NV to NZ: Caving and Culture

This was crazy exciting day!! It’s hard to explain and unfortunately I didn’t vlog sooooooo here goes.

Woke up in Raglan

Waitomo Caves has been on my NZ list since the beginning and the experience lived up to the hype. We wore full wet suits, jackets, boots, and helmets with headlamps. Hiked for about 10 minutes through a sheep farm and then climbed down a ladder into a tiny little hole in the ground. From there we scrabbled over rocks, squeezed through tight spaces, and swam in the underground pools. BUT the best part was the glow worms. Once we turned off our headlamps we could see thousands of little green pinpricks in the roof of the cave. It looks like a crazy bizarre night sky. We floated down an underground stream in inner tubes with the lights out and just watched the glow worms as our tour guide sang a traditional Maori song that bounced off the walls of the cave. We got to jump off the side of the cave into the water with our inner tube. I even lead the pack for the last tube adventure. It was just me, with no light, on my stomach on the inner tube with only a rope to guide me. I pulled myself along the rope for about 30 yards in complete darkness. I may have screamed when my head hit a rock (it was that dark). After about 3 hours underground we crawled our way up and out of the cave and then hiked back through the sheep pasture. It was such a crazy surreal experience, I’m so glad New Zealand is continuing to amaze me!!! I couldn't bring my camera because it was super wet but our guide took pictures so yay!!

After the caves we stopped for lunch and then got to spend the night with a local Maori tribe. We were welcomed onto their land with a little ceremony and prayer and we did the Hangi. The Hangi is a ritual that makes you a part of the Maori family. You touch your nose and forehead to the other person’s nose and forehead twice. We did this with 5 members of the tribe which was incredibly intimidating and gave me crazy social anxiety but was also a huge honor. We then had tea and cookies in the common room and the tribe performed some traditional Maori songs and dances including the Haka!!!! Here’s a youtube video of the NZ rugby team (the All Blacks) performing the Haka. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiVWlWhK5Vg It's a big big thing in NZ. They then cooked us the most amazing dinner ever and we had a sleepover in their Marae (temple). These people could not have been more welcoming. They answered our questions, told us stories, played the guitar, sang and played soccer with us all night. The next morning they even made a full French toast breakfast for 30 people at 6:30 in the morning. I have been slowly learning about the Maori culture ever since I got here but now I can truly appreciate it.