best day ever!

today was seriously one of the best days i have ever had!  vicky, leah and i drove to waitomo to go to the caves, we went with the legendary black water rafting company on the five hour black abyss tour.  it started out with an abseil into the cave (which was the part i was looking forward to most, it was so much fun), a flying fox in the dark, tubing, and then walked in the stream through the cave.  to get out, we did this crazy climb up three waterfalls.  it was cold, i could hardly feel my feet and hands by the end, and i HATED having to climb into wet gear.  but it was so awesome and totally worth the money.  i am definitely planning on going again, in case anyone is planning on coming to visit me here!  (hint hint!) 

one of the more hilarious aspects of the day was that one of our guides (dan) looked suspiciously like derek.  i mentioned this to leah, but she said she would have to rely on my judgement on that one.  so you'll have to take my word on it, i guess!

the top left photo was from my camera, the others were taken in the cave by our guide dan.  and in case you aren't sure, yes, that is mud on our faces on those bottom two.  it was one of the fantastic activities we got to do: conceptual mud art on someone else. 

and after the long and fun day we had today, tomorrow morning we head in the opposite direction to gisborne!

edit: i feel that i should add that the day could have been improved by a lack of eels.  i wish that nobody had told me about them, and i really wish that leah hadn't asked if we had felt any...  *shudder*  i am still feeling the heeby jeebies just thinking about it!

happy holidays!

i hope that everyone had a good christmas, we had a nice relaxing one here.  there were a number of people who came over to where i am staying (i am with a family here in rotorua with leah) and we had a barbecue.  with lots and lots of desserts.  i have consumed about a year's worth of sugar in the last three days, i think.

rotorua has been good, i got here on saturday and i have been enjoying NOT living in a backpacker's for awhile.  dave took leah and i out to blue and green lakes (which did not look very blue or green, it was too cloudy i guess), and lake tarawera.  we also got to go to buried village for free which was nice because it was neat to see, but not worth money to see it.  i feel like i read the same information about five hundred times, and there sure were a lot of glass bottles to look at.  my glass bottle tolerance was pretty low.

i also got to see THE GOLDEN COMPASS yesterday.  which is a whole nother post, i tell you.  except a boring, nerdy one about how even with low expectations i was pretty disappointed.  although if you ignored all the plot stuff with the book, it was a pretty good movie.  i liked that they kept the part in about iorek taking the other bear's jaw off.  it was just so beautiful.  *sniff*

seriously though, i do have a whole list of things about this movie that i could go into, but i will spare you except to say, WHERE WAS THE HEAD OF STANISLAUS GRUMMAN?

tomorrow vicky, leah and i go to waitomo to go on a caving trip.  we are paying a lot of money to go underground and look at some glow worms, but i get to abseil and go tubing WITH SOME EELS.  super not looking forward to that part.  and then on the day after that, whatever day it is, we go to gisborne for a couple of days, off to napier for new year's, and then will be our five-day hike around and up to the top of mt. taranaki.  it should be fun, and i'm sure there will be lots of photos!

the food edition

i may not have had a thanksgiving this year, but i think i just made up for it with possibly more to come.  the last two days i went to barbecues, the one yesterday being held at the home of the guy i work for, and the other one here in the garden of the backpacker's.  peter's wife ann made some fantastic food, including a pavlova, which is basically like a meringue.  in the form of a cake.  it's very light and airy and sweet.  and oh, so tasty!  today was a potluck, with all sorts of goodys.  most of them seemed to have garlic and/or rosemary, which we have in abundance at the front of the back house.  i used both of those ingrediants and made garlic rosemary breadsticks.  they were all eaten, so i guess that means they were pretty decent.  this is after last monday, when jessica and i made our fantastic tomato spinach pizza.

and no, i have not been eating any kiwifruit.  just in case you all were wondering!

i'm also trying to decide about going to big day out 2008 in auckland.  the problem i am having most is about the date, and not knowing if i will be able to go even if i buy a ticket.  tickets are about $100 so of course i want to be certain.  but the list of bands looks almost irresistable.  the cincher is arcade fire.  i don't know if it would be as good at a festival as a regular show, but do i look like i care?  meanwhile, i am still waiting to see golden compass.  i have what, ten more days?  *sigh*

tgif...seriously.

so i know that i had a whole bunch of stuff i wanted to say, but i am so exhausted that i couldn't tell you what it was.  this will happen to you after a week of this really fun job that i have.  it wasn't even a full week, we got rained out on monday.  i am glad of the weekend though, today was very trying.  the canopy was super wet, so everytime we pulled anything down this morning it was like taking a shower.  plus, i had my hair in braids which kept getting snagged on the canes.  usually i wear a bandana over my hair but it was making my head cold what with all the water i had been doused with and was even more annoyingly getting snagged on canes than my hair was.

see, i am so tired that i don't even know what it was that i was talking about in the previous paragraph and I JUST TYPED IT.

anyway, it's the weekend now and i have to decide what i am going to do week after next.  it's christmas, and i am thinking i will be doing something with leah and probably vicky, but i don't know what yet.  we may go to rotorua, or so the last email i received seemed to say.  and then the waitomo caves, i hope!  and then i would like to look for work somewhere that is NOT tauranga.  that would be fantastic.

since my words are not working, i will just give you some pretty pictures to look at.  but i will not put up the one of the really yummy pizza that jessica and i made on monday.  it was so good, that looking at it will just make me even hungrier and then i will cry alligator tears about my current lack of food.

is someone singing "it's a small world"?

yesterday i met my second american since auckland.  he's from seattle, and do you know what we have in common?

naknek, alaska.  i met a fellow cannery worker (not ags, but still!) in tauranga, new zealand.

i have more, photos, but i'm out of time!

rain rain, go away

apparantly there has been a lack of rain up until now, and the weather is currently making up for it.  which is good for things like kiwifruit plants, but bad for those of us who are trying to make money pruning them.  i worked one full day, and three partial days this whole last week.  i would like to say that at least i enjoyed the rest, but that is not true.  i am so tired.  i can't sleep.  i would like nothing more than to no longer be an insomniac.  although the pain i get in my right shoulder could go away too and i would like that quite a bit as well.

since i got here i'm pretty sure i've read at least ten books.  and i've been here a month today.