A few weeks ago, my friend from Penn State, Haley, decided to fly out! It was a spur of the moment decision but luckily I didn’t have any assignments due that week so I could take a few days off. We rented a car and braved the early morning Hamilton fog to go to Lake Taupo for the day and I somehow managed to convince her to bungy jump! It was so different from when I went before because it was windy and pretty empty without the hot sun and tourists. In Haley’s video you can see me standing by the drop off jumping up and down and clapping when she jumped because I’m an adrenaline junkie and I was so happy to be turning someone else into one. We had bought deserts (mine was a Leamington, a cake dipped in strawberry flavouring, rolled in coconut and filled with cream, mmm) from the Hillcrest Bakery before our trip so we decided to walk to Huka falls and eat them, or share them with an extremely angry duck as it turned out. On the way back we went and sat in the same hot springs that I’d visited before only they were so much better this time because we were pretty much the only people there. We braved the really hot part of the spring and sat under the pounding waterfall for a while. Reallyy cheap way to get a massage! After, we walked down by the lake and found some delicious scones with cream and jam, English style.

Me under the waterfall ^

The next day I had my Women In Management class that I had to be in so Haley came with me. Obviously it happened to be the one class out of the semester when we broke into groups and role-played a bureaucracy picking a work contract from work gangs and the whole time we were just hoping the professor wouldn’t call on Haley! That would have needed some explaining as to why she didn’t know the three perspectives of feminism used in the scenario…

Then it was cake wheels for lunch!

These are pretty much the best thing ever invented. They’re officially called Taiwanese Wheel Cakes and are sold from a tiny cart on campus. The guy makes two deep pancakes and then sandwiches your choice of filling between them. My personal favourite fillings are mozzarella, corn, ham and pepper and chocolate fudge although you can get anything from chicken pot pie to green curry. During the semester, it had become somewhat of a tradition between Jenna and I to get cakes wheels after our Wednesday morning class.

YUM ^

 I didn’t drag Haley to my accounting class, but that night we continued traditions and went to beer pong.

Wednesday night in Hamilton hosts a beer pong championship league which I’m proud to say I’ve now achieved “regular” status at. We went into it at the beginning of the semester very confident thinking that since we (as in Americans/PSUers) basically invented beer pong, we should have no trouble winning the $100 bar tab. The semester is over now and I haven’t won so much as $25 third place. Kiwi BP is played on super high tables with absolutely no calling on leaning. People will lean as far forward as possible over the table to take their shot. You’re also allowed to catch the ball if the other team airballs which means they lose a cup. There are no boucebacks or double cups for bounce, no island or man on fire. It’s crazy! Beer pong is much more relaxing than a normal night. There’s no dancing so everyone just hangs out in the booths and challenges each other to pool matches when they aren’t competing.

Me making a valient effort, despite lack of hand eye coordination ^

Thursday I decided to show Haley around Hamilton so we went to lunch, wondered around the shops and then went to a leaving dinner for a kiwi friend who had just graduated before hitting the town for Thursday night. Another difference between here and PSU is that Thursday is the big night out with Saturday as the second, but no one goes out on Friday. I’ve been traveling for most Fridays but usually my flat just hangs out in our lounge or gets schoolwork done.

The next day, we picked up Meg and headed to Rotorua. Our first stop was the Maori Village of Tewhakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao or Whakawarewa for “short”.

They gave us a guided tour of the village which actually has many Maori families living in it. The whole area is geothermal so there are pools of bubbling mud and boiling water scattered all around the village. Our guide showed us where she and her family and friends cook, bathe and meet. They had a tattoo artist in the village who draws out traditional ta moko (tattoos). It was really interesting to learn about their traditions, what they consider tapu or sacred and how they put the volcanic activity to good use. We also saw a cultural performance featuring the Haka which is a war dance, nowadays more commonly performed before the All Blacks Rugby Team plays and a poi dance with soft balls on strings that the women twirled.

Meg Haley and I after the performance ^

After the village we decided we needed our fix of adrenaline so we headed over to the Zorb track. Whoever invented Zorbing is both a genius and very stupid. Basically, they throw you and some warm water into what looks like a huge inflatable hamster ball and roll you down a steep zig-zag hill. The result is akin to a blind slip and slide where you might flip upside down at any moment. The guy at the counter was really cool and gave us a multiple person Zorb plus our own single rides for really cheap, because our coups weren’t valid for what we wanted. We did the multiple ride first down the steep but straight track. We were laughing so hard from the minute all three of us climbed, or rather dived very ungracefully inside. The water made it so slippery that we were all squashed together as the ball rolled and pretty much tangled up by the bottom. The second ride was down the zig-zag track so you had no idea which way was forwards.

I thought that it couldn’t possibly be that exciting after bungy jumping and skydiving but it was actually a ton of fun! And you had to wear socks so I was rocking a ski sock and bikini look.

Win.

Location: Hams, Taupo, Rotorua