Well, we have traveled not so far since our last post, but we have been up to quite a bit in our last few weeks on the north island. The story continues in Waitomo Caves, but first...
more pictures from scuba diving
 |
| the divers: Robin, Tim, Liz, Brent, Brent, me, Lydia |
 |
| bits and pieces picked up by divers from the Lermentov, on display at the lodge |
There was a full bottle of sherry on a shelf below it - we asked, jokingly, if it was still good to drink. Brent answered in all honesty, "well, we cracked open another one about a year ago, but it tasted a bit like salt water."
 |
| pulling the dive boat out of the water, NZ back country style |
 |
| a weka |
This guy hung out around the lodge the entire time we were there. He was an inquisitive little creature and we were told to be sure the doors were always shut when we left, as he has wreaked havoc in the lodge when left unattended.
 |
| what we could have seen, had we penetrated the ship |
Brent (the instructor) and Robin did make a dive into the engine room of the ship, but the rest of us were nowhere near experienced enough to attempt that. Robin said he sat at one of the benches in the restaurant on his way through (sideways, of course, as the ship came to rest on its side) and videos and pictures of other divers who have been through sometimes show photos of a very creepy room filled with dolls.
Waitomo Caves
Our story picks up again at a little town called Waitomo Caves, so named for its beautiful huge caves filled with glowworms. The town itself is little more than a few restaurants, hotels / hostels, and the caves - which made the visit well worth it. We pitched a tent outside of the backpackers (hostel) and relaxed for the night.
 |
| the pool at the hostel |
 |
| our next door neighbour - there was also a calf, a horse, and a deer. |
 |
| welcome to Waitomo Caves |
Rap, Raft 'n Rock: black water tubing and glowworm cave
Our next day in Waitomo Caves we booked ourselves in for a black water rafting, glowworm sightseeing, and caving adventure. Rap Raft n' Rock does 5 hour expeditions that generally run as follows: a 27 metre abseil into the cave, floating along the cave in an inner tube, through some small waterfall type drops and along easier water as well - this is where everyone in the group turns off their head lamps to admire the "starlit sky" of glowworms above - through some areas where you carry your tube through rougher or shallower water, followed by a walk against the current back to the cave entrance, where you rock climb back up to land. Our guide, however, was exceptionally cool and we had a good group (Brent and I plus another young couple), and so we did a bit extra, including going down a part of the cave that most groups don't access, doing some pretty cool caving with tight squeezes through rocks, scrambles up the rock, and hands-and-knees style movement underneath rocks, tube jumping off rock faces, and diving beneath the rock. (this last bit was perhaps a bit intimidating after watching "Sanctum"). Afterwards we returned to their office for a mug of tomato soup and a good laugh at the photos.
 |
| Brent all geared up to abseil down |
 |
| ...and down... |
 |
| looking up from inside the cave |
 |
| Wes, Kristy, me, and Brent in a lovely, murky, cave pool |
 |
| inner tube jumping |
 |
| close up of the glowworms with their fishing line night lights |
 |
| Larry the eel |
This guy has a name because he actually comes up to greet all of the cavers at one particular place, and will allow everyone to pet him as well! Quite unusual for an eel...
Hamilton
After Waitomo Caves we had a few days to fill in before we our next wwoofing destination, so we went a little further north than was necessary, in order to check out the bustling metropolis of Hamilton. We stayed at a backpackers fairly close to the city center and stocked up on cheap cider, as that night the hostel was putting in a team for trivia at the local pub. Good intentions aside, we got to talking with a really cool Maori fellow named Tim (full name, a long Maori word impossible to pronounce) and chatted so long into the night that we missed out on trivia entirely. Ah well. The next day we explored the museum, which had a huge waka (traditional Maori war canoe) and one of those old scuba diving suits with the huge helmet and the tubes that go all the way back up the surface. We also explored Hamilton Gardens, which are massive and beautiful - though we didn't get a chance to walk through the entirety of them (that would take a long, long time). That night, the owners of the hostel had a barbecue and a fire going outside, and so we partook in that before tucking in for our next adventure...
