Wednesday, December 08, 2004
So much Rain! Not much of an impression for Julie!
Well loyal blog readers, what do ya know? We really did go ahead and work out that day! Whew and we were all much less bleh feeling, imagine that! The next day we moved on from Taupo and headed north to Rotorua. Rotorua also sits on a lake and is a very geothermal area. Steam randomly vents from man hole covers on the street and everything! Phew, by the way! Rotten egg smell galore, yummy.
Well the weather wasn't as bad as it could have been but it did spit on us off and on all day as we meandered around. We all woke up to the day looking forward to the fabulous zorbing experience we'd all decided on the night before. The brochure looked great, we knew how to get here, and the price was right.
on second thought...
Hmm, well we got out to the Zorb area, and it didn't look that wonderful to us! Hmpf. In fact it was a pitiful hill and all the zorbs were wet even though one could hypothetically go in a dry one strapped to the side (barf I know, but Julie was stoked!) Well, we watched a couple fools take the ride and decided that our money would be much better spent on something else, like beer or the ever present souvenirs. So we dejectedly headed back into town because we really didn't know what else to do with ourselves. OH, actually we stopped at the Agrodome on the way back to town, wow, even less interesting and more depressing than the Zorb.
We forced ourselves to march up and down the streets of Rotorua and went in far too many souvenir stores, and when we couldn't handle it anymore, we hopped into our beloved Lance and bailed outta there. On the way out of town we decided to stop at a LiquorKing store just to see what we could see, and what do you know but we managed to salvage the day by finding much sought after Speights beer coozies. We had had this idea brewing for a few days and were so excited to find them that we left Rotorua and it's stench on a positive note. (Julie also found a full-sized All Blacks rugby ball for not a lot of money, and that also rocked) So in all honesty the three of us are really rather unimpressed with the entire Rotorua experience, and in all reality, it's not somewhere one necessarily needs to go in this magnificent country, because it just isn't. Magnificent, that is. Hmpf!
Next on the agenda was Waitomo Caves. This has been on my MUST DO list since before we even got here. I saw a photo or two about this area in a book we borrowed from Scott and Bev Pressman and was instantley entranced with the idea of seeing glowworms and blackwater rafting.
When we arrived we had a splendid cabin and a delicious meal of french bread pizza---IN THE SUN! Amazing but we managed to find some and we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. Then all feeling silly and giddy in the sun, we decided to "Zorb" anyway. We just did it without the actual zorb.
The people at the holiday park were fabulous and helped us to book our activities for the next morning. Mike and I opted for the Rap Rock 'n' Raft tour while Julie opted for the Spellbound tour. Now I must commend Julie for playing along with my enthusiasm at this point, cuz she really isn't a big fan of caves, cold rivers, or eels (which we saw a few of down there) but she was great and hopefully enjoyed her dry, sane trip as much as Mike and I enjoyed our wetter, colder one.
While Julie stayed dry on a boat tour to see the glowworms, Mike and I hopped in a jeep and bounced our way along with the tour guides to their little random shack in the middle of no where. When we got out, they pointed to the toilet, the changing rooms and then began handing us (Mike, me, a guy from Australia, and two girls from the Netherlands--no not Neverneverland) our gear. We put on wetsuits, which were wet and icky--mmm. Then on top of that we were given some seriously happenin' purple pants (I'm going to assume they were for the wetsuit's protection because they weren't going to win any fashion awards) and then harnesses for the repelling/rock climbing we'd be doing. On our heads we donned helmets with headlamps that connected to a battery pack we strapped around our waists over everything else. On our feet we wore our own socks (which I threw away at the end, eech) and good ol' New Zealand gumboots.
Once this first challenge was finished we all squashed ourselves back into the jeep and were taken further along to the cave. On the hillside above we came across some ropes and were given a 2 min and 43 second lesson in how to attach the rope to the repelling piece of hardware on our belts and how to work it. Yikes, the guy from Australia and I looked at each other and gulped, neither of us having ever done anything like this before!
We needn't have feared! At once we were all off, trooping downwards to the platform from where we'd repell 27 meters down into the cavern. No one had even a hitch and once at the bottom, our gumboots immediately full of water, we were ready to begin the rest of our adventure. First of all, we grabbed innertubes and began walking up stream into the cave. At a couple points a few of us in to our armpits, but mostly it was knee depth and easy walking. When we had gone a wee ways, and could no longer see any light from outside we all stopped, switched off our headlamps, and stood there in awe of the starry night above our heads. The glowworms were every bit as cool as I'd expected. We had a brief lesson on the little guys and then the guide smacked her innertube on the water as hard as she could. After the noise, she told us to look again, and the glowworms had DOUBLED their brightness! She had fooled them into thinking there was lots of food in the cave with all that vibration. Sneaky! Once we were finished, we climbed onto our tubes and hooked ourselves together and our leader guided us down the river so we could just lie back and observe the "stars" on our way downstream.
