Waitangi Day

From Taupo we hopped on the NakedBus and headed back up north to Kerikeri.  After a 12 hour bus ride to Paihia, a half hour south of Kerikeri, we took a taxi that drove us the rest of the journey.  The taxi cost us 60 bucks (note to self: if you've got some extra cash and you're living in new zealand, open a taxi company- you can practically rob people!)  The woman was very friendly, like everyone we've encountered thus far, but she talked our ears off.  Apparently she is an important figure in the Waitangi Day celebrations because of her father- she was Maori and the oldest of 12.. or maybe it was 16.  Moving on.. We arrived in Kerikeri and updated with our friends. Keri Central has been our home away from home.  Brian is storing a suitcase there, everywhere we go, our baggage gets lighter.

The following day, Friday, we headed back south to Paihia. We stayed in a hostel with our friends Fede and Rami.  The first evening in Paihia, Brian and I took our iPods out on an internet search.  We located a free, non-password protected source outside of a real estate agency.  Soon enough, while Brian was using the wifi, the person who was presumably paying for our usage came out of his house an awkwardly talked to Brian about it. The next day, it was passworded! bonk. In this country they pay for internet based on GB usage, once they use up their GB quota, the internet slows down to dial-up speed.

February 6th is the New Zealand national holiday that commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, that essentially made New Zealand a British colony.  This weekend festival is about a half hour south of Kerikeri, right near Paihia.  Saturday morning, around 6 am we watched the sunrise over the bay ('Beautiful', is an understatement).  We saw the largest waka fleet and the largest waka.  Women are not allowed in the waka taua, war canoes, and are not allowed to be in the carvings on the war canoes either.  According to a Maori woman, the people rowing in the wakas must be at least 15 and of a certain height, but in the old days, the ability to swim was the deciding factor and age meant nothing.  She also told me that "Paihia" means "bay of tears" because there were many wars and death in that area.

After the waka ceremony, the warriors performed the traditional haka and then a couple more tribe-specific hakas.  There were three different groups of warriors present.  Even while stomping on sand, the haka was a powerful experience.

In addition to warriors, wakas and hakas, there are hundreds of tents selling food and trinkets. This is the first time I have ever experienced watermelon and ice cream.  They chop the watermelon in half-- scoop out a little of the top to form a dish and then add scoops of ice cream. Delicious.  I had "rainbow" ice cream (I have no idea what flavor it was) and Banana ice cream.  I would recommend the banana ice cream.  Hanging out with Argentineans means we've also tried Mate. We like it :)

following photos credited to federico valera

After going to bed late Friday night and waking up before the sun on Saturday, we all decided on a siesta then fiesta.  That night Rami cooked us dinner, we drank wine, spoke with some French women and went to the Salty Bar.  For those of you who are wondering, music in New Zealand is mainstream music from the States. This means that I can sing along and dance around to most, if not all, the songs played by the DJ.  All of us spent the evening dancing, Brian and I were re-living our mug days (i.e. sweat and loud music).  We did learn that most backpackers cannot dance or can't hear the music.. unclear.

After our weekend excursion in Paihia it was back south to Tauranga.

Jump Day Part Deux

Mai and I got ourselves up this morning to walk to Taupo Bungy.  It was early, so I wasn't incredibly enthused yet.  Mai opted out feeling she would do it at another destination, so she brought a camera to capture me diving 47m into a river.  They strapped me in and asked if I wanted to touch the water today.  I said, "I'd like to be completely in the water if possible."  I wanted to be part of the "Sole Club" in which you must have your entire body in the water so that only the soles of your shoes are above water.  As I shuffled my feet to the edge, like a prisoner walking the plank, the guy told me to just be sure to tuck my head into my chin when I hit the water to avoid face-planting.  Easy enough.

In the process of all this, Mai stood along the cliff side looking for a good shot.  She climbed the fence that said, "Do Not Climb Fence!" so she could get the whole of my jump on footage.  Unfortunately, she was spotted and the guy yelled at her to go back.  She still got a couple of great photos.  When asked by the man if that was my friend, I so cleverly responded, "Where?  I can't see."  During the first few moments of falling, I felt like I was going to die.  I let out a "Holy..." and when I found my voice, I cheered, quickly admired the world upside down, hit the water and went under.  By the time I realized I was underwater, I was pulled out again.  I started laughing and clapping as the bungee pulled me up and dropped me again.  It was such a rush and I can't wait to do it again. 

