Following my trip way down south, I traveled up to the Cambridge/Hamilton area, which is a couple hours south of Auckland. The family of my Kiwi friend, William, was kind enough to put me up on their beautiful farm. The land has been in their family for a long time, and is now used for growing kiwifruits and raising cows.
As a freeloader, I was happy to volunteer my assistance with picking the kiwifruits. This must be done delicately, as squeezing too hard can leave bruises, and fingernails can leave cuts. Our team of ten or so family members and friends picked three rows of fruit in about two and half hours. Once I had mastered the art of kiwifruit picking, I was given a tour of the farm and taught how to drive the four-wheeler, which I quite enjoyed.
That evening we took a short walk into the Maungatautari Wildlife Reserve. A family friend of William’s volunteers there capturing kiwi birds and putting them into the reserve, so he knew how to call them. Although we heard one close by, he did not show himself to us.
The next day was rainy, so I got a small tour of Hamilton — a city, unfortunately, known for having nothing to do. The following day, however, was an adventure. William had won two passes to go on a caving tour, and because the guy running the company was a family friend, we were able to do the biggest (and most expensive) trip.
We started out with a 100-meter (328-foot) abseil down into the cave system. Abseiling is basically just sliding down a rope with a harness and breaking device. I probably would have been frightened if I hadn’t just gone bungee jumping.
Following the abseil in, we had a quick lunch and then walked through a cave for a good five hours. I use the term “walk” loosely because the cave was filled with water, so while most of our trek was wading through the stream, some of it was swimming. We also rock climbed, crawled and jumped into pools. Toward the end of our trip, we took a few minutes to lie back and enjoy the glowworms, which looked like stars in the cave. When we got back to the base, we were greeted with a barbecue.
The next day, we drove to Rotorua. Since this is the birthplace of Zorbing (rolling down a hill in a giant rubber ball), we had to give that a try. However, Rotorua is probably most famous for its thermal activity — the whole city smells like rotten eggs. So, following our jarring roll down a hill, we soaked ourselves in lovely hot pools.
The day finished with a small celebration for William’s father’s birthday. William’s mother is a fantastic cook, and she made a beautiful feast. William and I hopped on a bus later that night and got back to Wellington at 6:30 the next morning.