Kiwi Experience, Maoris and White Water Rafting

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After our extreme time in the Bay of Islands we headed back down to Auckland so that we could start the Kiwi Experience. For those of you who don't know about the Kiwi Experience it is a bus network for young travellers like ourselves who want to get around New Zealand and don't want to be surround by slow old folks. We really wern't sure what to expect - a group of smelly travellers trying to "get it on" non stop - or a load of crazy kiwis doing stupid things. Well....it was a mixture really.
We got picked up in Auckland by our first bus driver 'Scotty' who was basically a nutter allowed to drive the Kiwi bus. He took us to Mount Eden and we saw the extinct volcano there which was pretty groovy and provided us with a good 360 view of Auckland. The best part of that day though had to be going to a small bay called 'Cathedral Cove'. This was because no-one else was on this beach, it felt like our private little cove. It was a lovely sandy beach so some people just sunbathed, but me and Andy were not up for that. So we organised a game of beach rugby. So me and Andy a four new friends had a good 30 minutes of getting wet and sandy, it was a great way to get to know the guys on our bus. That evening we stayed in a town called Whitiange at a hostel called the 'Turtle Cove'. Its a lovely little town if anyone is around that area - go check it out.
The next day was spent visiting places like old mines and gold mines. We saw one gold mine that is still active and pulls in more than NZ$million per week - pretty nifty. After this Scotty drove us to a town called Hobbiton (Matamata). This town is famous because the hobbit village from Lord Of The Rings was built there. To be hounest all there was there was a sign and a bad stone statue of Golum - that was IT! Pretty lame I have to admit, so we all took our pictures with our knees in our shoes, looking like hobbits (original I know) and left pretty swiftly.
After driving for the rest of the day we finally arrived at Rotorua. This is the epicentre of the volcanic activities in New Zealand. The town smells of sulphur and you actually get used to it after a while...maybe even miss it once you've left. The first thing we did after getting into Rotorua was to go up the famous gondola to the highest point in Rotorua. By now it was early evening and the sun was just starting to set. It was a beautiful evening and we all got a brilliant view of Lake Rotorua and the city. I actually remember going up the gondola when we were in NZ 11 years ago - one of those vivid memories.
The real reason for going up the gondola was to go Luging. "What is Luging?" I hear you all cry. Well I shall tell you...Luging is basically a small cart that you sit in with handle bars used as brakes and you hurtle down the hill on a concrete track as fast as you can - sounds like fun ei? Another one of the brilliant ideas from the crazy Kiwis. It was pretty itense and some of the guys crashed, but I stayed in one piece and loved it.

That night was a very special night as we all went and experienced a Maori evening. We got driven to a real Maori village where everyone was welcomed in true Maori traddition with the warriors coming to defend their ground. After that they welcomed us into their village and we got to look around and experienced their culture. They showed us Maori cooking, music, weapons, clothing etc and it was really great to see how brilliant the Maori culture is. After this they led us into a staging area where they performed a show for us. This consisted of Maori Hakkas, dancing, singing, war chants and the lot. We all loved it and were completely mesmorised by how good they all were.
They are still a Maori family, so it isnt just a job for them - it is their life. It really makes you think about their culture and how they used to survive before the Europeans came and "ruined" their country. To make the evening even better, they provided everyone with a huge buffet meal. This was prepeared Maori style, so cooked underground and left there for several hours. It was very tasty and all us backpackers went and stuffed ourselves as it was the best meal we had had in a loooong time.

The best thing about being in Rotorua was that we got go White Water Rafting!! It was my first time so I wasnt sure what to expect - just that it would be amazing. Me and Andy wern't 100% sure whether we should do it until we found out our new best friends Tony and Stu were going - so it was a no brainer. We all stuffed ourselves with a full english breakfast (like it was our last) and we then got picked up by one of the guides. As usual he was a crazy Kiwi who tried scaring us for the whole trip, but was serious about a guy having a heart attack the day before - oh joy.
We were all excited, and we arrived at the centre where signed our lives away and then got given all the gear - we all looked pretty fantastic. We then got quickly briefed and before we knew it we were in the minibus heading towards the river. The river we were rafting is called the 'Kaituna', which is a good river, and we came at a good time of the year because the rain was making sure the rapids were nice and strong for us. We had a great guide called Lance who told us what we should do in the raft and what we should do when going over rapids etc. We were all just wanting to get onto the river and get wet.
Thats wat happened, pretty much straight away we got soaked and before we knew it we were going down what they called a baby waterfall which was 2.5 meters! The rapids were great and we were all loving it, nearly getting thrown off the raft many times, Im glad I told Mum afterwards. The whole trip lead up to the best part in the trip - - - - The 7 Meter waterfall!!! I kid you not, this waterfall is the biggest commercial raft-able waterfall IN THE WORLD!!!! And it was purely amazing. From 2 seconds before till 2 seconds after, you don't know what happens, its all a blur, and feels amazing. The pictures say it all - but we came down...the whole raft went underwater, we then popped up on our side, probably 10 degrees from over turning and then fell back down. It was amazing, and we all went wild!
We still had some hard rapids after that as well, what an afternoon. We were all completely soaked and tired, but would have done it again straight away if we had the chance. The pictures came out brilliantly (even though they made us pay $40 to get them, scam!) and its a great memory of a great afternoon.

That evening, we got an intercity bus to Tauranga where we stayed with Jonny and Jo Gilcrist for two nights. It was so nice seeing them and spending time in their lovely house. For those of you who don't know the Gilcrist's, they are friends of our family (Jonny was based in our church for years) and they have moved out to New Zealand and are both working for different charities over here. Jonny showed us around the beautiful Tauranga where they live, and showed us his work and the grounds his work owns, it was such a beautiful place. It was really great spending time with them away from the Kiwi Bus and to just relax with people we knew, they were so great with us and it was sad leaving them - but we had to rejoin the Kiwi Bus!

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