Redwood Forest, Ziplining in Rotorua, and a Maori Feast for Thanksgiving (Pictures Included)

    11/28/13

    Two days ago we arrived in Rotorua, where we checked in to a hostel called Crash Palace.  We got off to an awesome start in Rotorua; as soon as we pulled up outside, our buddy Tilman who we met in Raglan came running out with a big smile on his face to say hi to us and fill us in on everything we needed to do while we were here.  What's more, as soon as we walked in, our good friend Max (who is the hobbit Pippin in our own little fellowship) was sitting on the couch in the lounge, and equally excited that we had just happened upon the same hostel he was staying in.  And even better yet, the room the desk had reserved for us was the very room Max was staying in; a four bed suite.  But I get a bit ahead of myself...on our way in to Rotorua, we stopped by an attraction that looked interesting to us, which was called a thermal walk.  It featured footpaths carved through New Zealand forest, winding around hot vents in the ground with huge amounts of steam rising up through the earth on all sides and bubbling mud pits dispersed throughout.  The whole place smelled like sulphur, but that was a minor price to pay.  Also, the venue that was offering the thermal walk featured lots of really cool animals, including some gorgeous peacocks.

    As soon as we got in to Rotorua, Max was determined to play the part of tour guide and he took us around on a really nice walk around a big lake with more steaming vents and through the town, where we stopped at an Irish pub for some shepherd's pies and pints, in the spirit of being Hobbits.  Oh, and another thing...I finally remembered to take some pictures of the hostel we're in now, so as to give you guys an idea of what those are like.  This isn't the coolest one we've stayed at, but I think it provides a pretty accurate representation for what a typical hostel is like.

There's also a nice lounge with leather sofas, a free pool table, and even a massage chair, but I just feel weird taking pictures of it because there's always people sitting in there, and our bedroom is fairly basic with a couple closets and four twin beds.  So, now that that's done, back to the daily activities we've been up to...this morning right after we woke up, we went for a hike through an awesome redwood forest with a really sweet Austrian girl we met the day before named Judith.  The redwoods were beautiful, and extraordinarily tall, with dense vegetation around them in spots and also some little ponds with the most crystal clear water I think I've ever seen.

After the redwood forest, Kellogg, Max and I went to do some ziplining through another New Zealand jungle, which was actually rated the number one attraction on all of the north island.  The ziplines were amazing; there weren't too many of them, but some were as long as 700 feet from end to end and we often found ourselves gliding over treetops that were about 60 feet below us.  Whenever that wasn't the case, we were zipping through the dense forest with trees on all sides, and I've never felt more like a monkey in my life.  On the last couple lines, we got to go upside down, which was a pretty awesome time, and Kellogg recorded some great GoPro videos that I'm sure you'll be able to find on facebook soon.
    Right after we got done ziplining, we had to rush back to the hostel to meet up with Dardan and Luise, who had just finished their first WWOOFing gig on a farm near Raglan, and we all shot over to the Tamaki Maori village just in time for an awesome Maori tribal ceremony and barbecue feast, which we found to be quite appropriate for a Thanksgiving in New Zealand (they even served a bunch of stuffing there, though they were oblivious to the fact that it was Thanksgiving for us).  I forgot to take my camera with me to the feast because it was charging (which I am very sorry about), but it truly was a remarkable experience, including an education on typical Maori tattooing, weaving, dancing, and military training practices, a tour through their whole village, as well as instruction on how to dance the famous Haka and an awe-inspiring Maori performance of all the above to show us just how far we had to go before we were as dextrous and nimble as the native people are themselves.  The feast was just as good as the cultural experience, offering all you can eat chicken, fish, beef, kumara, and potatoes, all cooked in the Maori fire pits, as well as a host of other things, like stuffing, cole slaw, potato salad, and local cakes, pies, and puddings served with cream and custard for dessert.  Though I'd be hard pressed to say we could dance or fight like Maoris after our limited instruction, we certainly ate like them tonight.
    We've got another full agenda planned out for tomorrow, starting out in the morning with zorbing (rolling down the New Zealand hillside in what essentially amounts to a giant hamster ball that you're strapped in to) and then going to pet some lion cubs after that, which really has nothing to do with New Zealand but is at the same time something that just sounds too good to pass up.  I mean, who among us hasn't always dreamed of spending an afternoon kickin' it old school with the likes of Simba and Nala?  After we're done with that, Simon, Kellogg, Dardan, Luise and I are all heading south to the Bay of Plenty, where we'll spend three or four days, on our way down further south to the town of Gisborne, where we have our next WWOOFing gig lined up.  The farm we're bound for sounds really awesome, with thousands of acres of land, seven or eight ATV's, and over twelve WWOOFers at any given time.  Once we're done there, we'll be headed back up north for a bit to Graham and Michelle's farm for Christmas, and then Coromandel where we'll stay with their son James and his fiancée Danica to celebrate New Years.  I'm sure I'll write again before that, though, probably more than once, and I'll try not to forget to take my camera to anything worth photographing.  Thanks again as always for reading, everybody, and I'll keep you all posted as our adventure progresses!

