Adrenaline country!

I've only been on the road for a week or so, but I just don't know where to start.. I'm traveling with a bus company called Stray which takes you to all the interesting places in New Zealand and I've done so many things already! I'm just using my picture as a guidance as my brain is overflowing.. I won't bother you with cities I've been to, journeys in the bus and describing the weird/amazing/average people I've met, I'll just give you a brief orientation in which way I've experienced New Zealand so far. I'll write this down into paragraphs so you can skip the ones you think won't be interesting (you'll probably read them all..)

How have I experienced New Zealand so far:

I'VE DANCED IT!

In Maketu we stayed with a Maori family in a Marae (Maori meeting house) which they built especially for this purpose. We were treated to a great Hangi meal which is a traditional Maori meal. They originally make this under the ground wrapped in leaves on top of hot stones. This one however was prepared in the kitchen but it still tasted good :-) before dozing off in an after-dinner-dip we were treated to a great family show of traditional war-dance which involves the Haka for men (the dance the NZ 'All Blacks' perform before a rugby match) and the Poi for women. It is pretty intimidating as facial expressions are the primary part of the dance. A good performance comes with some interaction so the girls had to learn how to dance with the poi (a ball on a string which you have to swing around and catch, which sounds easy, but try to move your hips at the same time! It's a challenge..) and the guys had to take off their shirts for the Haka, which means they were all red and bruised when they finished! It was a great night which ended in a slumber party as we all spent the night in the same room, so afterwards I knew exactly who snored and would never be my roommate again! :-)

I'VE CAVED IT!

And yes, as I like to explore and crawl and climb, I had myself put into a harness and went into one of the Waitomo Caves to crawl, duck, tiger, abseil, climb and slip my way through a cave system that had amazing stalactites/mites (or how you write that) tiny holes you had to squeeze through (so glad I hadn't gain weight!) and glowworms! Which are actually not worms but larvae who have a genetical defect that they can't exit their waste which means they've got to burn it and that's what we see glowing! And oh yeah, they eat each other, so they're more like cannibalistic shit burning larvae. So much for romance.
The caving was amazing, hard work but so much fun! And I realized I'm not claustrophobic which came in handy as we had to really squeeze through some tiny holes!

I'VE SMELLED IT!

I stayed 2 days longer in Rotorua with Claudia, Jenny, Sam and Dennis to explore the volcanic grounds that are famous in this place. New Zealand is situated on two huge tectonic plates and is therefore known for its earthquakes and craters and Rotorua is an area with a huge amount of craters in a close area. These craters have various types of geothermal activity such as boiling pools, steam fumeroles, sulfur vents and mud pools. The ground in these areas is colored because of various oxides (purple=manganese oxide, red/brown=ferrous oxide, yellow=sulfur) and that makes a beautiful scenery although the sulfur burns away your nostrils.. :-) We hired a car ('Bud') for the day and had a lot of fun seeing these weird moon-like surroundings with steam coming from all the cracks and holes in the ground.

I'VE RAFT IT!

As I've rafted before I thought this wouldn't be too exciting to begin with, but then I realized this trip had the highest commercial rafted waterfall in the world of 7 meters high! This meant that we were in for some adventure and after we did a special Maori prayer to ask for a safe journey we made it! Luckily we didn't flip over (1 in 3 does, you get a whole explanation of what to do when this happens including breathing techniques under the raft, curling up in a ball to have the waterfall spit you out again etcetera, very reassuring.. :-S)only Claudia fell out and she didn't get hurt. Quite exciting as the whole raft disappeared under water!! Just look at the pictures..

I'VE SKYDIVED IT!

And yes, I've been one of those people who, in good mental health, decided to jump out of a perfectly good plane to plummed towards the earth.. I was so excited! At 12.000 feet (which is about 4000 meters) the door of the tiny pink aircraft opened and I was the first to jump out with Dave, the guy that had my life in his hands (and my back strapped quite tightly to his front, somewhat comforting but intimate). As we sat in the opening of the door I waved my friends goodbye, curled my body in a bananashape and before I knew it, we were out! Up until then I wasn't scared, but as we started to fall faster and faster I realized that there was absolutely nothing surrounding us and the earth which was quite intimidating. There is nothing to describe the 45 seconds freefall, you just twist and turn and plummed towards the earth while screaming, laughing, shouting, and being amazed by the fantastic view. The moment the parachute opens everything goes quiet again and there is this amazing scenery below you, while the sunset gives everything a perfect color. I can't describe the adrenaline rush, but I've got it all on dvd...

I'VE TRAMPED IT!

Tramping is hiking in New Zealand and in Tongariroo National Park I did the famous one-day-tramp the 'Tongariroo Crossing'. This is a tramp between the active volcanoes (one erupted not more than 150 years ago!) from one peak to the other. As it is the beginning of winter the weather forecast wasn't that good and there was only one company that went out. As I had a major cold and the weather conditions could be bad, I changed my ming about a thousand times but I decided to go anyway (as usual..) and it was amazing! The weather was great, it cleared up exactly when we reached the top and we could see the amazing surroundings. It took us 8 hours and I'm really sore right now, but it was worth it! Cold though, I'm not used to temperatures below freezing any more..


Just let the pictures speak for themselves, I'm going to the South Island tomorrow!
kisskiss