I started climbing. Megan followed behind me screaming, "HES JOKING." Well he wasn't. I told her to wait there, while I explored. I reached what looked like a hole, but he was loading more people in. I decided to take a chance and climb over the whole to the left. To my right and to my left, there they were. Ready to catch me / take my photo. They played a trick on us! It was pretty cool though, being able to say I lead that path. We kept going onward. Our first waterfall, was scary for me. I was first and I just had to jump off...backwards. Once I was in, I was so happy though. We made a stop where Alex and Matt said there was some type of NZ bug in this container, and that we had to grab one and eat it. I was petrified (because I'm allergic to/ hate bugs). However, no one said they wanted to do it, so, because I knew down deep it was a joke. He kept scaring me when he was about to open it, but once he did, all Alex had was a bunch of chocolate marshmellow fish. 

We turned our lights off and talked about how the glow-worms glow because of their glowy shit. Then pursued. More waterfalls, stonger currents, larger rocks to climb, and echoey caverns continued. At one point we were just drifting, listening to Kim and I sing the national anthem, and then Alex, sing his (in both Maori and English). A Maori girl joined in singing the maori version from the viewing grounds above the water at one point. It was beautiful. Better than the glow-worm cave tour that we went to before. 

My body had even adapted to the cold water. Just before we were about to leave, the boys led us to a detour. We climbed some dangerous rocks (I almost slipped -- and I went first) and had to just "fall" backwards into the water. This would have been the deepest jump we have done. Probably about 15ft high. It was well worth it when I heard the tube smack against the water. Safe and sound and able to watch everyone else scared out of their wits.  We exited the tunnel onto the rocks with the help of our assistants. They took one final (finished) photo with us before we headed back to the van. Once back, we enjoyed free hot showers, hot tomato soup, and toasted bagels. I could not complain. Until I realized I had an assignment due in two days and I hadn't started it. Oh well. Yolo.