Kia Orana: Adventures in Rarotonga (Part I)

Helloooooo friends! It has been quite awhile (as my mother so lovingly reminds me). I am back in the swing of classes in Christchurch, although still recovering from three solid weeks of travel. This post will recap my incredible week in Rarotonga, which is the largest of the fifteen Cook Islands. It might get insanely long, in which case I'll split it into two posts. Either way, I promise lots of pictures.

We woke up around 5:00am on April 12th in order to make it to the airport to meet up with Eunice and the rest of the IES-ers by 7:30. This was a struggle for me, as I am usually a dragon until about 10:00. However, I was rewarded with a breathtaking sunrise (one of the few I've been awake to witness in my life), which made everything more than worth it.

Auckland was just showing off by this point.

After meeting up with everyone (which was so great), we settled in for the four hour flight to Rarotonga. It went relatively smoothly, and we arrived in the afternoon without a hitch. Immediately upon arrival, we all started sweating bullets, because it was 80+ degrees! This was a welcome problem, however. We met our drivers/sort of hosts for the week, Tena and No'o (married, their daughter Emily helped also), who were super friendly, and piled into the vans to head to our accommodation. Sam and I were lucky enough to snag a two person room, which was divine after two weeks in cramped hostels and such. After settling in for about two seconds, we hopped back in the vans for our first activity--a drive around Raro. As the island is only about 33km around (approximately 20 miles), this didn't take long at all. But Eunice (who has made this trip fourteen times) pointed out a lot of different things, and it helped me feel more oriented to the island. We then had a delicious dinner at a resort, and it was a FREE BUFFET. Oh man. I'm not sure I've ever eaten that much in my life. We had delicious local fish, fruit, and banana and pecan cake with hot caramel for dessert. Y-U-M.

The next day was the busiest one. We began by heading to the Punanga Nui Market, which was hoppin'. They had crafts, fruit, clothes, countless black pearl stands (the Cooks are famous for them), etc. It was awesome to walk around and take everything in. It was also a scorcher, so I splurged on a fresh smoothie--which was, of course, delicious. I bought a string bracelet to add to my collection (because I really don't have enough), a Raro tshirt (which I proceeded to cut into a tank top), and a beautiful 100 Way Skirt, which will be pictured later on!

The market was a really interesting mix of locals and tourists. You could tell it was a staple of the community. I really enjoyed people watching as much as anything else.

Ian lurks next to the shaved ice stand. If I'm not mistaken, he enjoyed two of them while we were there.

Beautiful handwoven headpieces, called Nuie, for sale. We learned how to make these later in the day, but they were much uglier.

There are puppies EVERYWHERE on the island. I mean, it makes sense--it's not like they're going to get lost. The amazing thing is that they're all really clean. Tena said all the males are required by law to get neutered, so they have a really good system of controlling the population. This guy became my buddy at the market! I MISS BERT.

After the market, we walked over to the harbour, where two traditional (well, mostly) Maori wakas were getting ready to depart for New Zealand. 

So these wakas (canoes) are models of traditional ones. The pontoons are fiberglass, but they used to be made out of hollowed out trees. 

These are used for traditional voyages, meaning that they use old school navigation techniques (stars, migratory birds, wave patterns)--no modern GPS. I had just learned about this in my Maori history class, so it was really awesome to listen to the guys talk about their trips/see the wakas in person.

It was only about noon by this point (that goes to show you how early our mornings were!), so we still had plenty of programming left in the day. We piled in the vans and headed out to do some traditional Maori crafts, dancing and such. A lovely lady named Nan showed us how to dye sarongs, which was really cool. After that, the boys were dragged off to learn a traditional Maori dance (they are gender specific) while the girls learned how to weave Nuies. This is done using the leaves from a coconut tree (kiko), and is sort of like french braiding...except it's a lot harder. Thank you, mom, for teaching me how to french braid, because I definitely had an advantage over some of the other girls. We also wove our dinner plates out of kiko, which was super cool. 

Beautiful sarongs! Mine is the red and yellow one third from the right--a sunburst pattern. Thanks, camp knowledge!

