May 19, 2010
Yesterday we went to Ragland to the black sand beaches. The sand was black because of the iron content. It was also velvety smooth to the touch. We just had an awesome day just soaking up the sun and sea shell hunting. The shells were everywhere! I took a purple and tiger striped one back with me. Then we went back to the bunks to rest for the next day so we had to get up so early, however, we stayed up all night talking as usual. Who cares though it was awesome bonding time!
Today we packed up and left for Waitomo to go Black Water Rafting. Me and the other Hayley were terrified to death about the description in the brochure. It said the trip had many twist, turns, and leaps of faith. Sounds very extreme to me! We definitely worked ourselves up over nothing, because the experience was unforgettable. The walk down was hard because the floor of the cave was very uneven and most of the time the water was cloudy from previous people so that you could not see where the rocks were. Then there was these awesome glow worms everywhere that we got to see after we got to relax in the tubes and we floated through the cave. We learned that the glow worms were not glow worms, because they do not exist. They are instead the poop of magnet larve. They produce bioluminescence light when they excrete their waste. The best part of the ride was the waterfall. As scared as I was I turned around backwards, held the tube to my bum, and got pushed off the 6 foot drop off. Mostly because I did not have the guts to jump myself, but it was so much fun. I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Then we went for lunch and headed for Ohope, which was a long four hour drive. We have a beach front cabin now that is literally a 2 minute walk from the ocean. Later we barbequed sausages and wrote in our journals and just hung out. Well that’s all for today

Halee Burrow

Today was great! It was an early morning and the activity was freezing, but it was so worth everything. So, what did we do? We went black water rafting, one of the most fun thrills you can do. We shoved ourselves into wet suits. Actually, we girls took to a team effort of lifting the wet suit up our comrade into her second skin. After getting into our suits, we fit our butts to some tubes and then plunged into freezing cold water. Well, that’s an exaggeration, the water wasn’t THAT cold, but it was cold enough to get complementary tomato soup afterwards.
So, on to the fun stuff. We went to the town of Waitomo, which means “water hole” in Maori, and set out to explore the cave of Ranui. Down into a dark tunnel and over some carved limestone, we turned our headlights on and trekked through stalactites, stalagmites, and cave coral following a stream to the main cave river. There were two waterfalls, at the highest six feet high, that we jumped off backwards. All of this to take a leisurely float in the dark with glow worms lighting our way.
We learned some interesting stuff about these little natural wonders. As Hayley said, they are actually larva of a fly. The lifestyle of this bug is spending most of its life glowing and faking mosquitoes and other insects that that light is a way out. These bugs then get caught in little sticky strands that the larva hang down like fishing lines and become the larva’s gourmet meal. For nine months, these larva get to eat and shine, but after that, they turn into their fly selves with no mouth or digestive track. The flies unfortunately only get to live for two days; their only purpose is to make babies. 200 eggs are laid, but only 20 will hatch, and the cycle starts all over again.
I have never experienced something like this before and definitely had a blast. This beautiful country keeps amazing me, and we still have a long way to go!

Amanda Hickman

Hey Friends!
Our 9th day in New Zealand was pretty adventurous- black water rafting in a cave. It was pretty awesome! The cave was in Waitomo. “Wai” means water and “tomo” means hole in Maori. So, as Amanda says, Waitomo means “water hole.” The actual name of the cave is Ranui.
When we get to the office, we split up into 3 groups with 10 people per group. I was in the first group that went at 8:15 am. Rafting in a cave at 8 a.m., not a bad way to start off the morning, huh? They first had us get into these super think, tight, and hard to get into wet suits. It took us forever to get into them. Then they gave us boots and helmets with headlamps attached to them. After we got all of our gear on, they took us to a river and taught us how to jump off a dock using our inner-tubes. The jump wasn’t that high off the river, but it was still terrifying.
Finally, we were all ready to head inside the caves. In the caves, we saw many stalactite and stalagmite formations. We had to be careful not to hit our helmets on the formations . Our guide said that it takes 100 years for the formations to grow one cubic centimeters. ONE cubic CENTIMETER! That’s a long time. Although it was really cold in the caves, and the water was freezing, our wet suits kept us warm. The best part was jumping off the waterfalls. I was definitely scared, but glad I did it. It’s not every day that you jump backwards off a waterfall in a dark cave. It was a once in a lifetime chance and I had to seize it!
All throughout the journey through the cave, we say glow warms! Except, today we learned that glow worms are actually maggot larvae- pretty interesting. They glow because they emit a bioluminescence light after they burn off their food for energy. So basically, the light we were seeing was glowing poop-gross, yet very intriguing.
After we got done, we got complimentary soup and bagels. Man, the tomato soup sure warmed me up real fast! Currently we are in Ohope. Tomorrow we will go to White Island where there is an active volcano. Black water rafting, active volcanoes, gorgeous coves- New Zealand is turning out to be trip of a lifetime!
With love,

Venusa Phomakay