Catching Up

I am very sorry that I have neglected my blog for half a month. I would like to take this opportunity to catch up with you, the reader. How are you? Did you watch a movie recently? How was it? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. Well, that was fun. See you next time!
Oh, I should mention what I've been doing? I guess I have time. I'm not going out in the cyclone today.
The Rest of Orientation Week
I was going to write these days out one at a time, but I am a month behind. Let me summarise.
Adventure Day
The first Sunday of my trip, our group left us to our own devices in Rotorua. Most of us had listened to the notifications about planning an "Adventure Day" package. These packages included activities such as rafting and luging. I am not most people. I had no plans today, but luckily (for me), neither did my friends. We decided to try Zorbing for a measly $30 (all prices are in New Zealand dollars).
What is Zorbing? That's a silly question. But let me explain.

Post-Zorbing

Do you see that ball in the background? You don't? Are you using Internet Explorer? For those who see the picture, the ball is the Zorb. People go into the Zorb and roll down a hill. My friends and I decided to race by going at the same time in pairs. I paired up with my friend on the right (Alex). Due to the fact that I'm 55kg (120lb), Alex and I lost. Physics was not on my side (as per usual). Why are we wet? The Zorbs are filled with warm water before they roll down the hill.

After Zorbing, we decided that we wanted to explore Rotorua and see a geyser park. Here are some sights.

An "average" lake

Swimming not advised

I found a nature!

While not sightseeing, we discussed school (because we're cool). It may not have been an enormous adventure, but we had more adventures ahead of us, and most importantly, it was cheap!

Volunteer/Beach Day

The next day, we were expected to contribute to our community. We were driven to Tauranga to perform two separate community service tasks. The first was planting. We would take a plant (the same used to make my flower), and put it in a small bag with soil. Simple enough. I surprised myself by not messing up any of the three plants I planted. Hold your applause until the end, please.

The next activity was weeding. A normal task, yes, but not when this is the scenery.

 

Probably the funnest weeding I've ever done.

Once our "community service" was finished, we were taken to a beach featuring the Tasman Sea. But not just any beach, this beach was next to a mountain. If we wanted to (which I did), we could tramp (hike) up a mountain before relaxing at the beach. So my friends and I did.

On our way up

Victory!

Thomas gets his moment on his twentieth birthday

Who knew there were sheep here? Oh, right. Everyone.

That boat looks like it ate several boats

The mountain we climbed

We decided to celebrate our glorious tramps with ice cream (yes, sorbet can be good and it was). Surprisingly, the "kiddie" size was a decent size scoop. And here I thought large child-size portion foods was an American thing (save all boos until the end).

The Tasman Sea

And here we have the beach. We didn't have too much time to spend here, but every minute was magical. Though I did get a mouthful of sea water, but it has been too long since that happened.

Cave Day

Our last day of Orientation was a caving day. Days before, we were given the option of either going "toobing" (the group was called Tumu Tumu Toobing) in a cave or repelling in a cave. Ryn and I chose the later because we've never repelled before, but I later heard that Alex and Thomas had a great time "toobing".

As Ryn and I headed toward our cave (doom), I was getting increasingly nervous. It didn't help that one of the songs we listened to was Radioactive (with the line "this is it, the Apocalypse"). On top of that, while we practising with our ropes (you know, the things that keep us from falling), I was having trouble remembering all of the subtle (pretty obvious) nuances of fastening myself. It takes awhile to get into the thick of the cave with a large group of people, and we needed to descend a small looking ladder into the darkness. We finally get to the first repelling sight and at this point, we are informed that we will be dropping down a twenty-metre (more than sixty-foot) cliffside. And the first thing we need to do before we start to repel is "jump off the cliff".

Anxiety ridden, I took the plunge. It was an amazing experience! From then on it was an awesome adventure full of repelling down cliff-sides and waterfalls and crawling through tight spaces that are filled with water.

Don't worry, it's fine

One of the main features of this cave was glow-worms. Occasionally, we would turn out our lights and gave at the captivating little specks of green on the walls. We would take a break from all of the awesome to get a fascinating lesson on the lifecycle of the glow-worm. Fun for all!

After our adventure ended, we held a talent show at our Hostel. Thomas won the competition with a hilarious stand-up routine, Ryn received second place with one of his excellent poems, and I...participated with a karate form.

Thomas, Ryn and I celebrated by heading to the Lava Bar. Word to the wise: do not get a Long-Island Ice Tea. Thomas spent $20 on that little "treat". The music was loud as and the outside was smokey, but it was interesting to experience the bar scene for the first time.

Next time, learn more about my current life!