Out into the cavern with light we came and beyond that we put our tubes into the river for the blackwater rafting part. On came our headlamps, and away we zoomed through the underground river! Awesome.
After awhile we stood up and she took us up onto some ledges to share some hot orangey juice thing (a bit like hot tang) and chocolate bars. All in all, even though the water was freezing, we didn't feel it, but the warm felt and tasted great anyways. Our guide then led us around some ledges and through some skinny passageways and half submerged holes. Loads of fun!
I thought I'd chicken out and have to go around, but nothing was so small that I doubted fitting, or where I had to drag myself by the fingertips, eeesh. After all the climbing we had to head back out and so grabbed the tubes and hiked back upstream. This is the only part I think they could do better. Don't ask me how they could do it better but whew, hiking around in not only a wetsuit, but also rock climbing gear, isn't exactly my favorite sport! When we again reached the opening to above, we all purposely submerged ourselves to get that icy shot of water down our backs in the suits. Ahh, much better.
The final portion of the adventure was the climb out. The rocks were slightly wet but over all it was an easy climb, even I could see that, however I was still shaking with adrenaline by the top. Not much of a fan of the falling-and-trusting-myself-to-a-girl-smaller-than-I-am thing. What a blast!
We changed back out of our gear and into our clothes back at the strange shed in the middle of no where and then headed towards town to meet up with Julie. The three of us, once again together, ate PBHs and had some scrumptious Tip Top Blackberry ice cream- Yummy, and headed for Auckland.
None of us could believe that our two weeks with Julie had already flown by! Sadly our final night was once again spent in a rather sketchy place--dubbed Sketchorama since it was actually in Ramarama and Sketcherville was already claimed.
So much for our new motto, but everywhere else was full or far to spendy, and so we just whined a lot and what do ya know? We survived with another great story to look back on from the comfort of our own beds, soon! Julie wasn't terribly sorry to no longer have to eat out of our food box either-hmpf!
The next morning was Saturday, Julie's last day, sniff! We opened up Julie's guide book and attempted to find a couple markets. We wandered the Otara market (the largest Polynesian market in the world) but they weren't really selling anything Polynesian, rather they were selling normal stuff TO Polynesians. But the sneaky book got us to go didn't it!?! Then we ended up wandering around downtown Auckland which was more intesting that Rotorua, but once again rainy. Poor Julie!
The weather didn't cooperate at all! Eventually we hopped into Lance and began driving to different LiquorKings in search of Speights gear. Silly us, we didn't decide we were so enamored of Speights stuff until we had LEFT the South Island, where Speights is the beer. Ah well, Mike did find a tee shirt which made us all very happy, but the sizes were huge so we promised to keep looking for Julie. Around 4:30ish we arrived at the airport to see Julie safely into the terminal.
Haven't heard from her since, but we have every faith that she is safely back at home by now, or else someone would have let us know. =+) After dropping Julie off, Lance was geared up and ready to rock, but Mike and I just looked at each other like "what now?". We decided on the usual, emailing, and then we gave Brad Riley a call. Brad and Carol are in the process of moving down to Nelson, and in fact we've been hanging out with Brad and occasionally Carol for the past few months, but they just happened to be here in Auckland this week!
In talking to Brad, we found out that Brad's parents Joan and Alan Riley had invited us to spend the night at their house. Unbelieveable how many wonderful, generous people we've met in New Zealand. We have been constantly impressed. In fact, the Rileys have invited us to base ourselves at their place over this last portion of our time in New Zealand whenever we are in Auckland, thank you SOOOO much Joan and Alan! Being essentially homeless in a city as big and often dreary and raining as Auckland is daunting and makes me rather neurotic to be honest. Having their home as a base, and their happy faces to visit with, makes us both feel more human! We can't come even close to expressing our thanks to these great people who took in a couple of random American kids off the street sight practically unseen. We sure hope that they'll travel to the States one day and we can open our homes ( ours and our families, as we've said before, thanks guys ) to them in return!
