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12/12/10

I was up and ready to go early since the rafting people were scheduled to pick me up from the hostel lobby at 8:30 am. While I was waiting another guy was waiting for the same rafting tour...his name was Ben and he was from Austria. I chatted with him for a bit on the bus and he happened to be in my raft as well. He is here on a one year work visa but has not done any work yet and only been in the country for a couple of weeks. He had spent the prior day by hiring a mountain bike at the hostel and took it out to the mountain bike trails outside of town. The area outside of town where the mountain bike trails are located in a 6 acre parcel of land that has California Redwoods in it. The story goes that nearly 100 years ago they planted a bunch of different trees from all over the world to see how they would do growing in New Zealand. The Redwoods did very well but I assume they found something else that worked better for timber industry. Ben had an OK time doing the mountain bike courses but said he had to stop three times on the way back to town....it seemed pretty flat terrain so I was wondering if his fitness level was crap. He also had a nice blister on his hand from riding without gloves. The rafting company brought us to their site and got us all equipped with what we would need for the whitewater rafting. This included a wet suit top, helmet, life jacket, and booties. I was geared up and ready to go. I did find it a bit odd that they did not try very hard to push adding on river sledging as well to this tour. I had never even heard of such a thing but it looks almost like a plastic snow sled that you go down the river with...and you wear fins as well. I saw some people going out while we were on the raft and I would not mind giving this a try at some time. I could have been up sold very easy but it was never asked if anyone wanted to do both. The rafting was fun and we got the instruction on how to go down the waterfalls we would be going down. I brought my camera with me inside two different zip lock bags....boy I sure hoped that would be enough to keep it dry. I was a bit worried since on a few occasions I was sitting in the raft as it was full of water. The camera stayed dry so I was relieved to see that at the end. The whole river trip was less then an hour but the 21 foot drop down the waterfall was amazing. Here is what the brochure for the Kaituna Waterfall Excursion states: The Kaituna not only boasts the highest commercially ratted waterfall in the world at 21 feet, but also has 14 rapids, amazing scenery and a wealth of history and culture. I did not even bring a wallet but I kind of wanted a picture or two of the rafting trip but they wanted $45 for the CD of all the photos that the photographer took which was somewhere around 120 photos or around 40 of each raft. I am still holding out hope that Sara from Austria will send me a photo or two. I asked her on the bus returning to town since she bought a CD and was also in my boat if she could email me a couple of pictures......I told her I did not want all of them just a few.....she has my email address in her phone so I hope that maybe she will send me an email...a long shot I know but worth a attempt.

I returned back to the hostel and decided that a quick nap might be nice.......it turned into full on sleep for like 2 hours, the length did not bother me so I was quite content when I woke up. I went to the store to buy some fruit and a little bit of food and I hung around the hostel for a bit then I decided I would book the dinner show that I been thinking about going to. It was called the Maori Village and Ivan had recommended it to me and said the show was good and the food was also good. They picked me up and brought me out to the Village which is less of a village and more of a entertainment complex with no apparent living structures anywhere to be seen. It was a very nice night and lasted from 6:30 pm until I left at 9:15 pm on one of the shuttles to return me. The tour guide talked to my group in our big outdoor tent structure where our meal would be eaten later in the evening. He taught us some Maori words and had us sing a Maori song and then went around and found out how many countries were represented in our group (Which was 9). Then we walked down the path to the small river which was spring feed and crystal clear and we saw the warrior come down the river to us in their ancient warrior canoe. They were all dressed up in traditional outfits which did not consist of all that much material and they had their faces painted. They explained what the paintings represented later in the night and I guess you can look at one side of persons face and see a bird and some other stuff but I could not see it at all......it might as well have been one of those pictures where you look at it and let your eyes loose focus and you can see another image (NEVER WORKED FOR ME) We were all lead to the main stage area where they put on a Traditional Cultural Performance...this included some spear waving, chest thumping, screaming, and of course sticking out your tongue and looking crazy. They also talked about how the culture was important to keep and pass on even though they do live in the current world of KFC and video games. Some of the drills they showed like the running over small sticks just reminded me of the rope drills in football or the old school style of running the tires. I was somewhat waiting for them to start doing gasers, form up tackling drills, or maybe pushing a weighted sled around and trying to tell me this was an ancient way of preparing to battle a unfriendly tribe. It never got to that but it occurred to me that they could tell us whatever they wanted real or made up and we would all be OK with it. The show was very good and entertaining so I was happy but I think by 8 pm when it ended everyone was getting hungry. The food they made for us was called Hangi. This is a ground cooked meal....or cages covered with tin foil over heated rocks. It was chicken, lamb, stuffing, and potatoes. After dinner we strolled back down to the river and they gave everyone flashlights and we were able to see a big freshwater eel and also some glow worms that were around the river. I had seen them the day prior so I was not as impressed as most and we did not even see that many. I then went back and read some and relaxed at the hostel before bed. All in all a good day of activities and also very easy paced and relaxing.