Its official....Saturday 14th November was the best day of my life so far! :-)
On the 13th i started a trip called East As, which basically takes you off the beaten track to stay with the real NZ people and learn about the natives and the tribes etc. We started the day by driving through Gisborne, the first official town to see the sun for that day (due to the date line being just off the East Coast of NZ). This was quite a bit town compared to what i thought, and we had a quick stop here. Then we made our way to Tatapouri-this was really secluded and right on the beach. We stayed in our own little holiday house (there were 11 o0f us on the trip) and the main reception area (well, more of a hut with a kitchen in it) was down by the sea. Some people went sting ray feeding here and rock sliding-thats a bit like being on a body board and going down a water slide which goes down the rocks. That night a few people had a BBQ by the real fire, and we toasted marsh mallows. We also watched a DVD called Whale Rider, which is quite famous round here because it was set on this peice of coast. Throughout the 4 day trip we stopped at various places where the film was shot.
The next morning (my favourite day!) we woke up at 5.30am, made ourselves some cups of tea and watched the sunrise-we would have been the first people in the world but we noticed a boat out to sea so they beat us to it! After that a couple of us went for a wander down the beach to look for shells, and look for weird creaturess in the rock pools. The tide was out a bit later on so we could walk out to sea for miles before we actually got wet.
We had to leave here about 10am, then made our way to Rangitukia. This was also secluded but more in the mountains rather than coastal-was very beautiful scenery. As soon as we arrived here we had another cup of tea and our driver Rex made us some pancakes (they were so yummy that i had 3!). Once we were settled in, about 6 of us went riding. Id heard the ride was amazing so i gave it a go. They were right....the scenery was the best ive seen-and all the views were great from the mountains-we went up pretty steep. Then we went onto the beach andgalloped along the shoreline-i actually got a bit wet but it was great fun. The guy who ran the rides was galloping about with me and we were jumping over things, winding the other horses up and generally having a great time! Ont he way to the beach we went through a few fields that belonged to the farm-other horses were trying to join us on the ride even though they had no jockeys!
The final night was spent in Te Kaha, where we were greeted by traditional songs and nose-to-nose touching, this is their traditional 'hello'.
We all sat in the hot tub and watched the sunset-it was amazing!
In Rotorua, where i am now-i have been to a cukltural evening for the Maori tribe. We were shown the Haka, and some traditional songs, ate a traditional Hangi meal (cooked underground) and played some gamnes with sticks (more fun than it sounds!).
I am off to Auckland today to stay with my friend, then off to Thailand on the 20th-cant believe its gone so fast. I love NZ a lot more now that ive seen the 'real' parts of it on the East Coast and learnt more about the tribes etc.
Tghe people i have met here have been great-a lot of fun and like minded which is good! Well i best go...wuill update in the next few days hopefully when i have longer than 3 mins to finish this!! xxx