How do you say that again?

With the Māori people being the native people of
New Zealand, it's natural that the Māori language is used
to name a significant amount of the streets and towns.
For us, however, their elaborate combinations of consonants
and vowels cause apprehensive pauses following phrases such as
"maybe next we should go to ..." or "we had such a good time in ..."

On Friday (the 24th), Rachel and I packed our bags and jumped into a car with three other girls (our Austrian friend Elisabeth included). Despite the really awesome four weeks we'd had in Paihia, the time had come to move on down the north island. Also, the girl with the car was leaving that day- and why take the bus when we could split petrol between five people?

Five people fit in a car just fine. Five people's backpacks and luggage
ADDED to the five people already in the car -definitely pushing it.

We drove to Auckland (about a three and a half hour drive) and stayed the night there so that Rachel and Elisabeth could go see Phantom of the Opera, which was playing at the Civic Theater. Then, after an extremely ridiculous night in a hostel that we do not plan on staying in again any time soon (ask us about it, we'll tell you the whole lovely story), we drove on to Coromandel. This is where Rachel, Elisabeth and I said goodbye to our other travel companions and grabbed a three-bed dorm in a cute little hostel called the Lion's Den for the night.

The next day we looked into going to Hot Water Beach, a place we had heard of that you could dig a whole in the sand and it would fill up with hot water, making your own personal hot tub. Sounds awesome doesn't it? And I'm sure it is, but we didn't get to go.

Turns out Hot Water Beach is actually on the other side of the Coromandel PENINSULA, and that Coromandel town itself really doesn't have anything much to offer. Sadly, we had to forgo our dreams of making our own personal hot tubs and hop on a bus (only two of them were leaving Coromandel that day- it's that small) heading toward Rotorua, with stops in Whitianga (beautiful!) and Thames (not so much). After missing our first bus connection, we got to spend six extra hours in Thames, and I honestly can't remember much of what we did in that time, so it can't have been very special.

Finally, after a weekend that didn't really go as smoothly as we had planned, we made it to Rotorua, where we stayed for four nights and decided to splurge a little and buy a tourist package to go and see a traditional Māori dance and song presentation, as well as have a traditionally cooked Māori meal.

The PHAAAANTOM of the Opera is there- inside your mind.

The sheep require excellent views while they graze.


Coromandel. As you can see there is no Hot Water Beach.
We didn't do anything here besides take this picture
and try to find a bus that would take us somewhere else.
The hostel we stayed at was cool though.


We made it to Rotorua. Getting excited for our night out
experiencing Māori culture, albeit in a very touristy
format that we usually snobbishly try to avoid-- oh who are we kidding?
Being touristy costs money. If we had money, we'd probably be touristy.


Hāngi is an ancient Māori method of cooking food using
heated rocks buried in the ground in a pit oven.


We definitely ate that and it was definitely really really good.


UNPRECEDENTED that we should be walking with a big
group of tourists along the river when a Māori war canoe (Waka) appears!
This sort of thing only happens in dreams, or ancient history, folks.


Performing one of the very cool traditional dances (the Haka) of the Māori people.


A very popular use for some of the haka dances is prior to international
rugby matches. Rugby is HUGELY popular in NZ, and their national team,
the All Blacks, use the dances to intimidate their opponents.
Click here to watch them in all their glory.
I would be very intimidated.


All of the tattoos that the Māori people display on their
face represent different things, usually animals,
water, nature, and other critical components in their lives.
They also are an indicator of status.


I can't remember what he said these stood for,
but I do remember that they were real... ow.


I am the chief.
I have more tattoos than anyone.
And yes, that was my butt you saw in the last picture.

After the Māori experience, our tour guides took us to Rainbow Springs, where we got to see glow worms and the Kiwi bird, both of which are much easier to see in the dark. This means we have no good photos of either one.

I got this photo of a Kiwi by doing a google search.
The Kiwi is the national symbol of New Zealand, and is
also native to the country. The kiwi is a flightless bird that scuttles
around and is much more active at night. They also lay the largest
egg in comparison to their body size. Poor things.

The Kiwi bird is the source for where New Zealanders got their nickname, contrary to the popular belief that Kiwis named themselves after a green piece of fruit.

Rachel on a dock by Lake Rotorua after a walk to see the bubbling mud pools.
Geysers and bubbling mud-pools, as well as hot thermal springs are really common in the Rotorua area.


We celebrated Halloween in excellent backpacker fashion- spending
zero money on costumes and borrowing everything we could.


We met Moses! And... a skeleton..man?


I was from the 80's, Elisabeth was from the 70's,
and Rachel was from the 60's (B.C).


One of the many Jesus figures is lurking behind us.

We stayed in Rotorua for four nights and then moved on to Taupo, where we stayed just one night to see the scenery, and then we parted ways with Elisabeth :( and Rachel and I took the six hour bus ride down to Wellington, where we had cheap accommodation waiting for us.

McDonald's in Taupo is FIRST CLASS.


I completely agree with their policy. This is where we always
get food when we can, it's kind of like Costco.

I just liked this roundabout.

For the next few months, Rachel and I will be living (and working) in Wellington. We have an extremely cheap room to live in at one of the residence halls for Victoria University. It was just the last week of school before summer vacation here, so we get to live in the dorms while all the students are gone. We'll update you on Wellington and the jobs in our next post, and thanks as always for reading! We miss you all, you can put a ring around that.