Waitomo Caves

On the way to Maketu, we stopped off at Waitomo to do some caving. It was so cool. Some people in the group didn't want to get wet so they chose the abseiling option but I decided to embrace the cold water and went black-water rafting. This isn't the same as white-water rafting beause it is not as extreme. Instead, we hiked through these caves which at times was realy scary because they were very tight in places, and really not suitable for those who are claustraphobic! It was also scary because you could not see anything and for most of the time you were walking through water upto your waist, over rocks and pot holes, etc. The rafting part of it came in when we had to jump off a rock about two metes high onto a rubber tube, all link legs and float through all the caves in utter darkness! It was so much fun, especially because the guides were so funny telling us how unqualified they were every 5 mintues, and having us on telling us the caves often got flooded etc; not something you want to hear in tight dark spaces, gusting with ice cold water, metres underground! The thing was you didnt know when they were actually being serious! Apparently thats the kiwi way! Anyway, once we were floating we were led through tunnel after tunnel which was lit up by thousands of glow worms, it was really pretty. Pretty that is, until they explained what makes glow worms glow! Apparently it is their way of dealing with constipation and so all the pretty lights on the ceiling of the caves were caused by s***ing worms! Nice! It was so much fun though, despite being freezing cold. At one point my friend Tom had to save me beause I started to float away! We all had to wear realy flattering wet-suites and huge moon coloured wellies, which meant that for little me swimming through the deep parts (nearly all the caves was deep to me being nearly a migit) my boots would float to the surace and I wouldnt be abe to stand up and started getting pulled away with the current! I actually couldn't stop laughing! It was such a good day.

Maketu

After the caving we all headed acoss the country to our ultural night in Maketu. We had dinner with a Maori tribe and then they put on a show for us, which was realy interesting to watch! After they did the hakka which is the scariest thing I have ever seen we all had to get lessons and join in. The girls had to sin and dance with the poi, which is iterally a ball on the end of a piece of wool. I was so embarassing because we had to perform it for the lads. It was really nice though to learn more about their culture, it is acutally very different to Australia, in that the Maori people are respected and are an important part of New Zealand culture, unlike the the Aboriginal people who always seemed segregated.The funniest part of the night was the lads peforming the hakka with literaly no time to learn it!

After the show we all sat up talking and had a really good laugh, before heading to bed on the floor of this huge Maori hut. It was a really tiring but fun day!