All of the girls with our Nuies! We didn't get pretty flowers to work with...but they still turned out alright.

ALSO. Tena's daughter, Emily, has a daughter--this gorgeous little angel, Hina Anii. She is eight months old and I want to squish her. JUST LOOK AT THAT FAAAAAACE. (I love babies, can you tell?)

After the crafts, it was our turn to learn to dance. This was really fun, but surprisingly difficult. Pacific Island women can move their hips in ways that I will never understand.

Following the indoor activities, we headed out with No'o to learn about taro planting and coconut husking. It started raining, so we ended up kind of speeding through this part, but it was still really interesting. Most of the families on the island have enough land to grow their own food on. No'o, despite having a seemingly small taro patch, had enough to feed his family for a year. Pretty cool. He showed us how they plant it and take care of it before taking us over to the coconut trees. He then pulled out a MACHETE and hacked open a bunch of raw coconuts for us so we could drink the juice. It was soooo fresh and delicious, unlike anything I've ever tasted. Then, No'o had one of his nephews show us how they harvest the coconuts. This involved him CLIMBING A COCONUT TREE. I don't think I've ever held my breath for so long in my life. But he shimmied right up there and started kicking coconuts down for his little brothers to collect. It was crazy.

Not the best picture, but this shows the insanity of the tree climb. I talked to him after he climbed down and he was like "No worries, I've done it heaps of times." OKAY, BRO, SORRY WE DON'T CLIMB COCONUT TREES IN KANSAS.

Then we learned how to husk them, which is super difficult. You basically pound it on a spear in the ground and peel the outside so that you can get the brown thing we know as a coconut. Then you crack it on a rock. Mind blowing.

After we were all super impressed by No'o and his family, we headed back to our accommodation to get cleaned up for dinner (this is still the same day. Crazy, huh?). We donned our sarongs and brought our kiko leaf plates to a traditional Maori feast (similar to the luau I went to in Maui, except just for us!), which was DELICIOUS. They cooked all of the food in a sort of underground oven called a hangi, which is essentially really hot rocks sealed in with layers of kiko. We had roast pork, chicken, taro, purple kumara, all kinds of fresh fruit (bananas, star fruit, watermelon, pawpaw [what they call papaya], guava...), among other things. It was some of the best food I've ever eaten. After the dinner, a lot of the local kids performed traditional dances for us, which was really great. Then we had to perform our dance for them, which was thoroughly embarrassing, but still really fun.

Gusties in our sarongs! Plus Hayden.

My awesome plate and my delicious meal. YUM.

The older girls dancing for us. They were really, really great.

The little girls dancing for us. They were so stinking cute. The one second from the right couldn't shake her hips, so she just sort of wiggled around. It was hilarious.

Our bellies full and our eyes drooping, we headed back to the hotel and crashed. But first I had to stop at a local convenient store to buy new jandals (flip flops) because mine vanished at the dinner. But oh well.

This post is already crazy long and I'm only on day two, so I am making the executive decision to stop for now.

Fun Facts/Updates:

-"Kia Orana," found in the title of this post, literally means "May you live long," and is the traditional greeting in the Cooks. In New Zealand, we say "Kia Ora," which means essentially the same thing. Just shows one of the differences between New Zealand and Cook Island Maori.

-It is now Fall here in Christchurch! It's in the 40-50 degree range and it's been raining a lot since we got back. It was a bit of a shock after being spoiled with 80+ days for a week in Raro. But the leaves are changing and it's quite lovely!

-My dear friend Leah sent me the best mail I have ever received, and I just got it yesterday. I tore it open only to find my Gustavus Choir fleece, pictures from choir tour, a wonderful card, and a grow your own saguaro cactus. I bawled and have been wearing the fleece ever since. Further proof that Leah is the best person I know. Also the first to send me anything. Get on it, family!!

