This morning was so beautiful. The morning mist was still hanging over the mountains and everything had been kissed with dew. The birds were singing a beautiful song. There was this one bird that whistled a really distinct tune over and over, sometimes it sounded really close and other times it seemed really far away. I took out my camera and took a video just to record the sounds. The scenery was beautiful, a farm across the road all surrounded by mountains and jungle lie foliage with a lake to the right of us, though, we couldnt see the lake. The lake was at the DOC campsite, we, were on the side of the road. The DOC Campsite closes its gates at 9pm so the past two nights we have been sleeping on the side of the road at the entrance. Apparantly its not an issue. This morning a man saw us and asked if we spent the night we told him yes and he said he didn't understand their hours and was planning on calling them. Yesterday we woke up in the middle of a marathon and the marathoners just waved at us. LOL gotta love the Kiwi's.
We have had a crazy few days since I last posted. Waitomo we were going to go to the glow worm caves but instead Wes and I and his buddy Hamil decided to participate in Black Abyss. Alright so heights, the dark and small places are not my cup of tea. We started with a little training session a basics on how to control yourself when abseiling into the caves and what to do if you slip - SCREAM!!! We get to our starting point. FUCK! What did I get myself into?!? Wes and another guy go then it's my turn. Lloyd (one of our guides) straps me in gets me into the right position and says "ok start lowering yourself down" I look down. "Thats a really tight squeeze, what if I get stuck?" "you wont get stuck, keep your legs and body straight ande hold the rope close to you." "and when I get through do I have to put my feet on the wall" "its a good idea or you will hit the wall" At this point there was an earthquake taking part in my anatomy. I was shaking like a newborn baby. "ya I don't think so" I said. "you will be fine just go slow" "ya umm I don't think I like this, I can't do this" "come on Emmie you will be fine" So with shaking hands, fingers and body I start lowering myself. "ok Emmie now look up and smile" I look up and Lloyd snaps a picture. Ok lowering slowly and not to surely I get closer to the small part. I'm definately not doing this as smoothly as it should be done but there was no fucking way in hell I was letting go or giving myself any sort of speed. How did I agree to go deep into a hole on a fucking rope.
I get through the narrow part and let out a sigh of relief. Ok, that wasn't so bad. I look down, not a good idea. The helmet lights look really small, I still have a long way to go. 35m seems a lot when you are descending into the earth. I stop for a minute and try and take in the scene below and around me. All I could see was cavernous walls of rock around me and above me. I have no choice but to keep going. I start to lower myself. An 18 second descent took me about 7 minutes but I DID IT!!! I was shaking when I got to the bottom and couldn't really talk but I made it and was quite proud of myself. Next, after everyone had done their descent, Monkey (our other guide) sat us down on the rocks while Lloyd went ahead of us. We sat and talked, and Monkey gave us a background on the caves ( I wasn't really listening as I was to amazed by all the glow worms twinkling above us. After about 10 minutes we climbed through the rocks behind us walked along a little narrow bridge thingy and stopped. At this point I am at the front and I get clipped in to a rope. "Is this what I think it is?" I asked "yup. Drop your legs, turn off your light and hold on" "But I don't want to go first, infact I don't want to go at all. Where is Lloyd?" "you will see when you get over there." " I dont want to see when I get over there I want to see now!" At this point I am hanging on to another rope, in the pitch black and a cave full of glow worms infront of me. "Alright hold on and use the brakes" and I am flying through the dark thinking brakes?!? what brakes?!? they never showed me any brakes "wheres the braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakes!" I screamed. Then I stop abrubtly with a loud BANG!!! It felt like I had hit one of those big blue gym mats. I was a little confused but not hurt and then complete silence. I am swinging there over who knows what and I can't move, and I know I didn't hit any brakes. I'm stuck. "hello?...helloooo, I'm stuck" and then a light goes on and Lloyd is looking at me in the face with a smile "you enjoyed that didn't you?" I asked feeling a little embarrased "yup." He gets me down and I wait sitting on the rocks while the rest of the guys sail the flying fox without any fear. When the stopped Lloyd would take a big black floating tire and hit it on the ground, I didn't hit a gym mat lol. After everyone fly's down they have us sit on the edge of rock over looking a river and