The highlight of the 2 1/2 or so hour drive down was definitely the mini-detour to Candyland: "The Largest Working Candy Factory in New Zealand." And no, it wasn't as cool as it sounds and yes the candy was FAR from amazing. The disappointed hushed silence after we each bit into our first piece of fudge I'm pretty sure said it all.
We couchsurfed at the home of Marcus and Alice Gower who also have a 18 month daughter named Grace and a dog named Ms. Tickles. Or Mrs. Tickles as they had started calling her since she was pregnant and as they jokingly remarked, didn't want their dog to have illegitimate puppies. They were all great hosts and even have a lamb feast waiting for us on our arrival. The only condition for the use of their couches was that we cooked them a dinner one night while we were there. We are happy to report that we impressed them with our Mexican food cooking skills, which I'm pretty sure helped us to get an invite back. And for all of you at home scoffing at the thought of us cooking food good enough to merit an invite back have obviously not tasted my enchiladas, Jackie's guacamole, and Alissa's gourmet nachos. So take that. (As an aside, Alissa shredded the chicken with her bare hands. That's right ladies and gentlement, Alissa Hays had her hands allll over a chicken - woooo.)The View from the Gower's Backyard
As an additional aside, couchsurfing.org is a social networking site that connects travellers with hosts to put them on their couches, spare beds, fold outs, futons, etc. Don't worry parentals, you have to fill out a lot of information about yourself and you can can choose the people you stay with based on their profiles. The website is www.couchsurfing.org and you can even search our profile if you want. Its a sweet site and a really cool idea; bringing the world together, one couch at a time...But back to the excitement....caving was awesome. But that may be an understatement. It took a lot of cost/benefit, price analysis of what we would be willing to spend on caving (cause, come on, there are two econ majors in this bunch) but we ultimately settled on the 7 hour Lost World Ultimate caving adventure (their title, not ours). The trip consists of a 100m abseil (rappel) down into the cave and then taking the wet way out following an underground river upstream.
Just hanging out
Our group...
Cave Monster
Our group was a good one featuring two Kiwi guides, 3 Spanish commercial pilots (who didn't realize that we spoke Spanish until after we accidently laughed outloud to one of their jokes meant only for them...we have since been invited to stay at their place in Madrid w00000), us (straight ballers, obviously), and two women who are professional poker players from LA (no don't check your initial sterotypes, they were a bit oblivious, blonde, - although that is in no way necessarily connected to the previous adjective, and "thought they were going to die" on several occaisions in the cave, despite being warned about needing a certain fitness level to complete the trip. Someone clearly did not do their research...)
Writing about all the details of the trip probably won't do this experience any justice but seeing the sunlit mist of the cave mouth while suspended in the air, watching the sunlight disappear behine us, climbing up underground waterfalls, jumping through holes into the river below, eating a chocolate fish in the middle of the cave, and laying back and watching the lights of glowworms appear suspended about us like stars in the night sky are experiences that I wil definitely never forget. It was such a fun yet challenging yet rewarding and unique experience on that we are so lucky and thankful to have experienced.
We concluded the long weekend with a hike up another volcano that looked out over the Waikato river vally and a drive up the Western coast of New Zealand. It was a very pretty drive overlooking some beautiful coastline and pretty waterfalls. Not so many paved roads though. Apprantly there aren't too many of those in the boonies of New Zealand (which pretty much means anywhere about 20 min outside of a town.)
Oh and the Rawr Rawr Ka-Kaw in the title was our call that we incessantly called out to each ther and thought it was hilarious, especially with the echo from the cave. We stole it from the movie Up!, its ok, no one in our group had seen it either....Your favorite spluenkers. Out.
Anna, Alissa, and Jackie
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