Caving Hobbits

My dear Frodo,


Once upon a time you asked me if I had told you everything there is to know about my adventures.  While I can honestly say I told you the truth, I may not have told you all of it...

Last weekend Wellington celebrated its city-wide holiday, leaving Adam with a well timed three days off from work.  Always looking to capitalize on opportunities to put check marks up on our "too see" list, we headed north this time to the under appreciated city of Hamilton.  Enjoying cheap plane tickets up to Auckland, we enjoyed a quick jaunt back down south towards the tiny town of Matamata, made famous by Sir Peter Jackson and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Matamata is home to Hobbiton, and while we can't share any of the pictures we took while on tour of the movie set, we can show you a very Gollum-like Adam...

and a hobbit-like Callie.

No, this isn't where we get to start revealing all the inner-most secrets of the film...confidentiality agreements are iron-clad and binding...but we can tell you that we very much enjoyed our tour - at least up until our tour guide informed us that the way movie producers make average-sized actors look larger than Hobbits is by bringing in children to make the scale appropriate.  REALLY?!?  While it may seem flattering to be a child-like thirty, I bit my tongue.

Having left the shire, the next day we ventured a little farther south to the Waitomo Caves area. Blackwater Rafting has been on our radar pretty much since we arrived in Wellington - we simply hadn't found a good time go.  This was our chance - and we had a great, albeit chilly, time.  

The adventure started with a bit more abseiling practice.  In order to win the race down the hill, one needed to invert oneself entirely.  While I'm not sure I was first down the hill - I was the only one willing to attempt a wet-suit cartwheel in this group.

"The Evolution of the Starfish"

Down the rabbit hole...

Adam knows it's less scary if you close your eyes.

We crawled through some tight spaces...

but Hobbit-sized people find it much roomier.

And at the end of the trip all the survivors can say is...

"Bless us and splash us..." (Gollum)

Talofa Lava

Talofa Lava!

It's tough to believe that we've been home from Samoa for nearly a week now. It's even harder to believe how amazingly blessed we were to have the opportunity to visit such a beautiful country filled with even more beautiful people.

Samoa was our very first "beach vacation," so we did our best to sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. We stayed in a tiny, 10 hut resort for our week on Savaii, the larger but much less populated island in Samoa.

Here's a peek at our beachfront fale.

Homes on Savaii are usually comprised of two separate buildings. One enclosed home with windows and doors which is next to a separate, large, open fale that serves as a living room, dining room, and bedroom when the weather cooperates. Available to the breezes off of the water, the open fales capitalize on the merits of natural air conditioning. Apparently electric AC is reserved fairly exclusively for those inhabiting resorts. Our own cute little hut # ono made the best of every world; great sliding shutters to open up 3 sides of the room to breezes (while keeping out the bugs) and delicious, delicious air conditioning for the times when the shutters needed to close in order to keep out the rain. Plus, the view wasn't bad.

Truth be told, this is really how our view looked to us most hours of most days.  Well, Adam's, at least.

Ok, this is where we fess up to the fact that we apparently skirted the edges of a cyclone our first 24 hours on the island. While we enjoyed the drama of the boarded up windows and actually delighted in an excuse to hunker down in our fale for a day, we were ecstatic when the clouds lifted and the breezes eased enough for us to venture out and begin to explore our surroundings.

Callie counted 13 - yes thirteen different and distinct LDS church meetinghouses on Savaii.  Talk about  chapels with a view, this building sat only a few walking minutes away from the resort.  Too bad we weren't around for a Sunday.

Paradise just may be defined as anywhere with waves and palmtrees.  Oh, and a small store stocked with ice cold Diet Coke is a must-have.

Having maxed out our skin's tolerance to the intensity of the sun, our next day on Savaii was blessed with an amazing full day bus tour of the island in the company of two awesome Scottish women and a generous tour-guide host named Seti.  We hadn't been on the road for even 15 minutes before the van had stopped twice for fresh fruit from the side of the road.

Mangoes are delicious - but they're not easy to eat with grace.

Adam enjoyed a tree-top jaunt across a suspension bridge in the canopy of the island's cloud forest.

Island legends tell a tale about a mother and her daughter who jump to their deaths at Lovers Leap but return to the cove as a shark and a sea turtle.  We didn't see any turtles in the muddy waters but there was definitely a shark or two swimming below.

Adam's not sure about a Lover's Leap towards the sharks ...he's considering more of a Lover's Lean, instead.

Our midday stop was at the Alofa'aga blowholes.  

Our guide Seti and his trusty driver companion get the coconut shells ready....

throw....

BLOW!!!

Flying coconuts were amusing, but the fresh, ice-cold ones we had for lunch were even better.  Almost as in good, in fact, than the fresh pineapple that Seti cut up for us on the beach.

Turquoise waterfall paradise swimming, anyone?

The beauty of nature.

Savaii is, as I think we've established, gorgeous.  But it has a fiery history.  This church was demolished in a volcanic eruption in the early 1900's.  Mount Vailuluu is a temperamental giant who blew his top to cover parts of the island in thick lava rock.  Thankfully German soldiers were hanging out in the area on their large ships and were able to rescue the inhabitants of the island before anyone was injured.  

A bit of perspective as to the depth of the lava flow. 