After a fairly tiring hike to the Huka Falls, we ventured back to the site of the bungee jump.  A day earlier, we had seen some kids in the river below jumping off maybe a 25 foot rock into the river below.  We decided we'd like to try that.  Only problem was, we had to swim across the Waikato River to get there.  It was only about 100 meters across, and the current didn't seem so bad.  After about 10 minutes of weighing the pros and cons, we decided to ford the river, Oregon Trail style.  We began swimming and felt we were doing quite well.  We had made it more than halfway across.  Suddenly, at the same time we realized the current had begun to drag us further downstream, and each stroke we took failed to bring us any further forward but instead, sideways.  We looked at each other and said simultaneously, "Umm... go back!"  So we literally swam for our lives back the way we came and, after a long struggle against the strong waters of the Waikato, we made it back to safety.  Although we failed to ford the river, we felt we gave it our best shot and being dragged downstream was not in our best interests.

Jump Day

February 2nd, Tuesday morning, Brian and I woke up feeling weighted down, our feet too firmly planted on this earth. We craved a change, we needed to fly. 
"Hey should we go skydiving today?" "It's looking a little cloudy"...


So we moseyed on over to the main office at the Rainbow Lodge (our hostel) and before we had a chance to put our lives in order, in case there was a travesty.. we were in a shuttle to Taupo Tandem Skydiving at the Taupo Airport-- the skydiving capital of the world.

After little convincing, our expected 12,000 ft drop was bumped to 15,000 feet and our decision to avoid paying the big bucks for a dvd & photos... well we needed pictures, right?! 


So  I thought we would watch a DVD with serious instructions about how to NOT die. According to Brian, there was a DVD but I guess in my nervous stupor I never saw it... HA They zipped, tied and strapped us into red jumpsuits and in order to pass the time we played rock paper scissors and sang (and danced) along to the radio. 


Next thing we know, we were in a plane, taking off backwards.

How did it feel prior to falling?:


Brian: "I felt, anxious.. I wanted to get up in the air, stop waiting around, be over the edge and waiting to go.  Usually taking off in a plane makes me nervous but it didn't even phase me, and we took off backwards!"
Mai: "I was sitting right next to the door that's clear and slides up.. I was thinking that what I was about to do was absolutely ridiculous but there was no way I wasn't going to hop out of the plane after spending all that money."





So what was it like to fly?


Mai: "exhilarating, insane, breathtaking, heart-pumping, jelly legs, eye tearing, adrenaline rush, flying, floating, fear"
Brian: "All i could do was laugh because i thought it was too ridiculous."


What about when the parachute was pulled?


Brian:"Very serene- cool. You could catch your breath and take in the views."
Mai: "Agreed."


How was landing?


Mai: "SUPER easy. We just plopped right down."
Brian: "I was just worried about not being able to stand up, and I couldn't.. my legs buckled for a second- and then I immediately wanted to lay on the ground"


Do it again?


Brain: "Absolutely, I wanna take a class so I can jump by myself."
Mai: "For sure, the next time I don't want to worry about smiling for a picture."

Time for Taupo, But Not Before The Most Awkward Concert Ever

Saturday was our last day in Rotorua.  