-While in Rarotonga, along with some of the greatest and coolest experiences of my life, I had my first ever run in with fire ants. Holy Guacamole, those things are agents of the devil. You don't even feel them until they're all over you. And they don't bite, they inject you with a tiny bit of poison. SWELL. My feet got covered in them once, and they all attacked at the same time. It was all I could do to keep from screaming out profanity. And then my feet burned like the fires of Mordor for the rest of the day. DARN YOU, FIRE ANTS! 

-Only 26 days until I meet Aunt Susan in Sydney, and only 31 until Mark and Nancy arrive! 

Stay tuned for part two of my adventures in Raro which, among other things, will include snorkeling, painfully beautiful beach pictures, local beer, and my epic loss at mini golf.

Cheers!

Honkey Donk: Adventure is Out (Under) There!

Hello, my dearest friends. I am sitting on the beautiful balcony of our house in Auckland overlooking the water as I write this, which I must say is blog writing at its finest. It's a beautiful, sunny morning and I am thoroughly enjoying basking in it.

The past few days have been a whirlwind. I will start with one of the coolest things I have ever done: my exploration into the Waitomo Caves.

Prior to my departure from the good ol' US of A, I had researched these caves, and moved touring them up to the top of my New Zealand "To Do" list. Needless to say, I could barely sleep the night before (also partially due to the fact that we had toured the Shire the day before, which I am still reeling from). Anyway, we woke up a bit early the morning of the 9th and drove about two hours from Rotorua to Waitomo. It's a dinky little town, built solely because of the tourism surrounding the caves. We arrived at the main offices of the Blackwater Rafting company right on time, which is when my excitement really started to build. There were awesome pictures of the caving tours everywhere, and I couldn't wait to get started. We were led outside by our guides, Alex and Pirate (his real name, a good sign), to get geared up. This involved full body wetsuits, socks, "goofy boots," and helmets with heavy duty headlamps on them. It was about this point that I became very confident that I was going to have a good time.

This is our whole group just before we entered the caves. A bit further along than my story, but you can see how fabulous we looked in our wetsuits. Note: I had never worn a wetsuit before. They are heavy, constricting, and extremely difficult to put on. I felt like a penguin (and probably walked like one too).

Anyway, once we struggled into our gear, we hopped into a van and drove out to the actual cave site. We were greeted by a giant pile of heavy duty inner tubes. Pirate then explained to us that we had to find one big enough to sit in comfortably, and that the best way to do this was to "be honest with ourselves." Hilarious. So we all walked around like idiots for about ten minutes, partially sitting in tubes and asking people to look at our butts to make sure it fit right.

In case you are unable to identify me merely by staring at my hindquarters (which is just fine, might I add), I am directly in the middle, left of the giant tube.

Once we had been honest with ourselves and secured our tubes, Alex suddenly dropped us with "Okay, so you all know that the main part of this tour is jumping off of waterfalls, right?" Silence. Elise piped in with "We do now!" So then we practiced the technique of jumping off of underground waterfalls. I assumed this would be similar to cliff jumping, and we would just jump holding our tubes and figure it out at the bottom. But oh no. This technique instead involves standing on the edge, turning around, holding your tube tight to your butt and throwing yourself backwards. Naturally. We practiced this on a dinky little dock, and it was hilarious. 

My ravishing expression as I landed into the practice pool. That water was coooold!

Anyway, after the suicide practice was over, we finally headed off for our descent into the caves. The tour we chose, called the Black Labyrinth Tour, took us into Ruakuri cave, which means two dogs (of course). Alex told us the story of how the cave received its name, which involved the death of a Maori chief, and told us to beware of an invisible icy hand on our shoulder. Comforting. We then finally made our way into the cave, and it was SO. COOL. We crawled, ducked, trudged, and tubed through, stopping periodically to learn more facts about what we were seeing from our guides (we also made two waterfall jumps, which were only mildly terrifying. They weren't tall, but you had to jump completely blind, so that's what made it frightening). As we went, we began to see small clusters of glow worms, which was incredible. They looked like little tiny stars dotting the ceiling. Alex then told us that the worms were actually maggots, and that the glowing part is actually their feces. So, in summary: I paid $100 to crawl through a tunnel of glowing maggot shit. Yes, I had this realization. BUT. It was incredible. No regrets. My favorite part of the experience was in the middle, when we shut all of our lamps off, and floated through this giant part of the cave. This was where we saw the most glow worms; there were hundreds of them grouped up on the ceiling of the cave, and I was able to just lay back and take it all in. There are no pictures of this moment, but that's probably for the best, because no picture could do it justice. It was so magical, and I am so happy to have experienced it.

We paused for a teaching moment.

The view from...WITHINNNN! Lolz. Also all of these photos were taken by our guides, because we couldn't bring cameras into the cave with us. A shameless ploy to make us pay for photos, but also nice because then I could just focus on the experience.

We made it out alive!

After the caving adventure of a lifetime, we were all pretty wiped. We drove to New Plymouth, to sort of reset for the next day, which involved visiting Mount Taranaki, a large volcano on the North Island. We had a lovely day for it (as we've had for pretty much everything), and were able to do a short hike to a viewing spot to snap a few photos before the long haul drive to Auckland.

The "Goblin Forest" that we hiked through. I am not making that up, that is what the guide said. Sadly, I did not spot any goblins.

Mount Taranaki! Officially on the Bucket List: Climb to the top of this baby. I can't even imagine the views!

We've been in Auckland for the past two days, and it's been a much needed change of pace. We're at the point in the trip where everyone is starting to wear on each other (understandably), so that's been a bit difficult. Yesterday, everyone wanted to go shopping downtown, so I was able to snag some alone time at our beautiful house. I soaked up some rays, went for a stroll along the beach, and, most importantly, was able to talk to some wonderful family and friends from back home. I am always so thankful for the perspective, laughs, and support that those conversations give me, so it was awesome to have three in one day!

The amazing view from the deck of our house. 

I feel like P. Diddy.

Life is a beautiful thing.

The capper on the day was that we were graced with the most stunning rainbow I have ever seen. I love rainbows. They are totally a sign that good things are coming. It made me very, very happy to see it arching over the Auckland water.

So hard to capture on film, but the rainbow was so bright--and it even turned into a double rainbow after awhile!

Love.

Fun Facts/Updates: 

-Alex taught us what Waitomo means! "Wai" means water, and "Tomo" means hole in the ground. Hence: Waitomo caves.

-We watched Argo last night, and it was SO GOOD. Highly recommend it if you have yet to see it. However, we were all a little distracted, and one person asked questions through the whole thing, so I am anxious to watch it again when I get home.

-Only 37 days until I meet my Aunt Susan in Sydney, and only 42 days until Mark and Nancy arrive in Christchurch. I CAN'T WAIT!

-Tomorrow we leave for our IES fieldtrip to Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. I'm super excited. It promises to be hot (Hawaii style), and, best of all, it is ALREADY PAID FOR. Anything free is like a gift from heaven at this point. However, I won't have internet, so get ready for a super long summary of the week when I get back to Christchurch!

Cheers!

Honkey Donk: There and Back Again

HELLOOOOOOOO AMERICA! I am a bit behind on my blogging, so I will get right to it.

We spent the last two days (before today) in Wellington, which is the capital of New Zealand. It was a really lively city, and I couldn't get over the juxtaposition of the super urban and super coastal portions of it. Our hostel was ranked #10 in the country, so that was a random perk. We had a really nice stay, and it felt good to be in one place for two days.

The first day we just kind of explored downtown. We found a pretty cool street fair/market where they had a bunch of ethnic food stands and such. I got a prawn dumpling and a dark chocolate and banana crepe, both delicious. Then we went back to the hostel for some down time. Sasha, John, and Elise decided to take advantage of the Wellington night life, while Sam, Thomas, and I opted for some extra rest. The first night we had this awesome 60 year old Aussie named Harley in our dorm, and we chatted for like two hours. He had awesome stories, and some pretty good advice about things to do/see while I am in Sydney! Also he told us that Aussies don't open their mouths when they talk because it keeps the "mossies" (mosquitoes) out. Hilarious. Old(er) people are the best.

