I'm Still Alive

Yeaaaaaahhhh, so it's been awhile since I've written anything, which means it's gonna suck trying to recap everything from over the past few weeks. I've been riding on Stray buses bouncing from town to town a lot, and most hostels either have really slow or really expensive internet. Plus sitting on the internet whilst traveling a beautiful country isn't too appealing. However I finished my tour in a town called Christchurch this past Thursday, and on Saturday bussed my way back to Queenstown where I've decided to settle down and work for awhile. But I'll get to that later. Here is more of what I have been doing since my last post:

Stray Day 3: Raglan to Waitomo to Maketu
We stopped at a place called Waitomo, known throughout the country for nothing other than its caves and glowworms. I opted for the 4 hour caving expedition billed as the most action-packed of all the caving options (and the 8 hour option was too expensive). I don't know what Kevin Gale did on the St. Louis caving trip he's always talking about, but it couldn't have been as good as this. We started with several abseils down rockfaces and through waterfalls to get about 70 meters underground. Some of the passages were narrow enough that even I had to struggle to wiggle my way through. After a couple hours of squirming past rocks, crawling in water and through tiny holes, and a brief lesson about glowworms, we finished with a few short rock climbs. Sadly I saw no trace of manbearpig, but I did successfully play what the two guides referred to as a 'rockeridoo', the NZ predecessor to the Australian didjeridoo. It was interesting how informal the whole trip was: I filled out the smallest waiver ever and the guides are pretty nonchalant the whole time, but they're clearly very capable. The organizers wouldn't last a week in the US before somebody sued them.

Finished up the day in Maketu at a Maori marae, or meeting house. Hosted by Uncle Boy, an elderly Maori man, we were treated to a buffet and brief song and dance before the men were taken aside to learn the haka and the women to learn the poi dance. A 'haka' is a Maori war dance performed by the NZ rugby team prior to the start of every match, and I highly recommend watching one on youtube. The whole experience was clearly slightly commercialized, though supposedly only available to Stray travelers.

Stray Day 4: Maketu to Rotorua
Boring travel day, but I decided to hop off in Rotorua because a separate Stray pass I had bought which didn't begin until 3 days later leaves from Rotorua. Spent the next few days doing very little, because although Rotorua is a well-known tourist town it was still a little early for tourist season. Rotorua is known for its geothermal hotpools, zorbing, and its strong raw egg smell. I did go zorbing the third day I was there. Zorbing is the sport of rolling down a hill inside of a large inflatable ball, either with water or being strapped inside. I chose the water option but sadly didn't discover until later that there is a separate, unadvertised water and soap option. Damn. Anyway it was fun but only lasts like 30 seconds, so the 'worth-it'-ness is debatable. When I wasn't zorbing I watched a lot of free movies and did a lot of walking. Not spending money feels good.

I had only been on the first Stray bus for 3 days but it still sucked to leave all the people behind. I miss people.