The Hangi, Waitomo caves, and Lake Taupo

Hello folks!

So it's not even been 24 hours since I posted last, but I have a bit of time in the hostel so I'll put up another one.

Last night we attended a "traditional" Maori village called Mitai. I say "traditional" because it was very touristy. However, it is located on the site if an ancient Maori village and has some very cool things to do and see. We first walked down to a ancient spring that feeds into a stream, some "Maori warriors" paddled a Waka, or war canoe, up the stream and we got to see them do some chants and stuff. Then we saw how our Hangi, or Maori feast, was made. The Hangi consists of chickens, lamb, potatoes, sweet potatoes and stuffing put into baskets and warmed with hot rocks for four hours. It is then cut up and served. After seeing how our meal was made we got to watch a concert of traditional Maori songs and culture. We saw a welcome dance, the famous Haka war dance, and some new age Maori songs as well. Afterwords we ate our Hangi then went back outside to see the glow worms around the freshwater spring.

Warriors rowing the Waka

The spring, it's about 3 feet deep to show you how clear it is.

Our Hangi in the cooking pit.

So this morning we woke up early so that we could make our way to Waitomo Caves. However when we got out to our car we saw that it had been crashed into by another car and had a huge dent in the rear fender with no insurance information or anything. To make matters worse the trunk wouldn't stay shut. So we duct taped the trunk shut and made our way out to Waitomo and found a payphone where we called in the incident to our rental company. FUN. Anyway, we went black water rafting in the Waitomo caves which was awesome. Tubing down underground rivers with glow worms on the ceiling is a crazy experience!

"Make your best explorer pose"

The blue lights are the glow worms.

And finally we ended the day at Lake Taupo. Another picturesque lake surrounded by mountains. Took a walk along the beach although it is super windy here because a storm is coming in.

The largest peak in the center is a volcano. It's very faint but it's there.

Tomorrow we head to Whanganui and then to Wellingotn to catch the Ferry. should be interesting!