The next day we went to a cool vintage clothing market, where I found a sweater and a New Zealand Pan Am stewardess bag! Both were really cheap and I'm pretty stoked about them. We all found some cool stuff; thrifting is definitely one of our new favorite pastimes. After the market we went to Te Papa, which is the national museum of NZ. It's really, really well done. We spent a lot of time there, and I definitely recommend it to anyone visiting! It incorporated pretty much every aspect of New Zealand: fossils, tectonic activity, Maori history, vegetation, etc. The best part was that we got to see the giant squid!

The largest giant squid ever found--this guy's eyes are the size of soccer balls. 

Also, outside the museum we happened to witness a spontaneous pillow fight. I have no idea where these people came from or what the purpose of said fight was, but it was entertaining to watch nonetheless. I especially enjoyed the pink footie pajamas.

Cities.

I didn't take many pics in Welly, but here's a nice one of the waterfront near the museum.

Okay, I'm dying to talk about the next part of the trip, so I'm going to move on. We drove to Rotorua yesterday (yet another stunning drive, shocker) and checked into our hostel (which has a climbing gym attached, how cool is that?). We explored the town a little bit, hit the supermarket, and then came back to get a good night's rest for....our tour of the Shire!!!!!! I cannot even express how excited I was for this day to come. We drove to Matamata, hopped on a bus, and found ourselves in a magical, magical place.

Hobbiton is actually the only movie set in the world that has been left in tact for tourism purposes. The original Lord of the Rings set was built on a temporary basis and destroyed after filming, but they completely rebuilt an identical set (plus a few extra Hobbit holes) for the filming of The Hobbit. There are now 42 complete Hobbit Holes, and they also just finished construction on the Green Dragon, which is a functioning pub! Our tour guide was really friendly and great, and it was SO AMAZING being in the Shire. I was in total shock and awe the whole time. 

The first Hobbit Hole! This is seen in The Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf first arrives in Hobbiton.

We were lucky with yet another beautiful day--mid sixties and sunny. Perfect for hobbits :)

Band End, aka Bilbo and Frodo's house. I thought I was going to cry (I didn't).

The mill/looking back at Hobbiton

The bridge!

Even Hobbits have to hang their clothes out to dry!

For posterity's sake--I am clearly a tad tall for Hobbiton.

The gang enjoying our free Hobbit cider at the Green Dragon! There is a brewery that makes two types of ale and one of cider specifically to be served at the Green Dragon. You can't buy it anywhere in the world (including there). Pretty cool, and also yummy!

I am still processing that I visited the Shire today. It was seriously one of my dreams come true. I really wanted my family to be there though, because I know my sister and mom would have been pooping their pants right along with me. It was certainly an experience I will never, ever forget.

Tomorrow we leave for our tour of the Waitomo glow worm caves, which is another thing that I cannot wait to do. Two of my top things I wanted to do while in NZ just happen to be back to back. I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

Fun Facts/Updates:

-All six movies (LOTR and The Hobbit trilogy) are filmed in 138 spots all over New Zealand. 

-Peter Jackson is a super perfectionist. For example, in the books, Tolkien mentions that hobbits like to eat plums, so Jackson insisted that plum trees be planted throughout the Shire. However, when the trees matured, Jackson decided that he wasn't satisfied with the look of them, so he naturally had them ripped out and replaced with apple trees. When it came time to film, the crew stripped the trees of all their leaves and apples, and later added artificial leaves and plums to the bare trees. Also, although there are sheep in the films, none of them are actually New Zealand sheep. Instead, Jackson had English Suffolk sheep brought in, because they more accurately fit the description in the books (black faces, black feet, which the NZ Romney sheep do not have). I find this hilarious.

-You can have weddings at the Shire. Get ready.

-This week, our rental car is a hideous lime green and purple mini van, which we have appropriately named "Barney." It's awful and I feel like a tool driving it. But it was super cheap so...c'est la vie.

I can't wait to post about the caves tomorrow.

Cheers!