We recovered from the night before by visiting Hell's Gate, a geothermal wonderland, or so we thought.  It was actually pretty lame and the Tallest Hot Water Waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere was a complete let down.  We did get to sit in a mud pool, which was more of a pool than mud, and we had the woman take our picture covered in mud.  Overall, the experience was mediocre, but out skin feels nice!  That night was Lakefest, an outdoor concert right next to Lake Rotorua.  We caught the tail-end of the concert and were fortunate enough to witness quite possibly the most awkward ending to a concert ever.  First of all, the closing act was Australian Idol winner (and native Kiwi) Stan Walker, and after performing only two songs, he ran off stage so he could be called out for an encore (weird).  The encore began and about 30 seconds in, the CD playing over the speakers began to skip.  He wasn't lip synching, but the band playing behind him was quite fake.  So he asked for the CD to be stopped and, although he had trouble keeping the guitar player (his brother) playing to a consistent beat, they performed the final song successfully.  Next, the MC came out and started performing a song he had already performed earlier in the night after saying something to the extent that EVERYONE wanted him to be the final act.  I haven't seen people flee a concert so quickly.  After that awful performance, he tried to sing ANOTHER song, but was interrupted by another act.  After that one, he came out AGAIN and sang "Time Of My Life" with some other woman, and as the song went on, it seemed they just started throwing all the other acts on stage to sing with them because he was horrible.  It was clearly not planned.

But finally at the climax of the song came the most amazing fireworks we've ever seen.  It felt like we saw the future of fireworks and it was clear  Rotoura spent heaps of money on the show.  The fireworks were SO GOOD that we can't explain it and you probably should have been there... We were so mesmerized by them, we didn't realize that everyone was still on stage and STILL singing.  Just when we thought the travesty was all over with, the MC guy came out again and had an old guy who I'm almost positive was Tony Bennett come on stage and sing another song.  We don't know if the concert kept going or not, because we had enough with the awkwardness and were ready for some well deserved Dominos.

Sunday we left for Taupo, the site we will be skydiving and bungy jumping. With a big week ahead of us, we took two days to relax, though we had a surprise visit from Federico (from Kerikeri) and his cousin, Rami, which was pretty cool.  We have friends in New Zealand!

Rumble In Rotorua

Thursday.  Mai took a "few" pictures of the black swans in Lake Rotorua.  Then, we made the excellent decision to buy $9 bottles of wine and drink them by the lake at night.  Walking past the classy bar appropriately named the "Pig and Whistle" it was as if the gods called out from above.  We hear a live bands faint rendition of the classic song, Mai's song, "Save Tonight" by Eagle Eye Cherry.  And yes, we did go to said bar post wine and yes, Mai did ask the band if they could play "Save Tonight" again and yes, they did comply. 

Friday, we made a delicious salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, green capsicum, broccoli, and apples (see parents, we're eating healthy too!). If you didn't know, capsicum is a long-winded way of saying "bell pepper".  So it seems that Brian and I have created a record of debaucheries Fridays.  This Friday was no exception to our newly instated rule. We began the evening by purchasing our beers the kosher way, from the hostel (if a hostel has a liquor license then you are not allowed to BYOB)... but because we can't afford drinking beers, we brought our bottles of wine into room 206.  An eight-bed dorm, room 206 became the party room Friday night. The guest list: 1 American from LA, 1 guy from Finland, 2 girls of London, a guy from Germany and Brian and I.  We began the evening celebrations with a round of Kings. Like our previous experience, playing Kings with foreigners who are unfamiliar with the game is guaranteed to be heaps of fun.

An hour or so passed and we realized it was time to the hit the town.  Most bars close at 1230-1 am.  We went by a few options before splitting up with 206, Brian and I going to the Pig and Whistle. We are suckers for live music.  Following an intense jumping/dancing around session, we met up with our fellow 206 roomies at a karaoke bar. Brian and I sang our signature duet, "Cruisin". Not long after our tummies began to rumble and it was time.. Mickey D's time. In Rotorua, you're allowed to walk through the drive through. In New York, you need to be in a car. Thank Goodness, I think hitchhiking through the drive-thru is a hori move.

So there we were, a group of 7 backpackers, walking our way through the drive thru, blissfully imagining french fries, diet cokes and home comfort food at 230 in the morning when an angry "honk-honk" shoots us back to reality.  A group of four 19 year olds in a white car pull up behind us. The girlfriend of the guy driving is leaning over him honking the horn.  Shit is about to go down.

