Reporting from 50m below ground through 2000m above!

I love New Zealand :) Everyday brings about new adventures, new friends, new randomness - it's great!!

We spent a day in Rotorua - there are a lot of thermal springs there and it is the center of Maori Culture (the native people of New Zealand) The whole town smells of sulfur from the hot springs but besides that it's a neat place. We went to a Maori culture experience. We went to one of the villages and they performed a traditional meeting of two tribes, showed us around the village, performed traditional dances and prepared a huge hangi (feast). The food is cooked from hot rocks in a sort of underground stove.

We then headed to Waitomo! Along the way we saw a sheep shearing show - pretty fun, hick comedy. Upon arrival a few of us went on a walk and stumbled upon a random park that has motel rooms in old airplanes, planes and railcars and Billy Black, the owner, chatted with us. HE has the world record for sheep shearing - 675 in one day!!

The next morning I went on the Black Abyss! We got all done up in goofy wet suits, helmets, and boots and abseiled down a thin tunnel into a cave - we abseiled 40m! It was so cool and you really had to trust yourself. We spent three hours underground exploring the glow worms, rafting in the cave, climbing waterfalls, crawling through tiny holes, swimming, etc. It was an incredible, unique experience.

Then we headed to Lake Taupo! A lake filled with dolphins and big enough to fit all of Singapore! We woke up at sunrise and headed to Tongariro National Park and went on the Tongariro Crossing - it is voted on of the world's top 10 walks and with good reason! The walk takes about 8 hours and goes through volcanic ground - craters, volcanic rocks, some snow parts, beautiful mountains all around! A few of us went off the main path and climbed part of hte summit to the top of the Volcano - it was so steep and red and smokey - way cool! It was a tiring day though!

Now we are in River Valley! A quite little lodge surrounded by a few big cliffs - super peaceful and awesome! On the way today we went on a couple of walks and saw some gorgeous waterfalls and one 20 footer that we were able to jump off. And I'm proud to say I was one of 8 people who took part and the only gal :) It was definitely an extreme form of cliff jumping and I loved it!

Wow, it's amazing how quickly these entries get long! I know there are so many more things I'm missing but there is a general idea of how awesome this place is! I'm really glad to be here with Kiwi Experience too - the conversations with people from around the world are great, the random bus singalongs, silly inside jokes/experiences that we all share together is pretty neat!

Well, hugs to everyone! See you soon and I will try and update again soon too! We are off to Wellington tomorrow and then headed to the South Island!