Day 6: 6/1/13
I had more sleep last night that I had In about a week but was more tired when I woke than any morning!! I had to go to the toilet during the night which meant a trek through trees and steps- great fun at 3am!!
We drove to Waitomo this morning. It was about an hour and a half long and everyone just dozed. Waitomo is where there are lots of caves. Tomo is the Maori word for hole and wai is water so it means water hole. There are lots and lots of holes (tomos) and caves. It's limestone rock that was under the sea millions of years ago. There are lines In the rock where you can see where the layers of sediment joined the last layer. You can also see fault lines and fractures from the plate below and there's a volcano nearby that's due to explode any day! It's been like that for years, but hasn't gone yet!
We checked in at the office and had a while to wait before our tour to the caves started. Then we got a bus to the cave. It took about half an hour. There were lots of farms on the way there. The guide was pointing out different places and talking about the farmers! One was called Digger Barnes who is apparently one of the top shearers in the world! The rest had no major claim to fame! A big problem for the farmers is the animals falling down caves.
At the cave there were only 11 of us, not all were from the bus. Some people were abseiling and tubing down the cave and other people just didn't bother with anything today. The first cave had a path through it and lights so you could see the formations clearly. Some of the rock was really sparkly and shiny from the water and calcium. Some was really white but other rock was really brown as sediment was brought through the cave during floods. There were lots of stalagtites but not as many stalagmites as they had been washed away. There were some columns where they had joined. There were a lot of animal bones aswell- goat, possums, cow and moa. The moa was a huge bird that lived in New Zealand before the Maoris came. They are a cross between emus and ostriches and is the biggest bird recorded in the world. All the Maoris ate them to extinction. The bones in the cave were supposed to be 20,000 years old! There was also a cavern that was wide and open. Apparently in caves they are called cathedrals. This one was just the size of a room and about a two-storey house high. There are some other ones in the world where they could fit a skyscraper! The temperature in the cave was about 14 degrees. Some people had jumpers on but I thought it was lovely! When we went back outside we were roasting!!
We walked back out of that cave then and had tea and biscuits in a little shed in the field. There were sheep nearby and the guide started talking about shearing. One of the main venues for world sheep shearing competitions is nearby. They shear the sheep here about three times every two years an shear their bum more frequently so they don't get maggots. The guide knew a guy that had sheep shorn recently and paid 20,000 New Zealand dollars for the shearing contractors to come in and shear the sheep. I asked how many sheep that was for. He didn't know but it took three days to shear them. He didn't say how many contractors were shearing so there's no way to know really! After paying 20,000 he only got 22,000 for the wool.
There was a toilet there too. It had a toilet seat but you could see that underneath it was just a hole! There were loads of dead flies around aswell- lovely!
Then we went into a second have. For this one we got helmets with lights. When we turned them off it was completely dark, we couldn't see anything. There was a stream in this one. After a little walk through we got in a rubber boat and sailed down the stream. The sky was covered in glowworms. There were millions of them and they just look like tiny stars. We were told to be silent and not to take any pictures or anything and we sailed in silence for about 15 minutes under the glowworms. It was class!!
The glow worms aren't actually worms at all. They are maggots, the larvae of some particular fly. They have a particular gland in their kidney and when water mixes with oxygen there it glows. Some glow brighter than others because they are older. They spin threads that hang from the ceiling and catch food in it. They go into a cocoon before they turn into flies. The female fly mates as soon as possible, lays eggs and dies within two days. The male fly mates with as many females as it can and then dies within 5-6 days. They look like worms really with a little light at the end. They are much nicer when it's dark and you can only see the light!
When we got on the boat we all turned off our lights and the guide asked if we could see him and we couldn't. After spending 15 minutes in the dark looking at glowworms we came back to the same spot and we could see him. It's amazing how your eyes adjust!
We drove back to the office then which was part of the general store. There you could get a half an hour of wifi if you bought something. I was parched so needed a drin anyway and then spent thirty minutes updating blogs, checking emails and looking on Facebook! It's ridiculous that you can't get free wifi in many places. It seems to be $4 an hour everywhere and the last place didn't even have wifi, just a computer with Internet. Tonight we are going to a Maori place and there will be no coverage or wifi or anything!!
