Day 58 & 59 & 60: New Zealand, North Island

Day 58: Today we drove by Waitangi, this is where the Maori's signed the treaty with the Europeans to give New Zealand to them. I took a cruise at the Bay of Islands. We went pass Russel the first city in New Zealand. Then we cruised around and saw the whole in the rock and literally there is a hole in the rock. Then headed back on the bus to go back to Auckland.. Happy New Year everyone. FYI....New Zealand is one of the first countries to celebrate New Years in the world. The city of Gisborne in New Zealand is the first place in the world that celebrates the New Year as it is the first place in the world that the sun rises.

Day 59: Today was New Years, alot of things were closed, so basically went shopping for a new backpack as my old one was pretty much worn down. I treated myself to a nice Chinese dinner. The Chinese food taste pretty much similar to the U.S. except no fortune cookies.

Day 60: Today was a busy busy day! Today I started my tour our first stop was 'Black Water Rafting’ at Waitomo caves to see the glowworms down in the caves. It was really cool, it was like looking at stars. The cave was dark, so the glowworms lite up the cave quite nicely. We had to glide down a slide with our tubes to get into the water. The water was pretty murky, but it was heaps of fun! Then we went down to Rototorua (means ‘The Second Lake’ in Maori), which is where the Tamaki Maori Cultural Center is. Theory has it that the Maori's originated from Taiwan, and the Maori language is similar to Tahitian and the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. We saw a Maori traditional village and some Maori traditional dances, this included the famous warrior dance called 'Haka' where they stick out their tongues, have bulging eyes, and make grunting noises. This is the dance they do before going into battle, to scare their enemies. The audience was asked not to smile, laugh, or stick out our tongue during the performance. Then we saw another dance where they wore grass skirts and had a feather in their hair. They used their hands a lot and the dance looked similar to the Hawaiian dance. I was told the tattoos on their faces signify their placement in the family. Then we headed to the famous ‘Hangi’ dinner. The food is cooked underground. Hot rocks are put in a pit dug in the earth. Baskets of meat are put on the hot stones, then vegetables, and then pudding on top. A wet cloth is put over the food and earth is then piled over everything. The food was quite tasty we had lamb, chicken, pudding, and kamuri potatoes (found in New Zealand, it taste similar to sweet potatoes, but not as sweet), paklova (which is a creamy cake dessert) and I tried some Maori wine called Kona. Then we headed back on the bus to our hostels. We ended the night with the bus driver having us all sing a song from our country…The Maori’s did a great job in putting the night together!!!!