Honkey Donk: To Middle Earth and Beyond

Fair warning: this has to be a speed post because we are leaving soon for the airport! But I figured that while I still have free wifi I should take advantage. So here goes.

We've been in Queenstown for the past two days, staying in this darling refurbished barn on a B&B property. It's been SO nice to have a "home" to return to for multiple nights in a row, and we've taken advantage by cooking family dinners, feeding the sheep, spending some quality time, and clocking lots of hours in the hot tub (man, I'm gonna miss that thing).

Two days ago was bungy day. However, I'll stop you in your tracks: I didn't jump. I got out onto the platform and completely FREAKED OUT. I have never been more terrified in my entire life. No one is more surprised than me that I wasn't able to actually go through with it. But. I actually learned a lot about myself in this whole not jumping process. 1. I like to be in control of my surroundings. Throwing myself off of a bridge only to plummet 141 feet and maybe die was clearly too far out of my control. 2. I can love adrenaline rushes and be fearless without doing every "crazy" thing there is for those types to do. I had kind of built up in my head that I would love this, because I am sort of wild, but it's really not for everyone. And that's okay. I want to be fearless in the things that I choose to do, but that doesn't mean I have to do everything. This may make sense in my head more than in my poor articulation of it, but this is a speed post after all. Anyway, John jumped, and it was great to watch him!

As close as I got to jumping. I went up there to the edge three separate times, but I just couldn't do it. Oh well! Live and learn.

Yesterday was an AMAZING day. We drove to Glenorchy, which is about 45 minutes outside of Queenstown. It's tiny, and easily in the top two most beautiful places I've been in NZ so far. The Routeburn Track ends there, and some of Lord of the Rings was filmed there. The mountains were so beautiful, and the whole drive is right along Lake Wakatipu, which is insanely gorgeous. We just kept pulling over to take photos, because the view kept getting better and better.

It was totally Middle Earth. Definitely the most Lord of the Rings-y New Zealand has felt so far. We hiked through the woods where Boramir is killed by orcs in the first movie, saw the river where Arwen washes away the Raiths while rushing Frodo to Rivendell ("If you want him, COME AND CLAIM HIM!"), and obviously saw all of the Misty Mountains, which are the basis of Isengard. So it was pretty darn cool.

Arwen's River, about a two hour hike along the Routeburn Track. Not the exact spot where it happened or anything, but one can imagine...

Misty Mountains

Amazing light on the drive home!

Elise decided to take a Lord of the Rings horse tour through the area, which was one of her number one things to do in New Zealand. So we got to go to the stables and see the horses and stuff, which was awesome. I realllllllly wanted to do it with her, but I just couldn't justify the money. I'm getting pretty skint here, so I've gotta be smart. Plus the hike we did was really great, so I'm glad I made the choice I did.

Gorgeous stables and horses. This is definitely at the top of my list for my next stint in NZ.

My new soulmate, Chappers (named for Charlie Chaplin). He's only five and was so sweet and affectionate. We bonded.

This morning is a dreary, rainy one, which is perfect because we're heading to the airport. Today marks the last day of our South Island portion of the trip, and we're all getting really excited to spend some time on the North Island! We arrive in Wellington this afternoon, where we'll spend two days. It's the capital city, and there's tons to do there, so I can't wait to explore. This trip is going by so quickly, I can't believe it. 

Fun Facts/Updates:

-When I was bonding with Chappers at the stables, I definitely pretended he was my horse in LOTR...and I may or may not have told him to show me the meaning of haste...I am a geek and I don't care.

-Last night I FINALLY had Mexican food! It's not popular in New Zealand like at all, so I've been missing it a lot. We went to the supermarket and got yummy ingredients and had a family dinner in our house. It was a great last night in Queenstown.

-When I was pissing myself on the bungy platform, one of the bros that worked there took the time to compliment my silver fern tattoo, and I was really excited about it. Since he's a Kiwi, I take that seriously. THANKS, RANDOM BUNGY BRO! s

-I really like sheep. 

I have no clue when I'll have wifi again, so here's hoping I can post again soon. 

Cheers!