Rangitoto & Rotorua

Along with having amazing experiences teaching at Swanson, Sarah and I are also busy exploring the country! So far we have been downtown Auckland, Rangitoto Island, and we have just returned from a weekend at Rotorua.
Saturday, October 27, Sarah and I hopped the rail bus into Auckland. Our goal was to see the Sky Tower, go to Victoria Park Market, and then eat at a cafe along the Harbour. We hopped off the bus and got going towards the Sky Tower. I'm not exactly sure how, but we lost sight of the tallest building in the city and wound up walking past it and up a huge, huge hill. We made it all the way to the top of the hill before we realized we'd past the tower and had to walk back town. Finally we made it and got all the way up to the top. Its very fun walking around on the observation deck. There are spots on the floor which are made out of glass rather than concrete; these areas look like holes in the floor and though they are perfectly safe to stand on you still get a knot in your stomach when walking up to them. It was a beautiful day so we took heaps of pictures of the city. Next we headed over to the Victoria Park Market to check out the shops. Its very fun there and reminds me a bit of the Greendale Village. We could see the waterfront from the Market so we just started walking towards it assuming we were near the harbour. Come to find out we were clearly wrong and walked into the ship yard rather than along the cafes and museum. So we backtracked and walked up another hill to get to the cafes. Obviously Sarah and I have a magnificent sense of direction between us!

Looking down through the glass floor!

Sunday, Rachel took us out to Rangitoto Island. Rangitoto is a 600 year old volcano, the island is uninhabited and it hasn't been altered by people. I had expected the whole thing to be volcanic rock, but surprisingly a lot of vegetation has grown. All of it has been blown over in the wind and began to grow right on the rock. The trails are steep but well worn. Rachel told us about a man she knows who on his lunch break from work will kayak across to the island, run up to the summit and back down and then kayak back. Talk about being in shape! On our way up to the summit we explored into the lava caves. The first one we came to was very small, Rachel had thought it would open up to be able to walk through, but the deeper we got the smaller and darker it got. We turned around and headed back out only to discover that it was the second cave you can walk though! We went over to that one and had a much more successful crawl through! After hiking to the top and seeing the beautiful 360 degree views we decided to hike down the other side and head over to Islington Bay. It was a beautiful day for hiking! We then looped around and headed back towards the ferry. The hike back was obviously less traversed and wound up being the rockiest part of our hike. All the paths on Rangitoto were made by prisoners who were in a Prison Camp on the island. The old punishment of hammering rocks was a reality to these people! They hammered and moved the rocks to create the paths all over the island. On our hike we came across an old army bunker. Rachel told us this was used during WWII. Some of the military was stationed on the island and had the bunker set up so that if the Japanese ever came to New Zealand they'd be ready. The American army was also there and had set up a dance hall and a training field on Rangitoto as well.

On the ferry heading to Rangitoto Island

One of the hiking paths

Rachel and I hiking up to the summit.

This weekend Sarah and I went with her host family to Rotorua. Rotorua is a geothermal area so it smells beautifully of rotten eggs! Sarah and I booked a trip to a Maori Culture Experience. It was lots of fun, they did demonstrations of Poi dances for the women and the famous Haka for the men. The Maori Poi is a dance performed with balls attached to flax strings, swung rhythmically. It was originally used by the Maori women for keeping their hands flexible for weaving and by the men for strength and coordination required during battle. The haka is a traditional dance form of the Maori men. The haka is a composition played by many instruments. Hands, feet, legs, body, voice, tongue, and eyes all play their part in blending together to convey in their fullness the challenge, welcome, exultation, defiance or contempt of the words.

Ka mate, ka mate
Ka ora, ka ora
Tenei te tangata puhuruhuru
Nana i tiki mai whakawhiti te ra
Upane, upane
Upane kaupane
Whiti te ra.

In English:

It is death, it is death
It is life, it is life
This is the hairy man
Who caused the sun to shine again for me
Up the ladder, up the ladder
Up to the top
The sun shines.

We then ate a delicious meal prepared in a Hangi. The hangi is a pit in the ground which has hot stones in it. You cook the food on the hot stones, usually vegetables and a meat such as lamb. It was delicious! Sarah and I felt like we'd just eaten Thanksgiving dinner.

The next morning Sarah and I went for a walk to the Kuirau Park which is a thermal park in the middle of town. It looks like it'd be a typical grassy park, however there are fenced off areas that are steaming. Its the thermal mud pools which have come up through the ground and are bubbling. Apparently the mud from these pools is collected and sold as a facial mud. It comes up from the ground boiling, so I would not want to be the one to collect it!

The thermal mud pools in the middle of the park

After our walk we headed off to the Luge! Cory (Sarah's 6 year old host brother) and Jan (her host mom) took us with Jan's boyfriend, Rob and two daughters, Caitlin and Maddie. It was so much fun zooming down the hill on these little skateboard/scooters. I was racing Rob and Caitlin down the hill and didn't realize we'd turned onto the advanced route. As we were speeding down after one another I wound up taking a turn too wide and flying over the bank on the side of the road. Just as I flipped off, Jan came down behind me and nearly crashed from laughing so hard at me! It was a blast! Sarah and I then took interest in this thing called the Skyswing. We decided to have a go, this swing takes you up the air on a cable and then you have to pull the cord to release yourself and go flying forwards. Its set up on the side of the mountain so it really feels like you're going to go flying into the town below. We got up to the top of the cable and are facing all the way forwards with just our safety belts holding us in, Sarah yelled to me to pull the cord, I mucked up the courage to grab the rope and pulled, nothing happened. I hadn't pulled hard enough! I kept yanking on the cord and couldn't get it to pull. Finally it clicked and we screamed bloody murder the whole way down! Sooooo much fun!!

Next weekend we're off to the Waitomo Caves for Black Water Rafting! We're having a lovely time! Rotorua (Maori for Two Lakes)