 |
| Hispanic garden |
 |
| walk around the pond |
 |
| lily pads |
Oparau, Kawhia, and wwoofing
Our next stop was the small town of Oparau, which is 15 minutes away from the slightly larger, but still quite small town of Kawhia (pronounced Kafia - the "wh" in Maori makes an "f" sound). We wwoofed with a lovely woman named Elle (pronounced Ellie) on her "lifestyle block" farmland. She has 6 chooks (chickens) for free-range eggs, 10 sheep to keep the grass down, a dog and a cat as pets, and a nice orchard that produces pears, apples, grapefruit, lemons, feijoa, figs, grapes, and avocados... to name a few. Her twin children, Maddie and Mitch, both go to boarding school in Auckland, as there is no high school in the area. There were tons of really cool things about Elle and our stay in Oparau, but here are a few of my favorites: when you are cooking and have anything compos-table left over, you just chuck it out the kitchen window (the chooks or the sheep will come eat it). Same goes for recycling, as her boxes are out there and she goes to collect them later. There is something just so incredibly satisfying about being done with something and just literally tossing it out the window. There is a pool table and a Foosball table in the living room, both of which are regularly used. Whenever you want some fresh fruit, you can just walk a few metres to the orchard and pick what you need off the ripe trees, and then eat it straight from the tree without washing it. There is no TV in the house, but many good DVDs which we set up on laptops for breaks from work (or no work...). Everyone in the community knows each other, and we were being constantly gifted ripe figs from other peoples yards, smoked fish, fresh fish, pies, large pots for juice making, etc. It was also not unusual to find a chook in the house, having wandered in from the open door (painted orange and blue no less!) to try for a peck at the cat food (not quite so cool when they leave a mess under the pool table to be cleaned, but anyway...). In the mornings the chooks would come in en mass to the kitchen, clucking away as a reminder that we were up, and it was now time to feed them.
 |
| "the ladies," awaiting breakfast |
One particularly time consuming job we partook in while at Elle's was dealing with the seemingly endless quantity of ripe grapes. Her front paddock was entirely overrun by grape vines, which completely covered (and largely smothered) the grass, trees, blackberries, etc. that had overgrown the area. We ripped huge amounts of these grape vines out, collecting the fruit as we went. In the end, there was a lot of fruit, which we decided to make into juice and jelly. This involved a long process of picking the ripe grapes off of the stems and separating them from the rotten or immature grapes, washing all of the good grapes (24 kilos!) and leaving them to dry, and then slowly heating them up to extract the juice, after which we poured them into home-made muslin satchels and hung them from the ironing board to drip into buckets. Long story short, in the end our efforts accumulated into the beginnings of wine, as some things didn't turn out as expected. Better? Perhaps. That will depend on the finished product.
 |
| Brent starting in on the grapes |
We also has plenty of down time in Oparau, and found a number of interesting things to occupy ourselves with when not dealing with grapes. One afternoon we borrowed some of Elle's neighbour's kayaks and went for a paddle down the river.
 |
| Brent starting down the river |
 |
| towing a fishing line - we didn't catch anything |
 |
| the view when coming back |
Part of the grape process, and the clearing of the paddock process, involved the removal of large amounts of brush, as well as all of the ripped out grape vines (and the blackberry that we managed to get out, those spiky *&@%). Our method for this was to have large bonfires, which was really extraordinarily satisfying to watch all of the vines, spiky bushes, and hauled brush go up in flames and burn away to nothing. Our first brush pile burned away amazingly, and though the others proved a little more difficult, it was nothing a healthy mix of diesel and petrol couldn't take care of.
