After a brilliant sleep in a comfy bed, and some toast, we set off for the Zorb! The start of our massive activity day in the adventure sports capital of North New Zealand! Woohoo! Jenny kindly helped us get an itinerary together, sharing her knowledge of the things worth doing here; many activities were invented, tried and tested in Rotorua! The day was rainy so it was an all go for wet activities!
Zorbing is when you get zipped in to a massive inflatable ball (either on your own, or with people you’re comfortable falling on top off) and pushed down a steep hill, which can be a zig zag or straight path down. You can choose if you have water in the ball with you (which we said yes to, because it helps you slide around) and you can either slide around loosely or be tied in to a seat. We decided not to be tied in to the seat because this meant that you had to spin as the ball was moving – and people tended to feel ill after this one. Although you’re only in the ball for a short time, you laughed and screamed all the way down, not knowing where you were or what direction you were going to be thrown in to next. Once we reached the bottom, it was no surprise to hear that Gav kept arms and legs up in the air, to maximise his speed and movement in the ball! Crazy man!
Our next activity started straight after lunch...Whitewater Rafting! We headed to the office of the company where we met the other people who would be rafting at the same time, were given our kit and met our instructor. The best way to describe the instructor was a surfer dude with a huge ginger beard. He was called Raana and had a great laid back sense of humour and loved his job! After a safety talk and Mauri prayer to bless the water and ask the gods to make our trip a safe one, we were in the boat and bounding down the grade 5 river (Grade 5 is pretty intense white water – Amanda is used to talking about water at grade 3 max). We kept being reminded to sit on the outside of the raft and not in the ‘chicken seats’ in the middle. The idea was to support yourself with your feet enough top lean back and being able to lie out over the water without using your hands to help! We headed to our first test – a 2.5 meter waterfall, followed straight away by a 1 meter drop. This really got the adrenaline pumping! The river soon took us to our next test – the biggest drop – a 7 meter fall (imagine the middle diving board in a swimming pool!). We stopped just before and said another prayer to the Mauri gods and our leader – Raana – reminded us to trust him, even though we only just met him. The group to go over before us was a stag do and asked for something a little more extreme. Their instructor took them over quickly and it took us a while to see them pop out the bottom – luckily they survived. It was out turn next. We paddled towards the drop and jumped in to the ‘Get Down’ position for safety and we were heading vertically towards the swell at the bottom. We went in nose first and someone all stayed in the boat. What an amazing feeling! Raana celebrated by getting us to stick our ores in the area and shout ‘Sweet-as-cuzi-bro’ (an affectionate mauri saying which means that it was good and that it had made us all friends – even family). We both loved and now can’t stop saying it!
The last group to come over got their timing a bit wrong and disappeared under the waterfall for a few seconds. The boat popped out upside down and the group floated their way to us, spluttering and coughing. They said they loved it though. The last part of the trip was over some rapids and through a Mauri grave site. The king would have buried behind the biggest fall and the lower you got down the pecking order, the lower down the stream you were buried! By the time we carried the rafts back to the van; we had used all our adrenaline and were ready for a rest. After getting back to the office we headed to Jenny and Neil’s for a well deserved brew.
A very pleasant surprise awaited us on our return – Jenny had booked us all in for a Mauri Cultural Experience that evening, so after a short rest we headed to the Mauri site eager anticipating what was ahead. There was about 200 people and the host went around the room to analyse where people were from and say hello to them in their own language – which was impressive as 22 nations were represented! The main event of the evening was a talk from one of the Mauri tribe which lead to us watching the Mauri Warriors arrive in their hand carved wooded Canoe, chanting their songs and demonstrating their strengths. Following this was an insight in to Mauri culture, including the various dances, songs, weapons and tattoos that they have. We learned that the Mauri face tattoos were made up of 4 birds – The Bat, Parrot, Kiwi and Owl, with one side of the face designed by the mother, and the other the father. We all got the chance to practice some Mauri words and even had a demonstration of the Haka – which was tailored to that specific tribe. It is amazing to see the passion in the culture and the desire to educate others about it. We were then taken to a large marquee where we were served a banquette which was traditionally cooked how the Mauri’s would have done it – an open pit over hot stones for around 3 hours. It was delicious and you could taste the flavours infused by the pit. Before we left, we had a walk through the forest where we saw some more glow worms and a natural cold water spring in action, which was very impressive!
We were very grateful to Jenny and Neil for sharing this with us and didn’t look forward to saying goodbye in the morning.
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