There's a Day Between Us

OK. Hi! So yesterday was my two-week anniversary in New Zealand, which is, I think, a bit of a thing to be proud of because I'm all on my own. And I haven't run out of money! Although I also have not yet found a home. But I'm having an amazing time!!

I was in Auckland for a few days, and I'm going to say very little about that. Maybe more, in the future. But for now, not much. I met quite a few people and actually had a pretty great, crazy, fun time. But I'm not crazy about the city itself, so I booked myself on a Stray bus tour around the North Island. They were having a sale, so I just kind of went for it. The tour includes transportation around the island and a number of activities, but not housing or most food or a bunch of other stuff. But it's been great!

We first went to the Coromandel Peninsula, a town called Hahei. I went sea kayaking, which was pretty amazing. The Coromandel is actually possibly the most beautiful place I've seen yet, and as I'm saying this in Tongariro National Park, it means something. We kayaked all around the coast, through caves and into little coves. It was exhausting and amazing. We stopped at Cathedral Bay, which was where they shot part of the latest Chronicles of Narnia movie. Despite the dark clouds, it was still gorgeous. Definitely somewhere I could go back to. Then, after sea-kayaking through the beauty, we went to Hot Water Beach. Which is...what it sounds like. Well, no. Regular cold-water beach, but there's a bunch of geothermal activity all over this country, so there are places on the beach where if you dig a little hole at low tide, hot springs appear. So we....well, a bunch of us just stole someone else's already-made hole and sat in there until the tide kind of destroyed it. Then we went back and had a really great barbecue at the hostel. Left in the morning and headed down to Raglan, which is this surfing town that is really beautiful. I tried surfing and failed admirably. I got close to standing a few times! Well, sort of. It was fun, though! Despite terrifying waves and almost drowning many, many times. THEN the best part of the day. We drove back, and I'd gotten many promising texts from people in America and Americans in NZ (Raglan is so small that my New Zealand mobile didn't get service, except a little bit on the beach. So I didn't get everyone's texts). But we piled out of the van and I heard John McCain's voice, so I ran upstairs to watch his concession in the TV room on CNN. It was amazing, you guys. Then I took a shower and a break from the festivities and came back just in time for Barack Obama's (sorry, PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA'S) speech. There was cheering (everyone) and crying (me....and Oprah!) and drinking (not me, but just about everyone else) and general merriment. I had some great conversations. Meeting people on this trip is incredible.

So after some awesome times, I went to bed and got up for an 8am departure. To Waitomo! Where I opted for the dry option so far as caving in Waitomo went, because it's been chilly and so many activities involve getting soaked here. So I went on the Spellbound tour, which involved a drive through the beautiful Waitomo area, and then a short walk, and then a boat ride. Have you seen the Caves episode of Planet Earth? With the glowworms? I saw those! They were amazing! You go in and they wait for your eyes to adjust, and then you hop on this boat and as soon as your eyes adjust, there are just millions of them all over the cave ceiling. It's incredible. Then we came back and had some coffee and biscuits and then walked to another cave. This one we walked through. There were some glowworms, but mostly we just got to look through this cave. It was so awesome. It might've been my favorite day (it's entirely possible that they ALL might be my favorite day). Oh! Because then we hopped back on the bus and went to Maketu for our cultural night. We stayed in a Marae, which is a Maori meeting house. We had a traditional hangi, which is a meal cooked in the ground over hot coals and wet flax. Then the boys learned how to do the haka, a Maori dance. And the girls learned to spin poi. Which was so cool - finally getting the poi to spin the way I wanted to was possibly one of the proudest moment of my life. And then some people hung out for a while, and then we all slept on the floor of the Marae. Really, really fun.

Next day! We went through Rotorua, where I didn't really do anything (other than snag a copy of Thursday's New Zealand Herald from our delicious lunch stop because it had this HUGE Obama picture on the front and "YES WE CAN" in giant letters), to Taupo, where I....didn't really do anything. Oh, wait, no! Along the way we stopped at this park with a bunch of awesome geothermal activity. The mud bubbles up all over. It smells awful, but it's really cool. Our driver pulled some mud out for us to put on our faces if we like (which I, naturally, did). Then we hopped back on the bus (thank god the Irish girls were also up for the face mask, or else this bus ride would've been weird for me) and went to these hot springs that feed into a stream, so that the water is bearable. And some people went for a swim, but I just waded in and washed my little mud mask off. It was so warm, though! Then we went to Taupo, where I wandered around a bit. It was freezing, but it's a really nice city. And completely surrounded by mountains. Crazy. Then we stayed up late chatting in the bar. And our hostel only charged a little more per person for a room with an en suite bathroom, so 3 of the British girls and I went in and got one. We were living large! I took a shower, and it was just our bathroom! Awesome! We left late the next day for Tongariro, since heavy snowfall meant it was too dangerous to do the Tongariro Crossing unguided. We wound up having a fantastic day, though! First of all, by this time there were only like 15 of us on the bus, all girls. We went out of Taupo to a spot where you got this incredible view of Tongariro National Park and its volcanoes (Tongariro, Ruapehu, and Ngauruhoe - better known to most people as Mt. Doom). And our bus broke down momentarily, so that was funny. Then we went to another geothermal park and made our own hangi. This one was even cooler, though, because instead of using coals and steam to cook the food, we used the natural heat of the ground in the park. SO AMAZING. AND DELICIOUS. It was really, really cool. We came there, wrapped up food in tin foil, stuck it in the pit in the ground, covered it, and went for a walk while it cooked. Came back and ate! Delicious! And then we went to Tongariro National Park and walked around a bit. Saw some beautiful waterfalls and our bus driver taught us to weave flax into flowers. I'll make flax flowers for anyone who visits me!

Then we got into our gorgeous hostel at Tongariro National Park. We have an incredible view, and soft, soft beds and pillows. There're 2 fireplaces and a large-screen TV I'm currently watching Wedding Crashers on. And a great bar. And internet! And a lovely cafe. And a deal where if you buy 2 nights, you get the third free....so I'm booked for 3 nights. Last night I said goodbye to many really amazing people I've met on the trip (although 4 other girls stuck around), which was sad. And today we did the Tongariro Crossing! Which was one of the most incredibly experiences of my life, but that will be another entry, as I want to post this (finally!) and send out an e-mail to all of you. I miss you all very, very much!!