Our final stop on the Savaii tour was for swimming with the turtles.  The family that cares for the lagoon where these rescued, often injured, turtles reside welcomes tourists to come and get up close and personal with the gentle giants.  A "health spa" for turtles, Samoan conservation officials periodically determine which turtles are ready to be released back into the wild.  In the meantime, they REALLY enjoy their papaya snacks.

Adam fell in love with another older woman.  

Callie wasn't so sure about her frisky man.

Back for a final beach day at the resort, Adam made friends with some locals...hermit-crabs, that is.  Sorry, Kara, I didn't find either Pearl or Ruffles (our childhood hermit-crabs who mysteriously disappeared during a particularly ugly sibling argument, I believe.)

Our final dinner in Savaii was timed perfectly with the resorts evening of feasting and dancing, the fiafia.  Better yet, the weather FINALLY allowed us to eat out in the open air under the sun and, eventually, the stars.

YUM!!

Callie was thrilled with the traditional performance of music and dance.  She was even more excited to see a "real life" version of a log drum she and Adam had tried to jigger-up her last year of teaching for an island musical piece for her girls' chorus.   Now if she had only brought her video camera...

At the end of the day, paradise is more about who you're with than where you are.  

But a palm tree doesn't hurt.

South Island Aventura

If the Junior Wilhoits had need for a battle cry it would likely be; "Aventura!"  From our very first days as a married couple in Costa Rica we have been pushing our limits and facing our fears together.  Perhaps we consider it an odd form of bonding.  Thus, it's no surprise that our trip down to Queenstown featured what the area is known best for:  Adventure.  We were able get ourselves into some white water rafting on the Shotover river where we has a wonderful time floating, paddling and learning about all the gold that miners relieved the canyon of in its history.  You'll have to take our word for it, though, since we did not get any pictures.  Simply think six seater blow-up boat with helmets and life jackets with a know-it-all Aussie/Indian and the oldest white water couple you've ever seen and you will get the gist of our travel down the river.

Not ones for resting too long, it was just a few days later that we found ourselves at the Queenstown iSite looking for our next adventure.  Wading through the impressive collection of possibilities we managed to find something that was new to us and did not include any excessive plummeting through the sky (and the more concerning spring back on a giant rubber band).  Canyoning, as we learned, is the combination of the fun sport of abseiling or rappelling, depending on your preference for German or French with a canyon filled with waterfalls and pools.

An hours drive north of Queenstown found us meeting our guides for the day in the beautiful little town of Wanaka.  From there we took another 45 minute drive into the Mt. Aspiring National Park where we were off for our adventure.  Gearing up for this adventure included the following equipment:

• Wetsuit
• Wetsuit booties
• Wetsuit gloves
• Wetsuit Skullcap
• Polar Fleece Insulator
• Rash Guard Shirt
• Harness
• Well-loved shoes
• Very Stylish Helmets (glittering gold for Callie and pink for Adam...he was comfortable with it)

As you can see, this produced a very flattering look when put together.  Lest you wonder why we already look exhausted - bear in mind that we had to hike straight UP the canyon with all of our gear prior to our descent down into it.  While the trek was strenuous, it actually made it feel more like you earned your adrenaline rush.

Safety and comfort came first, of course, as the water rushing through the canyon is true alpine water (sometimes glacial).  This trip is not even run during the winter because the temperature of the water is too cold and the course too dangerous.  It was hard to imagine the water getting any colder without freezing but the wetsuit did its job and we all kept warm enough during the trip.  Callie led the way with the first and longest straight down rappel into a waiting pool.

This is a beautiful smile in a wonderful scene but does not do the situation justice.  Fortunately we also captured some video of this adventure :)

After such a performance I followed Callie down the wall quite happily

Not purely rappeling, this trip also included some thrilling slides.  The first one fell a full 10 meters!

This was one of the longest walls we got to descend.  After doing the standard rappel for the first few meters, we would turn around and slide down with our back on the wall.  

Again I followed Callie, pausing to give the camera some good cheese.

Turn about being fair play, Callie did a great job capturing my graceful side.  (In defense of Callie's stellar videography she was attempting to film while half floating half treading water in the current of the freezing waterfall).  In other words - pardon the wetsuit glove...

Once on the bottom there was a good place to jump into the pool that Callie and I both took advantage of quite readily

This time Callie followed my brave example...after one of the other adventurers, of course

This canyon hosted many dramatic views that made even the simple task of walking beautiful and adventurous.  I was more than happy to lead this part.

This next rappel included a little bit of everything.  After a bit of abseiling and sliding it turned out the rope wasn't long enough - so we ended the descent with a plummet into the awaiting pool.

The view from below looked something like this ( I would be the little pink blob at the top right covered by LOTS of water ).

Continuing down the course...

It would seem that no adventure in New Zealand is complete without a flying fox.

The final slide was called "The Corkscrew" and, just to raise the fear factor, required a head first diving approach.

Callie deemed it all to easy after my slide and showed us how a professional does it.

One final lowering via pulley and we were out of the canyon.

Once back down at base came we were treated to delicious sandwiches, juice and cookies.  This trip will definitely go down as one of my favorites of all time...at least until we next get to holler "Aventura!" at the top of our lungs.