Advertisement
Published: October 18th 2014
On our first day in Auckland we went to explore the city and go shopping. The weather was lovely and sunny which we weren't expecting! We went for lunch in a pub and I got a chicken burger and chips- it turned out to be very spicy so wasn't very enjoyable for me 😞 Then we went to see the sky tower where you can view all of Auckland. Firstly we went up to the 51st floor which was 186m up. It had amazing views. There was a glass floor which I jumped on and accidentally scared a stranger who shouted 'no don't do that' which was funny. Then we went up to a higher floor and took a few more photos. After we went fora hot chocolate and good shopping before going back to our hostel to make dinner, we had a Cesar salad in an attempt to eat slightly healthier in New Zealand! Then we got ready to go out to the bar attached to our hostel called Globe before going to a few other places.
The next day we woke up late!! Everyone was struggling a little so Alex and I decided to go for a wander
around before sitting in Starbucks for a bit. Then we went back to the hostel to get everyone up to go the a rugby game, Auckland vs Waikato. It wasn't a very busy game but was in the Eden Park stadium, which was cool to see. Auckland won with ease... The weather was cold with rain... Which was more what we expected from New Zealand! After we went back to our hostel and met Emily's friend Becca and her friend Georgina who were coming on the kiwi bus with us the next day before having an early night.
The next morning was the start of our kiwi experience which is a tour of New Zealand you can do. You hop on and off the bus at various stops and stay in different places for a few nights before getting back on. The first day was quite a long drive but the scenery was so green and beautiful it wasn't too bad! It was so different to Auckland almost as soon as we started driving. We drove to hot water beach and checked into our hostel called Hot Water Beach holiday Park. It was a remote place but we were
only staying one night so it was all good. Once we had checked in we all went for a walk to Cathedral Cove which was a short walk, it was raining but you could still appreciate the views! When we got back to the hostel everyone had fish and chips as it was our first night ( so much for eating healthy food!) Once dinner was over Mac, our bus driver organised for us to visit hot water beach. We had to wait until after dark so that the tide was low but it was worth the wait. We had to get to the beach and then dig a hole in the sand ... When you put your feet in it filled with hot water!! It was so strange. Then a wave would come in and mix it with cold sea water. Some parts were boiling hot and you had to mix it with water, others were perfectly warm! We stayed for a while making hot pools before heading back and having an early night!
On the Saturday we left at 7.15 to go to Waitomo. Something was wrong with the bus air con and it was freezing!!! Our
first stop was Paeroa which is famous for an L and P drink, we didn't try it though because we were too cold for a cold drink! Then we carried on our journey where Emily, Alex, Alex, Georgina and I had signed up to the Black Water Rafting- Black Abyss tour. We got dropped off at our tour and one guy Shaun joined our group. We got given wet suits, boots and a thermal jumper and then taken to the cave. The tour started with some basic abseiling training and then it was onto the real thing! I was second to go down the entrance to the cave, it was a 35m abseil which I loved... I tried to bounce off the walls like people do on TV haha which is harder than it looks. At the bottom we saw a 28 million year old starfish fossil! Then Logan our guide took us through the beginning of the cave to a zip wire. We had to turn our head torches off as we went down so it was pitch black and we could see all the glow worms above our head which was really cool, they looked like stars in
a sky! Then we had a hot chocolate and flapjack break before we had to get in the water! We were given a black rubber ring and had to jump off a rock into the river below. The water was freezing!!!! Then we ran/ floated down the water looking at more glow worms, some stalactites and rock formations. Logan showed us that the glow worms shine brighter when they feel vibrations, so he slapped the rubber ring in the water and we saw them glow brighter which was cool. After that we made our way back down another route. Then we got to a slide that Logan pushed us down! We carried on down more river crawling through some narrow gaps and makings train in our rubber rings with Logan pulling us through the cave. Then we had another break where we had some hot orange juice to try and help us forget how cold we were! Then we took some photos. By putting our head torches in our colourful cups we could create some cool light photos, where we could write words or draw pictures! Then we continued through the caves where we found an Eel known as Cecil.
Logan then said we were on our way out of the cave... But first had to climb out of two waterfalls... In my head they would be little ones which they weren't! They were seriously fast flowing and Logan had to help us one by one to rock climb up them! When we got out we realised we had been in there 5 hours! After we got soup and a bagel and looked at our photos! The tour was sooo good, definitely worth doing! After we went to our hostel, showered and went to the bar to see people on our bus but didn't drink.
Today we visited Hobbiton where part of Lord of the Rings was filmed. I wasn't that fussed about going because I don't like the films but had heard it's meant to be nice so went anyway. The Hobbit houses were cute but once I had seen a couple I was kind of over it! The guy giving the tour said that the houses are only seen for a few seconds in the film and half of them didn't feature at all so overall I wasn't that impressed but my friends who love Lord of
the Rings really liked it so maybe I missed something! The best part of the trip was going to the little Hobbit pub and getting a free cider, Emily and I managed to get a seat by the fire so it wasn't all bad!
