more recently

since i've been back in rotorua, leah and i have spent a few days doing very little at all (including hours spent lying on beaches in the sun) and have done a few touristy things as well.  the most looked-forward too one by me was the hangi.  a hangi is a way of cooking food that uses the heat from the ground (since most of new zealand, and especially rotorua, is very geo-thermically active) to cook food in a pit.  it's a big touristy thing to do, as there are a few maori tribes in the area who have commercialized it by doing it specifically for tourists along with performing a concert and the like.  the one we went to, mitai, also takes you down to a river to see a waka (canoe) being paddled up by some men in traditional dress.  that was followed by the concert, where amongst other things, they performed their tribe's haka and taught the crowd about moko (tattoos), weaponry, and musical instruments.  it was really cool.  and then we ate.  a lot.  the food that had been cooked in the hangi included chicken, lamb, potato, and kumara.  there were also salads and a cheesey potato bake, plus dessert of trifle and chocolate cake.  leah and i both at two heaping plates full AND dessert.  it was so good!  the lamb, especially.  we then went on a short walk to see some glow worms and the sacred spring of the tribe.  it was such clear water, and very pretty, but i was distracted by the incredibely long eel in it.  i really, really hate eels.  they freak me out and i don't know why, but i don't like them.  when we went to waitomo, leah had said something about eels before we went and i was thinking about them the whole time.  eek!

anyway, along with our ticket for the hangi, we got a free voucher to do the walk at hell's gate thermal reserve.  it's supposed to be the most active thermal reserve in the area, and was named so by george bernard shaw, who also named a lot of the features in the reserve.  we'd already seen a lot of mud pots and such, so it was kind of like, wow, not so exciting, but we did get to see a really cool mud volcano.  it's 2.4 meters tall, and they are usually only one meter tall.  it behaves just like an actual volcano, it erupts and everything every so often, but it is made out of mud.  crazy!  we liked that a lot.  we also got to make wood carvings to bring home with us, mine is a hammer head shark which symbolizes "strength".  it looks like an amateur did it, which is the case.

i also received my first mail in over two months, i got some photos and a card from erika!  it totally made my day!  i also talked to her on the phone a little bit today, and got to hear david some.  it makes me more homesick for awhile to talk to everyone, but i love so much to hear people's voices, so it's worth it.  tomorrow leah and i head out to wellington.  should be very exciting!

a hangi, and a waka.