NewZ from NewZealand: Beaches, Caves and Forests

We rented cars again for another weekend trip. We drove to the town of Raglan, which is a popular surfing town because of the great surf conditions. None of us are expert surfers, but we spent the day at the beach anyway, just swimming and trying to bodysurf. We had nice weather for the most part, so we were just enjoying being out in the sun. After everyone had had enough of the water, we played a game of rugby on the sand. (We were trying to embrace the Kiwi culture by playing the national sport!)

After the beach, we went back to our hostel. We cooked a

big family dinner of chicken, sausages, pasta and salad. There were 15 of us on this trip, and it was fun (and economical!) to all cook dinner together.

(That's Kelly, Smitty and Kim getting dessert ready. We had apples with Nutella and then TimTams. TimTams are a delicious chocolate cookie that have been a bit hit with our group!)

Our hostel was in a very wooded area, and there was a "flying fox" (zip-line kind of thing) and a ropes course in the woods. A

fter dinner, we went to play on them for a while. (The flying fox was REALLY not as frightening as you would imagine from the look on my face!)

Later that night, we walked up to "Inspiration Point," which looked out over the water. It was such a beautiful, clear night. As has become tradition, we just all hung out listening to Nick, TK, and Timm (our musicians playing the guitar, sax and bongos, respectively). Just laying down, looking up at the stars and listening to the music really got all of us thinking about what an incredible experience this is for us. I just thought to myself, "What am I doing here? I am in NEW ZEALAND, surrounded by amazing scenery and friends, up on something called "Inspiration Point," gazing up at the stars." Something about that night really hit all of us and reminded us of how lucky we are to be experiencing all of this.

(This picture doesn't do the evening justice, but at least it's a glimspe of what it was like.)

The next morning, 6 of us girls got up really early so we could head out to Waitomo Caves. (Side note: I was the driver for the girls' car from this point on. I actually found driving on the left side pretty intuitive, and really enjoyed it. Don't worry Dad, I was very careful!) We dropped off Kim, Dana and Gina, who were going to visit the glowworm caves, and then Kelly, Cate and I headed on to "Haggas Honking Holes."

I'm going to do my best to describe this caving experience, but first of all, let me say that this was BY FAR the best thing I have done in NZ yet (and maybe one of the coolest things I have ever done)! We got all suited up in our wetsuit, helmets, and boots and then headed outside for a lesson in abseiling (rappelling). We learned how to attach the ropes and how to rappel down the wall. Then, we ventured down into the caves. The very first thing we did was a 20 meter abseil down. We walked a bit until we got to our next abseil - but this one was down a waterfall! The water was really cold and was pouring on you the whole way down. Then, when I got to the bottom and unhooked by ropes, I looked around. I was standing in about a foot of water, in a little cavern, and had no idea where we would go from here, since there seemed to be no exit. Then, I was told to get on my hands and knees and crawl through the opening "over there." When I looked where the guy was pointing, I literally said "You're kidding! That hole??" But I did it! And when I got through the other side, our guide was waiting to hook us on to another rope to descend deeper into the cave. There was one point where we were hooked onto a rope, told to shut off our lights and were just dropped downward in the darkness, where we landed in a pool of water. In total, we went down 85 meters underground. It was just a completely unique experience, to be climbing around inside of a cave, going down underground waterfalls, squeezing through small places, crawling on my hands and knees, and then making our way back out. I wish I had pictures of this experience, but we weren't allowed to bring our cameras, which would have gotten ruined anyway.

We were so smelly and gross afterwards, but we were able to take hot showers before heading back to the car. We met up with the other group of girls, had lunch at a cafe and then drove to Hamilton. Caitlin, one of the girls on our trip, has a brother who is also studying in New Zealand. He lives in a house in Hamilton, and kindly allowed all 15 of us to spend the night at his house. (There were two rooms with several couches, so we spread out between them and the floor and it wasn't bad at all!) We drove into Hamilton for dinner and then went back to the house to hang out for a bit and get ready. We went back into town later to go to an Irish pub for "St. Practice Day." Here's Kelly and I at the house in Hamilton, and then a candid group shot of everyone hanging around.

The next morning, a different group was up early to go caving (They did the "Lost World," which was 7 hours long, whereas our "Haggas Honking Holes" was 4 hours). The rest of us slept in a bit longer, and then drove out to head back towards Auckland. We stopped at Countdown, a supermarket, so everyone could get some breakfast. We all sat outside in the parking lot eating it!

Then on our drive back, we stopped at a scenic nature reserve. Some people stayed in the car and read, other hiked part of the way and stopped to rest and read at a lookout. Four of us, Cate, Nick, TK and myself, hiked all the way up. We climbed a total of 1500 steps, but it was worth it because we made it to a beautiful lookout point. We were hiking through a Kauri forest (Kauris are enormous trees that can live to be several thousand years old). It was warm out, but I enjoyed the hike a lot. We only hiked for about an hour and a half and then headed back to the car and drove back to Auckland. This was definitely an exciting weekend and another successful road trip!

The view from the upper lookout point: