Raglan - Mourea Marae
On day 2 we travelled to Mourea Marae via Waitomo which is where we went caving. Caving was a bloody scary experience for me!! Me and Oddy had signed up for an easier option called tubing (floating around a cave on a rubber ring to see glow worms) but because of heavy rainfall the cave had flooded so we got a free 'upgrade' to a more extreme type of caving which sounded great initially....! We had to wear wet suits, wellies, helmets and a harness - it was freezing cold as the wetsuits were already damp when we put them on. We had to climb down a muddy, slippery ladder into a small hole to get into the cave which really freaked Odette out so she decided not to go ahead with the trip...I was secretly pleased as I thought I could get out of it as well by offering to go back with her, but she wouldn't let me so I ended up carrying on, and it got a lot scarier! The cave was full of really fast flowing heavy waterfalls which we had to abseil down (one was over 20 metres high!) then we had to squeeze through little gaps full of water, climb up slippery wet walls of rock and the worst was a narrow drop into a pool of water which was pitch black! We had to put our knees up and hands on our head to get lowered down otherwise you'd get stuck!! The guides tried to scare us by screaming and letting go really fast so you think you've been dropped - I fell for it!! I am glad I did it but I wouldn't do it again, I was so cold and wet and it seemed to go on forever, I think it was 4 hours in total!
In the evening we headed to Mourea Marae for a 'cultural night' from the Maurei people. We had to go through a welcoming ceremony when we entered which was awkward for me because I got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing! We had to shake hands with everyone and touch noses twice so it looks like you're going to kiss them! Bit awkward with people you've never met! In the evening they put on a traditional show/dance for us which was cool, we then got taught how to do the dance and the girls had to perform in front the guys and vice versa. The Mourea culture is all about being a family, so we all had to sleep in one big room on the floor! I was dreading it when they told us but actually it was fine, we got given mattresses and sleeping bags so it was quite comfy and by the time we had all touched noses it felt like we knew everyone quite well!