Kiwi Experience, Mercury Bay, Louging in Rotorua, and Black Water Rafting in Waitomo 4-8-10

I hopped on the neon green Kiwi bus and joined 50 other backpackers fresh to NZ. Everyone was between 18-25 years old and mostly just starting out KE. Our driver, Rich (yes, a very common name apparently), handed out our name cards randomly and had our packed bus of people hunt down our correct name card while the bus was moving and swerving about. It was a good way to meet people.

We stopped at the top of Mt. Eden for a 360 degree view of Auckland and then hit the road heading south to the Coromandel Penisula. We drove to Cathedral Cove first and hiked 45 minutes down to an enclosed white sand beach.  It was sunny and windy so we had our jackets on while at the beach; something I’m not used to. Another two hours on the road and we arrived in Mercury Bay (Whitianga).  We stayed at turtle cove for the night and had a quiet evening since we would be setting off bright and early in the morning.

 

Our first stop-off was Kopu Ranges for lunch and then the Karangahake Scenic Reserve where we went on an hour walk across bridges, through tunnels, and around mountain ledges. Back on the bus again before stopping at Paeroa, “world famous” in NZ because they originally made the L&P drink (lemon and Paeroa spring water mixed together and carbonated). Crazy stuff (not really).

We checked into a BASE hostel in Rotorua and a group of about 15 of us headed off to do some “luging”. Luging consists of sitting in a little cart that has a hand brake and racing downhill against other lugers on a winding, fast-paced track. After each run, a ski-lift took us back up to the top so we could race again.

We would all line up before racing down the track. Rich, our driver, claimed that he has never lost before and it became an instant challenge for me to beat him. The first two runs I succeeded, but on the third run there were some complication. I passed three other lugers and Rich was in the lead with a Kiwi backpacker, Stew, behind him. The three of us were almost bumper to bumper, rocketing down this hill with sharp turns at 30mph. None of us were using our brakes and on each sharp turn I could see Rich and Stew sticking their legs out to balance their weight and turn faster. I saw a very sharp turn coming up ahead and was determined to pass, so I didn’t use my brakes. The left side of my cart hit the outside of the turn and I was thrown out of my seat and rolled down the hill. Back on my feet, I ran over to my little cart.

No major injuries, just some dirt on my jeans, and I was ready to continue racing. Turns out, at the next turn, Stew flew down the hill, and Rich wound up in 1^st place with Will behind him. Even though by the third run, most of us had fallen off at least once and were a bit scratched up and dirty, we had the times of our lives! I would luge any day!

We headed back to the hostel and changed before catching a ride with Tamaki Tours. We were taken to a traditional Maori (the indigenous people of NZ) village from the 1600’s. Each tribe member was dressed in warrior attire and was covered in tattoos with tribal war paint on their faces. We watched a Poi dance, a Maori challenge (to determine if we would be allowed into their village for the evening), a weaponry display (how they would hunt and battle), and the haka. Afterwards we had a feast of food that was all steamed underground on hot rocks for hours before we could devour it.

In the morning we left Rotorua and headed off towards Waitomo. On the way we stopped at a sheep farm, the Agrodome, and watched a sheep getting sheared at a farm show. I missed the bus by litterarly 1 minute, and Rich left without me. A taxi driver brought me to the Agrodome before Rich got there and when Rich noticed it was me he left behind, he apologized to me a few times and promised to buy me drinks. It was alright. During the show I was called up on stage to see whose goat could drink milk from a bottle the fastest. My goat was very hungry and I won two arms-full of wool. Super.

We were cruising back on the bus when we heard a loud noise hit the back tire. For the next half mile, something was wrong. We pulled over and Rich tried to fix the problem. A scrap of metal had lodged itself between the tire and tire well and was scraping off the tread on our back tire. We drove to the closest town and while the bus’ tire was fixed, our Kiwi group laid on the grass, ate 50 cent ice cream cones from McDonalds, and Aaron and I drank some ice cold Guinness’s. A perfect afternoon.

When our tire was fixed we jumped back on the bus and made our way to Waitomo. This city is world renown for their vast limestone caves which attracts thousands of thrill seekers a year to experience black water rafting. I booked it and in the morning I would be black water rafting for the first time.

The name is a bit misleading, because there are no rapids or large waterways to raft or kayak down (like one would think with “rafting”). What black water rafting is, is exploring underground caves that have water in them. There is absolutely no light (except for glowworms on the ceiling), so we were wearing head lamps and were carrying inner-tubes to float on while underground.

It was incredible! For a few hours we were exploring the inside of caverns. The water was the coldest I’ve ever felt in my life, even though we were all wearing two wool sweaters under 10mm wet suits, wet suit booties, and rain boots. We jumped off ledges and waterfalls onto our inner tubes, saw stalactites and stalagmites; and when we turned off our torches at certain points, could see thousands of glowworms dotted along the ceiling. Such a great experience!

We changed out of our wet suits, showered off in hot water, changed, and then were greeted inside with hot tomato soup and toasted bagels. Mmmm, the perfect lunch after a frigid morning in underground caves!