Now I (Brian) was in the back of our group with the other American and the kid from Finland as this was going down.  We laughed it off each time she honked and we told her to relax and calm down.  We weren't going any slower than we would have if we were in a car - late night fast food service just takes a while.  Everyone knows that!  I even took multiple people’s orders so we could go faster.  This impatient girl was still not having it.  She continued to honk and yell at us.  A group of kids who had already walked through in front of us and were enjoying their delicious McDonald's goodness informed us that they were from around the area and it was totally cool if we walked through the drive-thru.  They said not to worry about the car behind us, they were just being dumb.

We were about to pick up her food when the girls chimed in the "conversation" between the white car and us.  Before I knew it, this tiny pissed off girl was standing in front of Mai threatening to punch her, and I was standing right in between.  In true Long Island fashion, Mai responded as she put her stuff down, "Go ahead.  Punch me.  I'm in New Zealand and want to get the full experience.  Punch me."  As I observed this confrontation I thought, "Ok, I have two options.  If I can, I'll grab this girl's arm before she gets a chance to land a punch on Mai.  But if she does, I'm going to have to punch this girl.  I really don't want to punch a girl."  Before I knew it though, someone pushed someone else and all hell broke loose.  I kept the girl as far out of reach from any of us as possible and watched as the two UK girls we were with go at it with the girl's friends.  I looked up and saw that our American friend was in a chokehold by the boyfriend and the girlfriend was trying to hit him.  So Mai and I ran over to help and being that we are so intimidating, the kid dropped our friend.  Unfortunately he hit the back of his head on the concrete pretty hard and cut it open.  Mai tripped over him as we pushed the kids away and scraped her knee a bit.  By then, the girl and her boyfriend got back in the car and her two friends were confronting Mai.  I stood next to Mai as they talked, trying to make sure no other fights would happen.

As they argued about who started the fight, the friend said something about getting married.  Mai's attitude quickly changed as she exclaimed, "Wait.  You're getting MARRIED!?  How old are you?"  She's 19.  The girl spoke of her husband-to-be and how much she loved him and how her new dress was ripped, courtesy of Mai.  Mai: "Oh you can stitch that back up so quickly!  Don't worry!"  The girl asked why we were in Rotorua as she considers it a "shit-hole" (and it certainly smells like that from time to time).  So again, in true Long Island fashion, two girls who were at each other's throats bonded talking about love and marriage and literally hugged goodbye.  I stood there dumbfounded while finally enjoying my Big Mac.

In the end, we convinced our American friend to go to the hospital and get his head stitched up.  He was a good sport about it, cracking jokes to both the cops and the ambulance service, making us all laugh the whole time.  Mai had a small cut on her knee and the rest of us made out without a scratch to show.  Moral of the story: don't fuck with Long Islanders.

Meet the Maori... and the Kiwi Bird!

Mai got her haircut on Tuesday. ("I''m bald"- Mailynh) After peppering a bit on the field near Rotorua Lake (another location marked on the ball) we went to take a dip in the Polynesean Spa.  The pools here are heated naturally from the geothermal activity in the area.  All the geothermal attractions are what make Rotorua so cool, though along with geothermal activity comes the pundgent smell of sulfur.  Not the most pleasant of smells, but bearable nonetheless.  The next day was Mai's birthday!  Why don't you tell us about your day Mai Tai?

A sunny and hot day, the weather did not reflect my sour notions about the age of 23.  However, taking full advantage, Brian and I spent the afternoon peppering. We are cultivating our browness (yes moms, we are wearing sunscreen) and have been religiously following the old adage of, "suns out, guns out" (thanks for that D Fresh).  Post peppering, we went to a Maori Concert followed by a traditional Hangi and a Kiwi Bird excursion (THANKS MOM!).  According to numerous sources, Rotorua is the place to have a "cultural experience". Though highly commercialized, we could not pass up a buffet style hangi.  A hangi is the traditional Maori meal where the food (chicken, lamb, potatoes etc.)  is cooked in a pit in the ground.  The night began at 6 when we were shuttled from our hostel, Crank, and brought to the Mitai Maori Village.  Our Swedish roommates, Bryan and Flavio were with us as well.  We were brought into a tented area with tables set up like a banquet.  First up on the agenda was for the room full of foreigners to pick a chief who had to be a male and over the age of 25.  With Brian's enthusiasm, a Scottish man at our table was chosen as cheif. The people in the tent represented 14 nations.. there were some other Americans there but we never interacted with them.  

After petit hors devours (3 options, crackers with either a tomato sauce, a seaweed beat sauce or a sweet potato paste) we were directed toward a small river surrounded by ample greenery (palm trees, vines etc) to see the tribe's warriors paddle up in a waka (the traditional boat used during battle- it has a canoe shape but has wood carving designs). There was a mystical ambiance to the river area because of the foliage, the tribal humming emanating from hidden speakers and the natural thunder that started rolling in. Following this presentation, we were brought into a concert room just before the clouds burst open, releasing an ocean of rain on Rotorua. The show was interesting.  The Maoris did a few traditional dance and song performances intermixed with a weapons and a musical instruments "show-and-tell" style lesson.  After the show, we were escorted back to the banquet area where the feast ensued. Brian and my plates made it seem like we had been starving ourselves until that moment. Lamb, chicken, potatoes, stuffing, macaroni salad, garden salad, sweet potatoes, scalloped potatoes and some coleslaw all fit on huge dinner plate.  I have never seen Brian eat that much for a meal and then still have room for some chocolate log dessert and COFFEE!

Post meal and sheltered from the rain by ponchos and umbrellas we saw the glow worms.  Glow worms are maggots that glow and neon yellow/green in order to attract insects into a web.  They copulate for up to 23 hours and die immediately afterwards. There lives are short-lived but they sure look neat in groups around the walls. 

This part is the best part of the night: Rainbow Springs, Kiwi Bird Excursion. Kiwi birds are my new favorite animal! Not only are the nocturnal "birds" adorable,  they have nubbins for "wings" and thus they are unable to fly.  Kiwi females, while pregnant, the egg takes up 2/3 of the female's body, the equivalent of giving birth to a 35lb baby.  They are approximately a foot wide. After giving birth to a giant egg, the father incubates and hatches the egg. Once hatched, the Kiwi baby is left to fend for itself.  Kiwi Birds only live with their mate that they keep for life (living up to 80 years).  If their mate dies, they remain single for the rest of their lives. Kiwi birds are romantic and endangered.. you should probably go and adopt one :)  -- In Mai's wonderful description of the Kiwi birds, she forgot to mention that we SAW them at Rainbow Springs.  They walk kind of funny, as if they are falling forward all the time.  And the guy who works there can call one of them over, something that he taught the bird.  Pretty cute.

Bus To Rotorua & A Day Of Firsts

We left Kerikeri for Paihia on Saturday, and after relaxing on the beach there, caught a bus Sunday to Rotorua.  One nice thing about the bus (even an 8+ hour ride) is being able to appreciate the scenery.  The hills seemed to roll on forever (and hills are a big deal for two kids who grew up on Long Island) and were full of cows, sheep, horses, and even Alpacas!.  We decided that Happy Cows don't come from California, the ones here are way happier.  Also the ratio of number of people we've seen to number of sheep we've seen has tipped greatly in favor of the sheep.

Monday (the 25th) we got up early and tried to walk to the Blue and Green Lakes.  We walked first through the Redwood forest just south of town.  The trees were magestic and beautiful.  Apparently California Redwoods grow faster in Rotorua because of the sulfur in the soil.  We followed the trail for 5+ hours (mostly uphill, we're champs) toward the Blue Lake.  It took a lot of will and courage, but Mai finally conquered her fear... and peed outside for the first time since 3rd grade!  ("Props to me"- Mai) We finally made it all the way to the Blue Lake (only getting lost once) and were so joyus that the long walk was over that we changed into our bathing suits and... stood in the freezing cold lake with the water up to our knees.  Oh well. 

Any hope of seeing the Green Lake was quickly diminished by the dark clouds and loud thunder barreling our way... and the idea of more walking.  It came down to a choice between walking more than 5 hours back in a probable thunderstorm or braving the New Zealand hitchhiking scene.  We chose the latter and were remarkably successful.  With the help of a sign, we got picked up by a young couple (maybe 18 or 19 years old) and driven within a mile or two of our hostel.  How great!  It certainly gave us more faith in humanity or at least in this country.