Kaituna River Plung

The water swirls in a counter clockwise fashion , the Southern Cross blazes the sky at night, Orion stand on his head at the pit of night, and the air reeks of sulfur? What does that matter when I am in Rotorua and there is a 21 foot waterfall that I can raft over.

The Kaituna River squeezes its way through a small channel surrounded by Rotorua jungle laden with palm trees and indigenous NZ ferns. It swirls and it flows gently as if were hiding a secret.

I joined a tour group in Rotarua, two Swedes, a Korean who could not swim, an Irishman, myself, and our Kiwi river rat guide. What a crew! The first major secret of the Kaituna revealed itself in the form of a 8 foot waterfall. Certainly one of the under cards to the main event. Eight feet, should anyone get concerned?

After the opening act, we meandered down the river winding through the most beautiful jungle of Rotorua. We only stopped for a few moments to insult the Irishman and to scare the Korean girl. By the way, that is me with the paddle high in the air. The second of the Kaituna's surprises was taken in stride. A slight 11 foot fall throwing us into a calm lagoon. Paddle hard, paddle hard......

As I look back on things, I see my experience on the Kaituna as a reflection of the power of water, and never question that power. We settled into a nice ride down the river after the last rapid. Our river guide, witty and blunt, gave us the hint that the Kaituna was about to give up her secret soon by asking the Korean if she thought that the life jacket was secure enough. What was to come was only heard about by my new friends in the raft, and foreshadowed by our guide. The Kaituna River gave up it's secret in the form of a 21 foot waterfall that squeezed its way through a narrow patch in the canyon. Twenty one feet, and here we go..... Time lapse....

Notice the anxious look on my face.....

And than I start swallowing water....

Than I disappear....

Than everyone disappears.....

We, or at least I gasp for breath......

We survived.....

What an adventure......!

Waitangi and Rotorua

I may be a couple of months behind in our blog, but hopefully with the next few entries, I can get you up to speed on our adventures.


So where was I..... Oh yeah, we didn't leave Pahia without visiting Waitangi, where a treaty was signed by the indigenous Maori people and the English to create a cohesive society together. Every year new Zealand has a Waitangi Day to celebrate the Treaty. Also every year, they take this Maori waka (canoe) out in the bay for a spin. This particular waka could carry 140 people, and with all paddles stroking could get up to about 30 mph on the water. How cool is that, they can pull a water skier with that sort of speed.
The waka is kept at Waitangi all year round under a shelter adorned with carvings like the one below.

The waka is made out of the indigenous giant kauri trees. Kauri trees are the giant trees of New Zealand, and once dominated the forests. In the early 1900's, the trees were logged heavily because of the wood that could be harvested from the giant logs. Unfortunately, the resource was decimated by over logging, and only a few small kauri forests still exist.
Tana Mahuta, the kauri tree above is the largest in existence today. It is 14 feet in Diameter, and I can't remember how tall it is. The largest ever recorded was 17 feet in diameter, but was cut by the logging industry. Absolutely huge trees, but still does not compare with the Redwoods of California.

While Don and Barb were still in town, we decided to take them down to Rotorua, which is about 3 hours south of Auckland. It is known for the thermal springs, and as the hub for Maori culture in New Zealand. While in Rotorua, we took part in a Maori cultural event that explained how the Maori lived 200 years ago.

The event was extremely well put on and taught us heaps about the culture and tradition. At the beginning of the event, traditionally dressed Maori men arrive in a waka.
Further along in the event, the tribe went through traditional songs and greetings to new friends or enemies. They preformed a stunning and intimidating Haka which is a traditional greeting by the Maori to visitors. It was a sight to see! Later in the evening all of the visitors were treated to a traditional hangi, which is a Maori term for barbecue meat and veggies buried in the ground. Further travel from Rotorua on the next day brought us through some strange towns and giant Kiwi bird sculptures. One small little town was dotted with giant Kiwi's. One was panted in the national flag colors and another with rainbow colors.

Anyway, our trip that day lead us to Waitomo Caves. The sculpture above was at the entrance of Waitomo Caves. The cave itself is tourist friendly, with a staircase that leads down to a grand cathedral opening deep in the mountain. In this portion of the cave during Christmas, the town symphony will set up and play a concert for the locals. Apparently the acoustics are amazing.

The great part about the Waitomo tour is the end. In order to exit the cave, you must take a boat through a passage cut out by a river that flows beneath the main portion of the cave. As you are guided through the black water, above your head are glow worms. Glow worms are larvae of a type of fly that inhabit the caves, and are only found in New Zealand. The larvae hang from the cave ceiling and extend a slimy tentacle down to catch any sort of bug that it can feed off of. While feeding, the larvae emit a blue glow. The cave had thousands of glow worms on the ceiling and looked like a constellation of stars in the blackness. The fly that results from the larvae only has a life of about 2 weeks or so, so there is not much use for them in the end. Most of the adult flies get caught in the larvae tentacles and are consumed. And thus is the circle of life for this strange creature. I would post a picture, however, we were not allowed to snap any photos.

We had a blast, and saw some awesome NZ only sights. The last picture above, I just thought was pretty cool.....