Seven meters... you're kidding, right?

Last night was a blast!

It was a Maori cultural night at "Uncle Boyd's." Uncle Boyd is a Maori man who built a Maori cultural center in honor of his parents to show the Maori culture to all who choose to come. We first arrived and ate a Maori Hangi, which is a traditional meal, cooked in a hole in the gound. The food was very good. After supper, the oldest guy in our group was identified as our chief, and we entered the Mauri (central meeting place, literally translates into "house," because the entire village slept together in the Mauri as a community).

Upon entering the Mauri, there was a group a Maori who then began a ritual of determining if we were friend or foe. After the Maori men did the haka, a traditional dance meant to ward off enemies (and let me tell you, it's pretty intimidating), Our chief had to step forward and pick up a leaf that had been laid on the ground in front of him by the Maori warriors. Once he picked up the leaf, we were accepted into the tribe, literally, we are all now considered part of the tribe. He was warned, he did not want to find out what would happen if he did not pick up the leaf (at least not what would have happened 100+ years ago). The acceptance was followed by a hongi (a traditional Maori greeting where two shake hands, while touching forehead and nose to forehead and nose) between all present. It was really cool.

The next half hour or so was a cultural show, where the Maori who were there sang various traditional songs, while doing their traditional Maori dances with them.

After that we split up, the guys went to learn the Haka, and the girls stayed in the Mauri to learn the poi (a traditional dance done by Maori women). The haka is well known in New Zealand. Besides being huge part of the Maori culture, New Zealand's national rugby team, the "All Blacks," perform the haka before their opponents prior to the start of every match. There are several hakas, but I found the one that we learned on you tube, performed by the New Zealand All Blacks. The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGwGBTG4TkA.

HUGH'S TRIVIA FACT OF THE DAY: The first European to originally discover New Zealand, Abel Tasmin, actually came ashore, but legend has it when the Maori warriors came out of the woods onto the beach performing the haka, he promptly got back on his ship, and went on his merry way. It is indeed a very intense ritual.

After breezing through an attempt at learning the haka, the guys came out to perform it in front of the ladies, and in return, they performed the poi for us. Our performance of the haka, was a coordinated effort in not really knowing what we were doing, but we had a good time with it anyway. Luckily the Maori men and boys that were there, joined in with us as well. It was a blast, and the pictures are funny, as it is quite obvious we have no idea what we are doing. Since we were then officially members of the tribe, we spent the night in the traditional Maori way, the whole group stayed the night in the Mauri. It really was an awesome evening. One of the coolest things I have done in a very long time.

Today we got up and had breakfast, and then traveled to Rotorua. Rotorua is Maori for "second lake," because it was the second lake that the Maori explorer came upon when first exploring the area. Just outside Rotorua (the town), we were dropped off for a whitewater rafting trip. We were rafting on the Kaituna River. Now, I know people white water raft all the time, but I never have. So I think I picked a good river to "get my feet wet" in. You see, on this particular river, the white water is not overwhelmingly intense, but the river boasts the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. The drop on this fall is 7 meters. For those of you who cannot think in metric, that is nearly 22 feet... yeah, I know. We were warned from the beginning, there is about a 50% chance that the raft will turn over on this drop; but you never really know, because the water just does what it wants to. And even if the raft doesn't flip over, it still goes under water, because it essentially dives nose first from the top of the fall down to the river below.

The first group that went over the falls, their raft turned over. We were the last to go of 6, so you can imagine sitting there watching raft after raft disappear over the ledge and the nerves building. As we came up to the falls, we paddled close enough to see over the edge and wonder, WHAT WAS I THINKING? Just about then, the raft guide yelled for us to get down (we had practiced this on earlier, smaller falls), we tucked ourselves into the raft, and held on for dear life. So here we went. We dove off, were under water for a few seconds... and emerged victorious. Our raft stayed right side up! The whole trip was amazing, but the big drop was unlike anything I have ever experienced.

We had gone over two other falls before the big one, and the part after the big drop was a piece of cake. In fact, our guide had us jump into the river, and hang onto the raft to go over another fall a ways down the river (this one was much smaller than 7 meters of course). All-together an awesome experience.

Myself and a few others got off the bus here in Rotorua. Another bus will pick us up tomorrow to travel around the east cape of New Zealand.