New Zealand, Day 13

I'm not an early riser. I don't like waking up early. Quit making me wake up at these obnoxious times, I need my beauty sleep! Riiiight, I'll sleep when I'm dead. This trip was made more no sleep, running high on life for 18 days straight. Whew, today we were up around 7 to head out of Wellington to Rotorua via Taupo. We had a haul ahead of us. We literally drove from the bottom of the Island to the very top. We didn't get into town until about 5p.m with only one or two stops the whole way.. Quite awful. We've both agreed that this trip has been draining and getting on and off the bus is wearing on us, but it's all character building right? Exposing ourselves to things we've never done before. I swear I've slept in more hostels than I would've ever dreamt about. Anyway. We made some, obviously beautiful, stops along the way. Before we got to Taupo we stopped at Huka Falls, which was a 20ft or so waterfall that we were told has an olympic swimming pool-size water load run through it every second. Mind boggling aye? That's a ton of water! It was so blue! Clearly, don't jump in is an obvious indicator, right? Apparently not. Some people jump in to try and survive the falls. No one has ever come back. How stupid can one honestly be?! After the falls, we drove all around Lake Taupo. Naturally beautiful. This lake is the biggest in New Zealand and Singapore could fit into it. Pretty interesting. By the time we hit Rotorua, we checked out some geothermal mud pools for a couple minutes. We were warned that Rotorua smells like rotten eggs... strange? It's because of all the sulfar that comes out of the mud pools. We got to experience that at the mud pools we stopped at. Yuk. The mud pools were really interesting. I've never seen anything like it before. They would splash like crazy, with a bare minimum of 400 degrees. We were also told not to stick our finger in it. Once again, you think that would be obvious, but no. A few weeks ago, some guy stuck his finger in it and it was only a matter of second until his skin shriveled down to the bone. He had to get it amputated. What brains he had! We hopped back on the bus for a few more minutes and winded down the mountain, right into the town of Rotorua. We arrived just in time for our Maori cultural dinner at 5. The Maori are New Zealand's native people and their cultural traditions are similar to those of Hawaii because their people came from the same place. A bus came and picked Karen and I up from our hostel around 5. We were labeled right off the bat as the "token Americans" because we were the only ones. Our driver was super sweet and funny. He had to have photographic memory because at the end of the night he remembered every single person's name on the bus. It was damn well impressive. I could never! On the way to their land where our cultural experience was held, our driver informed us of everything that was going to happen that night. The night started off with an opening ceremony of sorts, where the Maori dressed in their traditional clothing and imitated the birds and other animals that are in their culture. They use this as an imitation method and then peace was made to establish understanding between us and their people so we could enter their village to explore. They all had tattoos all over their body as a form of symbolization. Once inside the dark village, we walked around to different little huts where 1-2 people of the village would teach us more about their culture. After we finished in the forest, we went into a small theatre before we ate the dinner they cooked in a pit underground (we got to see them take it out and it smelled delicious). In the theatre, about 10 of the people from the forest came on stage and explained to us their music and some of their traditional songs. Words started coming out of their mouth... they all started to sing. I was blown away! I mean, really. They had some of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. Even the huge guys! We then made our way into the restaurant area where we had a buffet style dinner. Our guide was playing the guitar softly in the background after he dismissed each table up to eat. How soothing he was. After we finished up with dinner, the closing ceremony reminded me of an childhood memory... Brought me right back to home. Everyone stood up, he started singing a very familiar song... "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray..." Everyone was holding hands, we all formed lines together and joined in. What a moment. All the waitors and waitresses came out to join in as well. By just being their, I could really feel how much they enjoyed each other's company. Everyone was so happy and welcoming. It was a nice, warm feeling. They're really down to earth people, so kind to anyone they come across. What a beautiful soul each and every one of them had. Their really are good people out there. I'm so grateful to have experienced another culture in such a way that I'll never forget.

Beginning of opening ceremony