 |
| Brent tending to one of our brush fires |
Ah yes, and then there was Billy, alias Ding-Dong. Elle was gifted a 5 month old billy goat while we were staying with her, and he really was just about the stupidest creature you have ever met. We tied him up near the chooks to see how he would get on at the house and with the other animals, but he managed to wrap himself around any and all of the trees that were around him. Not just once, oh no, but every time you turned your back he would have managed to wrap himself around to the point of having only a few inches of room to move around in, and then he would start a terrible wailing noise (similar to the sound a child makes when in agony) until you would go to unravel him, at which point he would become very disgruntled that you would think to come near him, and look menacingly at you with his pointy horns, all the while trying to get away, or perhaps planning his eye-stabbing attack. So, we moved him to an area which very few trees around and shortened his line to try to prevent these tie-ups, but he still managed to find the one tree he could get himself caught in, as well as hog-tying his back legs with the rope itself. It really was quite a sorry sight. At this point, after enough back leg tying episodes, we got him a new rope, which he promptly chewed off and has since escaped. Oh Ding Dong, I will always fondly remember you bleating from inside the compost bin, which you somehow managed to get on top of, remove the lid, and get stuck in.
 |
| Ding Dong in action |
Poly Fest - Kapa Haka
Something really cool we got to experience while staying with Elle was Polyfest, an annual event held in Auckland that showcases various cultural dances, speeches, costumes, etc. from around Polynesia. Maddie and Mitch both performed traditional Maoria dances ("Kapa Hakas") with their schools in the festival, and so we spent much of our 2 days there at the Maori stage, taking in the very intricate and well choreographed dances from various schools around the area. It was a huge event and a ton of effort went into it - the kids were pretty tired after months of preparation - and the results were really incredibly impressive.
 |
| a snapshot of one area of the festival |
 |
| one of the groups performing |
 |
| Maddie's school performing (they won a lot of trophies!) |
 |
| a performer in traditional attire |
 |
| Mitch's school performing |
 |
| another shot from Mitch's school |
Whale Boat Rowing
The first day we arrived in Oparau, we went into Kawhia with Elle, as she rows once a week with a whale boat team in Kawhia harbour. It is a traditional whale boat powered by 5 rowers and one coxer, who keeps the boat steady, steers, and shouts encouragement and instructions. It was pretty cool to watch Elle and the others move the huge boat quickly through the water, but little did I know I would come into play... The next week they were short one rower, and I was "voluntold" (by Brent) when I awoke that morning that I would be filling in. It took a bit of getting used to, and I kept splashing the people around me with my oar, but it was quite enjoyable after all. The next week we were choosing which day we would be taking off from Oparau and moving on to our next adventure, when it came up that really we should be staying until Monday, as they were short one person in the boat again. This time the water was quite a bit choppier and it was more difficult rowing, but by that time I had the rhythm down and I actually found it easier.
 |
| Pulling the boat in from the water |
 |
| whale boat rowing |
 |
| post row chat |
Mud Run
One weekend while we were over Maddie and Mitch came home from boarding school and Elle had signed them up as a team of 3 for the "mud run." Held each year in a nearby town, the mud run consists of, well, running through the mud - at low tide, of course, swimming through a portion, continuing to run through the mud, then turning around and coming back through it all again. Brent and I planned on being spectators (we thought it was a pre-register type of deal), but when we got there, Elle, Maddie, and Mitch decided to each do the run individually, and there was quite a bit of encouragement for us to participate as well. Having not planned on this, we were both totally unprepared (clothing and otherwise) to run, but with enough persuasion, we got Brent to do the run (I stayed on the sidelines in my nice dry clothes and took photos). There may have been some scratched up feet from the mussels and some tired bodies after the run, but it certainly looked like a lot of fun, and there was dinner and beer afterward, what more could you ask for?!
 |
| Mitch, Elle, Maddie & Brent after the run |
Ocean Beach and the Hot Pools
One of the cool natural features in Kawhia is at ocean beach, where you can dig natural hot pools that actually fill up with bath-temperature water. You walk up a huge sand dune and come to a beach filled with beautiful black sand, and then you walk in and towards the right to find the smell of sulfur, after which you get out your shovel and start digging. The water that fills in the newly dug hole is warm and delightful, and once you've dug enough, you can sit down and enjoy your beachy bath.
 |
| Brent digging our hot pool |
In addition to all of the aforementioned activities, there was also a fair amount of celebration what with whale boat rowing, Elle (and her classmates') art show, etc - which involved the local pubs and plenty of the local community - we will certainly be sad to leave Oparau, but the next destination is Taupo and the Tongariro crossing, so there are more adventures in store...
