Adventures, adventures, adventures

I've had quite a few exciting things happen over the last several days.

After the rather unpleasant incident at the bar in Rotorua with the homophobes, I went to bed. We woke up early the next morning and went to another park nearby called Te Puia; it's a natural geothermal reserve, and we saw geysers & bubbling mud pools, then sat on 110-degree rocks, which would serve as excellent substitutes for heating pads if they weren't so hard and lumpy. Also in the park, we saw a couple of kiwi birds - the national icon of New Zealand - though they were in captivity and no photos were permitted. The second half of our time in the park was another "Maori cultural experience," much like the previous one we'd gotten to participate in. This time, however, the women were taught how to dance with poi (little sponge-filled balls that you twirl around your wrists and smack against things as a sort of percussion instrument) and the men learned the haka (which is a war dance that involves slapping yourself, grunting, and sticking your tongue out - right up my alley).

From there, our bus traveled to Waitomo, a little town of about 20 people near the west coast of the North Island. It's known for its massive glow-worm caves, and subsists almost entirely on tourism income. During the afternoon, a group of about 8 of us went to the caves to do what they call "black water rafting:" basically climbing & inner-tubing through the fast-flowing water in the caves. It was great fun! We had to jump off of a couple small waterfalls, float through a tunnel with about 4 inches of breathing room above water level (OK, maybe that was an exaggeration), clamber over stalagmites and cave coral, and avoid the 4-foot eels that inhabit the caves.

As a brief aside, our caving guide was hilarious and meeting him proved to be a "small world" experience. He was originally from Southern Indiana - so knew Wyandotte and Marengo Caves very well - went to Earlham (in Richmond, IN) for college, and has a chemistry degree with a specialization in natural products chemistry, which is exactly what I did at Richmond. How often to you meet random Hoosier chemists in New Zealand?!

That evening, our bus driver & guide made us a dinner of gourmet burgers (complete with the New Zealanders' favorites: grated carrot and pineapple) to eat at the hostel (since there are no restaurants in Waitomo), and the whole group had a great time eating, chatting, drinking, and generally getting to know each other. We ended up going out that evening to the lone pub in the town, and I had lots of fun chatting with a few locals, including the New Zealand National Rural Bachelor of the Year for 2006. Who gets a title like that?!

The following day, we went on a really cool hike on the land above the cave we'd explored the day before. We got to see several waterfalls, tons of massive fern trees, and some generally beautiful scenes. After the hike, we stopped briefly at - I'm not kidding - a rabbit-shearing operation. This place has about 350 German Angora rabbits, which have more hair than you can imagine, and it never stops growing. If they're not sheared, they die of overheating. So we watched this lady stretch out a massive bunny and cut its fur off. The fur was actually incredibly soft, and I was tempted to buy something made from it, but it was quite expensive.

On finally leaving Waitomo, we had a 2-hour drive to Taupo, during which we watched The Whale Rider, a very good New Zealand film that received a lot of critical acclaim a few years ago. It's the story of a young Maori girl whose grandfather is the chief of their tribe, and her struggle to prove her worth to her community despite her female sex. Moving.

We had one brief stop before arriving in Taupo: Huka Falls, the most voluminous waterfall in New Zealand - it can fill an Olympic-size pool every second. It's also one of the sources of power for the largest hydro/geothermal power station in New Zealand. (OOOOH.)

From there, 7 of us were dropped off at Freefall, the cheapest sky-diving operation in NZ. I decided to splurge, and jumped from 15,000 feet (3,000 higher than my previous two jumps), and it was WELL worth it. We got to do some mid-air acrobatics and such, and the views over Lake Taupo (600 sq. km!) was astounding. I was a bit nervous that we didn't really get any training whatsoever until we were up in the plane, but everybody was just fine and had a blast.

Today we were planning on hiking the Tongariro Crossing, one of the 10 Best One-Day Hikes in the World (according to somebody important), but it's closed due to precarious weather conditions: there is a high risk of avalanches, high winds, blinding snowstorms, landslides, and the like - and they'd rather not have people dying if they can help it. Instead, I'm just hanging out in Taupo town, which is a stereotypical backpacker's paradise: bars everywhere, adventure-type stuff all over, and nothing terribly intelligent to do. I'm sure I'll find something.

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