After Hobbiton we made our way to the Tamaki Maori Village, I was really looking forward to it. When we arrived the 'chief' greeted us outside and we had to choose a male from our group (there was about 20 people from our bus) to be our chief and represent us. We chose a guy called Struan. Then the chiefs wife came out and sang us a welcoming song to invite us in. We had a short ceremony where they said some words and sang another song which introduced us to their tribe and Struan then had to thank them on behalf of us for letting us stay with them. Once we were inside we had an afternoon tea which was hot drinks, shortbread and a strange fried donut/ bread thing. Then they showed us to our room which was so nice. Once inside the chief told us stories about all the tribal carvings that were
on the wall and the stories attached to them. All the stories were really interesting and told us lots about the Maori culture and some of the Gods they worship. After we went to an area to do some activities. Firstly we learnt a Maori dance which we practised as a group, it was cool to learn their style of dance. Then our first activity was some warrior training. They taught us some attack and defence moves with a stick that the Maori children learn from a young age. We learnt the Maori terms and had to practice all the moves. This was followed by a stick game they play that they use to improve their co-ordination and agility. You all stand in a circle holding the stick upright, the chief then called left or right in Maori and you have to let go of your stick and catch the the other persons before it hits the ground. I came third in the group game! Then we went with the wife to learn about weaving. We were given a plant and taught how to strip it to be left with a string like bit which could be used to make
rope. When we had all finished we used all the bits we had stripped to make a bit bundle which was plaited into a special kiwi experience rope. After we learnt a Maori song which we would have to perform later at the closing ceremony of the meal.
Next we got ready for the official opening ceremony, people who were just doing the evening part of the tour we're arriving and we were going to be allowed into the fortified village. Nobody can enter this until the powhiri (formal welcome) has been performed. This involved everyone standing around the edge in a circle and the selected chiefs in the middle. The host tribes send out a challenge of peace to the chiefs . The warriors from the tribe go through some intimidating gestures and movements using their spear weapons. The main warrior then places a peace offering on the ground and a selected chief must pick it up, Struan got chosen. The ceremony is quite intimidating as they all run out shouting and waving their weapons. There are VERY strict rules about not laughing, smiling or making faces back at them as it is disrespectful to their culture and apparently
the warriors would see it as an invite to fight. After this has finished they shout out a welcome call and you can enter the main part of the village ... It is quite tense to begin with but once the ceremony is over they were all really friendly! Once in the village we were taken around different 'houses' to learn about different aspects of their culture including warrior training, tattoos and their meanings, poi dancing, stick games, weaving and my favourite station the Haka!! Watching the Haka was amazing, I literally couldn't take my eyes off them! When that was finished we went to see the Hungi which is the underground cooker they used for dinner. We had one more show where they performed lots of songs and dances and another Haka! Once the show was over we had dinner, it was so good! There was a never ending amount of food including potatoes, veg, chicken, fish, salad and for pudding peaches, cake or meringue! Then the time for us to perform our song came to say goodbye to the visitors who weren't staying over! It was actually quite fun but weird because people were filming it! After everyone
was leaving and we got a quick photo with Ruben Wiki a rugby league player visiting the tribe. In the evening we could choose what to do so we went in a hot tub for a bit before toasting marshmallows round the fire.
The next morning we had a continental breakfast before we sadly had to leave. It was one of my favourite things I've done and if anyone is visiting NZ this is definitely worth doing! When we left the village we went to Te Puia to see some geysers. At Te Puia we had a guide who was lovely (people are so friendly over here!) she told us some info about the place and how it linked with the Maori's history. She told us the proper name for it was
TE WHAKAREWAREWATANGAOTEOPETAUAAWAHIAO fortunately they have used Te Puia more recently! Before seeing the Geysers we went to see some workshops they have where people do courses about carving and weaving. Then we carried on to the hot springs and Clara (our guide) took some eggs which we boiled in the springs which was cool! Then we went on to watch the main Geyser and got to sit
on some natural hot seats which were heated rocks because of the Geyser. After we saw some mud pools before going to see a kiwi sanctuary where I saw my first kiwi bird! When we were finished we carried on our bus to Taupo, stopping off at a waterfall along the way. When we got to Taupo we had a quick look around the shops, bought some dinner before getting ready for a night out with people from our bus. We went to the bar attached to base hostel and took part in a quiz whilst having few drinks. The next morning was spent being a bit hungover whilst Alex, Emily and Georgina did their skydive. Then we met them in Mc Donald's which had a real aeroplane that you could sit in which we were excited about haha after we went to the hostel, watched their skydive videos and watched TV for most of the day!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 10; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0473s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
