Kia Ora

Guest entry miss Megan bates

So for anyone that has been white water rafting you know that it's not the easiest thing in the world. Different from black water rafting (which is basically tubing) and more intense, especially the place where me and Jess went yesterday which had the tallest water fall that you can go White water rafting on. 7 and some m tall which is roughly about 24 ft, a grade 5 rapid and the hardest you can do is a 6. So ya we went down this water fall and almost every raft tipped including ours. A guy on our raft actually dislocated his arm because we think he held on too tight when the raft flipped. The pictures taken of it there was one point were you couldn't see our raft cause we went so far under water. Ya, pretty intense but sweet as bro. (haha thats a phrase people here say all the time) but it also didn't help that we had someone that had NO IDEA what they were doing.. Jess was getting so frustrated hahaha you all know how she gets. At one point he lost his paddle and our guide was like what are you doing so this guy just dove in after it. Our guide I think was mad cause it was super unsafe and at this point we didn't know that around the corner from were we stopped was a waterfall where 15 people had died. Not good. But it was so fun :) what a thrill. 


After that we signed up to get the cultural experience of the Mauri people (the natives of New Zealand) first we had to pick "chiefs" from our big group and they would come put an select a head chief from us while performing their dances and singing their songs. We were told multiple times not to laugh cause what they do is pretty comical. Jess will put up pics of that I'm sure. But they would stick their tongues out and make their eyes as wide as they could all keeping a straight face. Obviously a big deal to them. We then were shown different games and how the tattoos that are all over their body including their face were done. (they literally carved into the skin and bone) but they didn't have an oral or written language so these symbols and tattoos were their way of communicating. Of course now they have both. We were taught the common saying of Kia Ora which means good health and if someone said it to you, you should say it back out of respect. Then they performed other dances and taught us about their weapons because these people were fighting people and had battles all the time. Pretty intense. Then we enjoyed an amazing dinner that they cooked underground on super hot rocks. Lamb, chicken, carrots, different potatoes, bread, and different seafoods. Soo good. Then desert had like a breAd and a custard( Jess didn't like that cause she always eats her food plain) haha but I loved it. So good and so glad we did it. 

Now off to Taupo on a different Kiwi bus with new people. Hopefully its good weather for the tangaru crossing! Kia Ora!