fed us cookies and hot chocolate to get warm. After about 10 minutes they hand us tires and tell us to jump of the ledge into the water. All the boys jump in with there tubes under there butts and are in and there is me not wanting to jump I wanted to walk around the side but I was so determined things that scared me that I couldn't just give up. The guys were all chanting my name and clapping trying to get me in plus the water was freezing and they were starting to get cold. "Come on Emmie" says Monkey, if you fall out of your tube I will save you!" I look at Lloyd "what lives in that water?" "Only Monkeys" I jump and land perfectly in Canada cold water. So much fun I would've done it again lol. Alright so now we head through a long cavernous tunnel with way of ropes along the wall. We travel for about 7 minutes and we stop, Monkey gets out and hops up onto a ledge. Here he tells us to turn off our lights and enjoy. The cave wasn't like a cave at all. I felt like I was in another world under a different sky as I watched the twinkling lights of the glow worms above me. It was incredible. We sat there for about 10 minutes watching the green twinkling sky of glow worms while Monkey told us about the glow worms and how they are born and what makes them glow - their poop! Imagine having glow in the dark poop! Anyways after that we all hooked our feet into the person infront of us and Monkey pulled us through the caves for about 10 minutes and talked as we enjoyed the slow relaxing trail. One thing I have to say is you can tell that the guides absolutely LOVE there jobs. They were amazing. We pissed ourselves laughing the whole time. We wiggled through small spaces (which weren't that bad), walked through the Drunk Mans Walk and even went down a water slide. At one point an eel met us at the begining of a tunnel. "is there an alternative?" I ask not overly fond of the black eel. "Sure is" says Lloyd and he jumps up a 7 foot wall, scales it and goes into a tunnel above me. "Thats a joke right? thats the alternative?" the eel it is. Our last bit of trekking was my favourite. We squeeze ourselves into this tiny area and we are under a water fall. We had to scale ourselves around the edge and then climb it, it was so cool, and then we had to do it again and then crawl our way to daylight. I AM ALIVE!!!!!!!!!! I did it! lets do it again haha just kidding. It was time to go back for free bagels and hot tomato soup. After that we walk back to the hostel and make a big dinner and call it an early night as we were heading to Rotorua the next day.
Rotorua fucking smells!!! Like really smells. It's a constant smell as sulpher, but, that is due to the mud pools, sulphuric and hot pools. We ended up stopping at a park of mud pools so we got out to take pictures. I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit, the smell was awful. After a few pictures of a few pools we decided we didn't need to take anymore or smell anymore so went for a place to camp for the night. We ended up staying at this really cute hostel called KiwiPakka. We could park the camper and use the tent (when we can use the tent the guys sleep in it and give me the van to myself, its so nice). We grabbed a beer at the hostel bar and went in there thermal pool which was naturally heated. It was soo hot but really enjoyable. We stayed in close to an hour and then grabbed another drink from the bar before we got ready to meet up with Hamil who was also in Rotorua that night and was joining us for some St. Patties Day festivities; and what a night of festivities it was.
We ate at the market for dinner while hitting a few bars along the way for a few shots. After we ate we decided to hit the same bars on the way back to Lava Bar (Base Hostels Bar). We were sitting out front of one bar when this really young Kiwi starts talking to me, asking me where I'm from what I am doing in NZ, then very bluntly looking right at my cleavage says "you are a beautiful Canadian with amazing titties" "i'm up here sweetie, these are my eyes" "i know I can't help it" the guys were pissing themselves especially when he took me by the hand inside so he could get my email. Finally after titty man we leave and head to Lava. It got crazy. I dont know what the Kiwi's put in their alcohol but I was drinking coolers (which I don't normally drink) and they were really good, and really fucking strong. I ended up sitting out on the patio all night at a table all night. I met this guy in a green dress and a pink wig named Gofor and his friend Patrick. I met another guy (I think Jacob) it was his birthday, his 20th birthday. Yaya I know you are gonna think cradle robber, not the case here. We were just hanging out talking about NZ and traveling when all of a sudden I feel his hand rubbing my leg. I move it. Then I feel is finger rubbing my leg. Ok kid, it might be your Birthday but I am not wearing a bow! The guys finallly come around, we hang out about another half hour and head back to our van for some zzz's.