Praying I don't get mauled by a lion tomorrow,
Jack

Glowworms, Mordor, and Mt. Doom (With Pictures)

    11/27/13

    On our last day in Raglan, we decided to climb this big, awesome looking mountain that we could see from our hostel each day called the Sleeping Lady.  It was right across the water from us, and it looked like it was sure to be a really great hike.  Here's the view of it from our hostel porch:

We met up with our friends Dardan and Luise in the morning and together we all climbed up from the right side, starting near the famous Raglan surf beach.  As we worked our way up the narrow dirt trail, we quickly discovered that we were right, it was surely going to be a great hike.  Though it was quite steep, the lush forest we were making our way through and the breathtaking views from the top of the mountain were well worth breaking a sweat for.  Here you can see the path that we were climbing up on:

As we neared the top of the mountain, the trail got much steeper and more treacherous.  Eventually, we were met with vertical rock faces that we needed to climb up, with no more assistance than a few chains that were bolted into the side of the rock.  At this part of the climb, possibly because of all the shade provided by the trees that were surrounding us, all of the rocks we were climbing were totally covered with mud.  This made them very slippery, and we all lost our footing more than a few times.  It was all very well worth it, though, once we reached the top, and were met with this spectacular view of the rolling hills and Raglan below:

After our descent, we said goodbye to Dardan and Luise until we next would see them, and Simon, Kellogg and I piled into the car and headed for Waitomo, the home of the black water rafting caves that are famous for being full of glow worms.  On our way to the caves, we stopped in to this aviary called the Kiwi House, hoping to finally see some native Kiwi birds.  We did, and they were really funny things to see in the flesh; they're incredibly plump with ridiculously stubby wings and a long skinny beak, and they waddle around much like penguins, jabbing their beaks into the ground to look for food and pass the time.  We were also able to see a lot of other really special birds at the Kiwi House, like Kingfishers and vibrantly colored parakeets, as well as a Tuatara, which is the last surviving dinosaur that remains unevolved.  

    After our visit to the Kiwi House, we continued on into Waitomo, where we stopped to visit the black water rafting and glowworm caves.  The caves were pretty cool; their interiors were made up almost entirely of limestone, which was full of ancient fossils from when the ocean filled them, and there were glow worms around almost every turn.  They were really hard to get a good photo of, but here's the best one I could manage:

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the darkest parts of the caves where the glowworms were the most concentrated, so I apologize for that.

    We didn't spend the night in Waitomo, as it was an incredibly small town, but instead we headed for Turangi, which allows the best access to Mordor and Mt. Doom.  We also found a hostel that had really good reviews for just 18 dollars a night there, which we were really excited about.  It did turn out to be an amazing hostel, full, once again, of really friendly people and totally covered with really well done artistic renderings of pop-culture icons like the Lord of the Rings Fellowship, Gollum with his precious, Timon, Pumba, and Simba, and even the Simpsons.  From our hostel, Simon and I set out for the famous Turangi mountain crossing, which essentially goes right through Mordor and passes by Mt. Doom after about a seven kilometer walk.  Mordor looked almost exactly like it did in the films, with no trees, grass, or animals anywhere, and for the first time since we've been in New Zealand we couldn't hear the jubilant chirp chirping of a a single bird.  Mt. Doom was a truly intimidating sight; it was incredibly steep, with no hiking trails up it whatsoever, and the entire thing was covered in rocks, which we soon found were really sharp.  From the crossing path, Mt. Doom looks like this:

 The climb up the mountain was so steep that we literally had to crawl up on all fours the entire way, using both our hands and both our feet at all times so as to negotiate the rocky terrain without losing our balance or our footing and tumbling all the way back down the mountain, which would surely end in a split skull on a jagged rock and instant death, since there is nothing else to break your fall.  The rocks would also slide out from under your feet with every step, which made the progress up the mountain even slower as you would slide back down two or three inches for every five or six inches you stepped up.  This also caused frequent rockslides, and you had to be ever alert of climbers up ahead who were similarly always sending streams of rocks tumbling down the mountain towards you.  As we neared the top, we caught sight of numerous big patches of snow, despite the fact that it's the middle of summer here, right next to a steaming vent in the mountain where smoke is ever rising up from the molten lava below.  The snow made the climbing slippery, but it was only a short way from there until we reached the summit.  There, we were greeted with the most awe-inspiring view of New Zealand country that we have yet seen:

We had climbed so high that we were literally in the clouds.

    The descent back down Mt. Doom was really crazy; the only thing I can liken it to is skiing down rocks, with no skis.  We slid literally the entire way, and we each fell back on our butts at least 30 times as the rocks continued to slide out from under us, followed quickly by our legs.  Climbing Mt. Doom was certainly one of the toughest things I've ever done, and though I'm glad to have done it once, I definitely won't be doing it again.

    We've just left our hostel in Turangi this morning, and I'm sitting in the public library writing this post before we head out of town and make for Rotorua.  Rotorua is the Maori capital of New Zealand, and we're planning on partaking in a Maori feast there, as well as seeing some more glowworms, practicing the Haka, and maybe even visiting a big geyser that we've heard a lot about.  I'll of course update the blog with those experiences after we've had them, and I'll do my best to keep them all documented via photos as well.  Thanks a lot for reading, everyone, and feel free to drop me a facebook message any time...it's always great to hear from back home.  Kia ora!

This is Jack Wright, signing off from the adventure capital of the world

Pictures!!