For the moment, I'm going to stop there. Mike will bring the blog up to current speed, and we'll add photos, (since it is actually Thursday and I'm ending on last Saturday) tomorrow so I stop hogging the blogging time. He is the mastermind behind getting the photos on the blog with the help of his dad Jeff. Thanks to you two muchly. It'd be much more time consuming if I was left to that task, which is why he's been photoing and I've been writing!
Well the weather wasn't as bad as it could have been but it did spit on us off and on all day as we meandered around. We all woke up to the day looking forward to the fabulous zorbing experience we'd all decided on the night before. The brochure looked great, we knew how to get here, and the price was right.
on second thought...
Hmm, well we got out to the Zorb area, and it didn't look that wonderful to us! Hmpf. In fact it was a pitiful hill and all the zorbs were wet even though one could hypothetically go in a dry one strapped to the side (barf I know, but Julie was stoked!) Well, we watched a couple fools take the ride and decided that our money would be much better spent on something else, like beer or the ever present souvenirs. So we dejectedly headed back into town because we really didn't know what else to do with ourselves. OH, actually we stopped at the Agrodome on the way back to town, wow, even less interesting and more depressing than the Zorb.
We forced ourselves to march up and down the streets of Rotorua and went in far too many souvenir stores, and when we couldn't handle it anymore, we hopped into our beloved Lance and bailed outta there. On the way out of town we decided to stop at a LiquorKing store just to see what we could see, and what do you know but we managed to salvage the day by finding much sought after Speights beer coozies. We had had this idea brewing for a few days and were so excited to find them that we left Rotorua and it's stench on a positive note. (Julie also found a full-sized All Blacks rugby ball for not a lot of money, and that also rocked) So in all honesty the three of us are really rather unimpressed with the entire Rotorua experience, and in all reality, it's not somewhere one necessarily needs to go in this magnificent country, because it just isn't. Magnificent, that is. Hmpf!
Next on the agenda was Waitomo Caves. This has been on my MUST DO list since before we even got here. I saw a photo or two about this area in a book we borrowed from Scott and Bev Pressman and was instantley entranced with the idea of seeing glowworms and blackwater rafting.
When we arrived we had a splendid cabin and a delicious meal of french bread pizza---IN THE SUN! Amazing but we managed to find some and we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. Then all feeling silly and giddy in the sun, we decided to "Zorb" anyway. We just did it without the actual zorb.
The people at the holiday park were fabulous and helped us to book our activities for the next morning. Mike and I opted for the Rap Rock 'n' Raft tour while Julie opted for the Spellbound tour. Now I must commend Julie for playing along with my enthusiasm at this point, cuz she really isn't a big fan of caves, cold rivers, or eels (which we saw a few of down there) but she was great and hopefully enjoyed her dry, sane trip as much as Mike and I enjoyed our wetter, colder one.
While Julie stayed dry on a boat tour to see the glowworms, Mike and I hopped in a jeep and bounced our way along with the tour guides to their little random shack in the middle of no where. When we got out, they pointed to the toilet, the changing rooms and then began handing us (Mike, me, a guy from Australia, and two girls from the Netherlands--no not Neverneverland) our gear. We put on wetsuits, which were wet and icky--mmm. Then on top of that we were given some seriously happenin' purple pants (I'm going to assume they were for the wetsuit's protection because they weren't going to win any fashion awards) and then harnesses for the repelling/rock climbing we'd be doing. On our heads we donned helmets with headlamps that connected to a battery pack we strapped around our waists over everything else. On our feet we wore our own socks (which I threw away at the end, eech) and good ol' New Zealand gumboots.
Once this first challenge was finished we all squashed ourselves back into the jeep and were taken further along to the cave. On the hillside above we came across some ropes and were given a 2 min and 43 second lesson in how to attach the rope to the repelling piece of hardware on our belts and how to work it. Yikes, the guy from Australia and I looked at each other and gulped, neither of us having ever done anything like this before!
We needn't have feared! At once we were all off, trooping downwards to the platform from where we'd repell 27 meters down into the cavern. No one had even a hitch and once at the bottom, our gumboots immediately full of water, we were ready to begin the rest of our adventure. First of all, we grabbed innertubes and began walking up stream into the cave. At a couple points a few of us in to our armpits, but mostly it was knee depth and easy walking. When we had gone a wee ways, and could no longer see any light from outside we all stopped, switched off our headlamps, and stood there in awe of the starry night above our heads. The glowworms were every bit as cool as I'd expected. We had a brief lesson on the little guys and then the guide smacked her innertube on the water as hard as she could. After the noise, she told us to look again, and the glowworms had DOUBLED their brightness! She had fooled them into thinking there was lots of food in the cave with all that vibration. Sneaky! Once we were finished, we climbed onto our tubes and hooked ourselves together and our leader guided us down the river so we could just lie back and observe the "stars" on our way downstream.