The next day we head out to a Maori village for some culture. This Maori village was built on living hot pools. It was incrdedible. They use the steam from the ground to cook their meals. The hot water from one pools runs a stream and goes into these stone pools built into the ground which is where they bathe. The water has natural minerals and oils therefore they do not need soap and shampoo. Their dead is burried on the ground because they can't dig more then 3 feet because of the heat. We got to eat one of their Hangi meals and we even got to see a performance from some of the villagers which took my breath away. Their music and voices were so beautiful and their movements were so interesting. It rained halfway through our tour and we got stuck in their changing area by the baths but that had a very leaky roof so we got wet anyways. We were there about 3 hours and then went and hung out at Mackers (McDonalds) for a few hours as they have free WiFi there. The Mackers here are crazy. They have all been revamped here, a completely new look. They are focussing on their McCafe so it's more like "lets go drink some coffee and go on our laptops" type of place. Black (fake) leather booths and red (fake ) stools. Big tables made to look marble and everything is red black in white. It's actually quite nice. It helps us paying for WiFi everywhere. We were kind of hurting from the previous nights festivities so we played some cards at a local bar and headed to a DOC campsite. Gates close at 9pm, alright then we will sleep on the side of the road just outside the gate. Which does bring me to where I woke up this morning but last night was our second night so it was the night before. Not really knowing what to do we went over to Base Hostel to ask them about excursions
How do I manage to get myself into things that terrify me. WHITE WATER RAFTING! I've always wanted to do it so I figured I might as well even though it scares me. Plus we get a free pizza and beer at Lava. We get picked up and driven out the place. We get geared up and hop on a bus. I didn't have shorts with me so I kept my leggings on "nice, rafting pants, I love it" says one of the guides lol. As we are driving one of the guides is telling us if this happens, if the boat tips, if you get stuck under a water fall, if you get stuck in the rapids. OMG this is sounding less appealing by the minute. To top it off we are riding the highest waterfall for rafting in the world...oh this is great because I am such a daredevil.
We get there and are put into our groups. Haha guess who my guide is. Gofor, the guy from Lava in the green dress and pink wig!!! Way to funny. The boat gets dropped in the water and I jump in. We hop in and we are off. Backwards, forwards, hold on and DOWN. Alright we hit one water fall 2m then another one 1m. Ok this isn't so bad I can do this, infact I am having a blast. My adrenanline is pumped! Alright, we are now at the top of the big one. My body is shaking, I dont want to do this anymore. "ready! forward!....down!" Down I go grabbing the rope on the side sitting down, feet to the front, chin down and holding on to the handle beside me. Over we go at 90 degrees dropping 7m. We hit the water and get completely submerged...i'm holding on, I havent gone over. The boat starts rising out of the water, and then very slowly like in the matrix I can feel the boat flipping to the right, having enough time to think my next movements I somehow get out of the boat and grab hold to the side ropes and then....the boat is completely flipped over! I come up to hair. SWEET AS! WOOOHOOO! LETS DO THAT AGAIN! FUCK YA THAT WAS AWESOME! I AM SO GLAD IT FLIPPED OVER! What a rush. I didn't even panic when it flipped I was stoked! haha!! I even high 5ived Gofor when I got back on the boat. We picked up the rest of our team who ended up getting picked up by the other boats and continued on our way. We got to jump off the boat and swim through the rapids. Wes missed the boat and had to keep going through them. He wears contacts so he had to keep his eyes closed the whole time and had no idea where he was going, it was really funny considering he had a confused look on his face the whole time. After that we sat on the front of the boat and Gofor put the head of the boat right under the rapids and we got dunked under and rode on top of the rapids. Then it was over :( I was pretty hyper the rest of the day. My adrenaline wouldnt stop. It was so much fun I definately want to do it again.
We went back to Base and met up with Jordan who said he had ran into Paige. She came down and hung out with us for a bit. We were going to give her a lift into Taupo today, but her plans changed. So now we are back to where I started. The beautiful morning I woke up to outside the DOC Campsite. We were leaving Rotorua today to drive through Taupo and head to Tongeriro.
We stopped at the Hot and Cold River. it's where the hot water springs meet the cold water. Its the beautiful secluded little area where the locals go to hang out in the water. You can take a bath and then move a little bit and cool off and when you are cold just move back into the warmth. If you stood in certain spots you could feel the current of cold water hitting you and then the current of hot water hitting you. Its been one of my favourite places we have been to. We continued on to the hot springs just outside of Taupo. They were so hot I couldnt even keep my feet in. Though they ran to a lower level that met a lake where people were swimming and diving. We hoped into the car and went to the look out at Huka Falls. Absolutely beautiful, I took a video of the water. The water is the bluest of bluse with white tips that beat through a small gorge off the falls and into the lake. New Zealand has really taken my breath away, not just because of the beauty and the people but the unexplainable natural beauty that happens just because. Mud pools, hot springs, geisers. They may not smell nice or all be so pretty but they are just so natural that you can't help but hold your breath.
Well time to sign off, my netbook is almost out of battery. We are heading to Tongeriro to do an 8h hike up the volcanoes tomorrow to see Mt. Doom (from Lord of the Rings).
Take care
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