The bus was about half an hour late picking us up, I don't know why! We stopped in a small town then called Otorohanga which is supposed to be the most Kiwiana town in New Zealand. It was tiny but had pictures of kiwi things everywhere- the kiwi bird, gumboots (wellingtons), jandals (flip-flops)and some plants and things. We only had 15 minutes there so just out and back into the bus really!
Then we went to the Maori place in Mourea. We had to do a welcoming ceremony first before we could be allowed to cross into their marae. The girls were allowed of the bus first as we are the bringers of life. We had to pause half way up the drive as they believe their ancestors are with us all and we have to acknowledge them before we go in. Inside we all had to say tanking until the men sat down. They got chairs and then we had to sit on the floor. There were only abou 5/6 Maori people there- all related. They were dressed in normal clothes. The eldest one gave a speech and then we had to shake hands and touch noses twice with each one of them. It's a bit weird to be face to face with strangers!!
Then we got back on the bus to go to some local waterfalls. There were two of them, one 3m and one 7m or something. There are some people going white water rafting tomorrow and they will be rafting over them! They showed us some special trees along the way too. One had food like a banana. One was a silver fern which glows in the dark as the moon reflects off it. Tribes used it to show where they were going. If necessary the last guy turned them over so the enemy wouldn't see them. There were also some medical trees where the leaves are used for teas, balms, potions, etc. The guy explaining said the medicinal properties they have can cure type 2 diabetes and cancer.
When we got back to the marae, dinner was nearly ready. They sang us some songs while we waited- mostly popular songs and songs from each country. It was one girls birthday aswell so she got happy birthday sung to her! Dinner was roast chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes and peas, nothing too strange.
After dinner was a show. While we were waiting for it we noticed a lovely sunset over a lake so we were all out to takr photos! There were two guys and a girl. They sang some songs which were very, very like the Easter Islands one. They showed us he poi (I think) which is like a ball on a string. The men used it initially to train their muscles. but then when they went off to war the women learned to use them for dancing. They also did the Haka. The eyes rolling and tongues out is supposed to show the opponent that they want to eat them!
We learned the hokey pokey with the Maori words for the parts of the body. After that the boys went off with the male Maoris and learned the Haka and the girls learned how to use the poi. We performed for each other then which was really funny!!
After the show, we had some free time. There was a big queue for the showers and a load of us missed the start of the storytelling. He was telling us about the Maori, I'm not sure if its just a legendary character or if it was a good. I head about the lady death and how he turned himself into a lizard to try to climb up inside her to be born again and cheat death, but she closed her legs and killed him! A lot of the stories they told then were about warriors fighting and how they were so good in world war 1 and 2. They treated the bayonettes and muskets like the sticks they used for fighting. The time that people used for reloading they used for up close combat. A lot more Maoris came back from the war than Australians as they were so good at fighting. The guy that was telling the stories had a grandad that fought in it. There were four companies of Maoris. It was weird how proud they were of the fighting. He chatted for hours really about fighting and how places nearby got their names and things. Some of those stories were crazy about people being chased by half birds, half humans and things! He also spoke about Mother Earth and how important it is to look after the land. They don't call themselves Maori at all, they have another longer name which means people of the land. All these stories were while we were all lying in bed so it was really cool. I would have loved to have heard more. Also I would like to have seen them in traditional dress but I suppose it's more realistic to see them as they are normally.
We were staying in their church building. There were carvings all around the wall which all had stories on them or represented past ancestors. One wall was a memorial to the dead, and mostly people who died in the war. There were about 44 of us all sleeping on mattresses there so it was very cosy! You weren't allowed shoes or food in there as they are for the living and by bringing them in you are disrespecting the dead.
The Maori were saying also that people are the most important thing to them. They called us all brothers and sisters. There was a German girl staying with them. She was on a tour bus too and just asked could she stay with them an she doesn't know how long she'll wait! I wouldn't even think of asking! They don't live at the marae, it's sort of their church and celebratory place. So she is staying in their houses with them I think.
It was great fun to have everyone in the one room but not good when there were about seven people snoring!! Not much sleep was had!!