Out into the cavern with light we came and beyond that we put our tubes into the river for the blackwater rafting part. On came our headlamps, and away we zoomed through the underground river! Awesome.
After awhile we stood up and she took us up onto some ledges to share some hot orangey juice thing (a bit like hot tang) and chocolate bars. All in all, even though the water was freezing, we didn't feel it, but the warm felt and tasted great anyways. Our guide then led us around some ledges and through some skinny passageways and half submerged holes. Loads of fun!
I thought I'd chicken out and have to go around, but nothing was so small that I doubted fitting, or where I had to drag myself by the fingertips, eeesh. After all the climbing we had to head back out and so grabbed the tubes and hiked back upstream. This is the only part I think they could do better. Don't ask me how they could do it better but whew, hiking around in not only a wetsuit, but also rock climbing gear, isn't exactly my favorite sport! When we again reached the opening to above, we all purposely submerged ourselves to get that icy shot of water down our backs in the suits. Ahh, much better.
The final portion of the adventure was the climb out. The rocks were slightly wet but over all it was an easy climb, even I could see that, however I was still shaking with adrenaline by the top. Not much of a fan of the falling-and-trusting-myself-to-a-girl-smaller-than-I-am thing. What a blast!
We changed back out of our gear and into our clothes back at the strange shed in the middle of no where and then headed towards town to meet up with Julie. The three of us, once again together, ate PBHs and had some scrumptious Tip Top Blackberry ice cream- Yummy, and headed for Auckland.
None of us could believe that our two weeks with Julie had already flown by! Sadly our final night was once again spent in a rather sketchy place--dubbed Sketchorama since it was actually in Ramarama and Sketcherville was already claimed.
So much for our new motto, but everywhere else was full or far to spendy, and so we just whined a lot and what do ya know? We survived with another great story to look back on from the comfort of our own beds, soon! Julie wasn't terribly sorry to no longer have to eat out of our food box either-hmpf!
The next morning was Saturday, Julie's last day, sniff! We opened up Julie's guide book and attempted to find a couple markets. We wandered the Otara market (the largest Polynesian market in the world) but they weren't really selling anything Polynesian, rather they were selling normal stuff TO Polynesians. But the sneaky book got us to go didn't it!?! Then we ended up wandering around downtown Auckland which was more intesting that Rotorua, but once again rainy. Poor Julie!
The weather didn't cooperate at all! Eventually we hopped into Lance and began driving to different LiquorKings in search of Speights gear. Silly us, we didn't decide we were so enamored of Speights stuff until we had LEFT the South Island, where Speights is the beer. Ah well, Mike did find a tee shirt which made us all very happy, but the sizes were huge so we promised to keep looking for Julie. Around 4:30ish we arrived at the airport to see Julie safely into the terminal.
Haven't heard from her since, but we have every faith that she is safely back at home by now, or else someone would have let us know. =+) After dropping Julie off, Lance was geared up and ready to rock, but Mike and I just looked at each other like "what now?". We decided on the usual, emailing, and then we gave Brad Riley a call. Brad and Carol are in the process of moving down to Nelson, and in fact we've been hanging out with Brad and occasionally Carol for the past few months, but they just happened to be here in Auckland this week!
In talking to Brad, we found out that Brad's parents Joan and Alan Riley had invited us to spend the night at their house. Unbelieveable how many wonderful, generous people we've met in New Zealand. We have been constantly impressed. In fact, the Rileys have invited us to base ourselves at their place over this last portion of our time in New Zealand whenever we are in Auckland, thank you SOOOO much Joan and Alan! Being essentially homeless in a city as big and often dreary and raining as Auckland is daunting and makes me rather neurotic to be honest. Having their home as a base, and their happy faces to visit with, makes us both feel more human! We can't come even close to expressing our thanks to these great people who took in a couple of random American kids off the street sight practically unseen. We sure hope that they'll travel to the States one day and we can open our homes ( ours and our families, as we've said before, thanks guys ) to them in return!
For the moment, I'm going to stop there. Mike will bring the blog up to current speed, and we'll add photos, (since it is actually Thursday and I'm ending on last Saturday) tomorrow so I stop hogging the blogging time. He is the mastermind behind getting the photos on the blog with the help of his dad Jeff. Thanks to you two muchly. It'd be much more time consuming if I was left to that task, which is why he's been photoing and I've been writing!
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