Three More Adventures

I've met many interesting and great people here while studying abroad. One of the first people I met was somebody named Sultan. If I remember right I met him on the about the second or third night I moved into 29 Helena (the flat I live in). Sultan is from Saudi Arabia so you can imagine the interesting conversations we had regarding the differences between the U.S. and the Middle East. All differences aside Sultan is a great and very kind man and I am very fortunate to have met him. Unfortunately I met Sultan when he only had a couple weeks left in New Zealand as he was trying to get back home. He had been having difficulties leaving the country because somebody had stole his passport and wallet when he was in Auckland giving him a whole lot of problems. But this was also a blessing for us. Since he was leaving Sultan wanted to do as much stuff as he could before he left New Zealand (the way he saw it he probably would never be returning) so we were invited to join him in visiting some of his favorite places near Hamilton before we left. Most of our travels were spontaneous (that seems to be a theme for most of the things we do) but they were always a blast. So I thought I would use this blog post to talk about some of the things that we did as they were some of the first adventures we took in New Zealand.

Our first adventure with Sultan was to go to a natural hot and cold pool in Rotorua where a hot stream met a cold stream. We decided to go there, drink and spend the night. We didn't get there until after dark (another one of those spontaneous things) but it didn't matter because it is not uncommon to visit there after dark as we found out from the other people that were there when we got there. The place is basically two streams that converge: one is normal cool water while the other is heated from the underground. Where they meet is where you sit and you basically choose the temperature you want to be in. It was definitely quite the experience sitting in a rainforest in a thermal pool. We sat in the stream until around 4 am and then made a small fire and went to bed. The only downside was the smell of sulfur. Seeing the steam rise as the air temperature cooled also made for quite a beautiful and serene environment.

Me

Loved walking around everywhere barefoot

Fire 

The cool stream

The hot stream

The other place that we went to with Sultan that sticks out in my mind was Kawhia beach. This is a pretty isolated but it has some thermal activity below it. So you basically walk along the beach feeling out the sand trying to find a warm spot. By warm I mean if you dig your toes in far enough it literally feels like they are burning. Once you find the warm spot you begin to dig and create a little hole. The small hole fills with warm water and you can sit and chill inside until high tide washes it out. So thats what we did we found a warm spot, dug it out and sat until the high tide came. It was also dark outside which made it a tiny bit more adventurous. Another really cool thing is in the water at night there is a certain algae (Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates for those of you with a biology background) that glows when it is stimulated by contact. So every time water splashes on you there are a million little speckles that glow like stars to the sky. It was very cool and quite fascinating while slightly magical at the same time. Being a biology major you really do appreciate things like this since this is stuff I've only read about in books and to finally see it really brings its wonder to life.

Walking out to the beach

Digging our hole

The final thing I want to discuss that we did with Sultan during his final week in New Zealand is our trip to Tauranga and climbing Mt. Maunganui at Mt. Maunganui beach. The trip started out with us just wanting to spend a day at the beach at Tauranga, which is where two of my flatmates are from. It is a very beautiful town. And the beach it also a picturesque place as well. We spent some time swimming and chillin then we went and got some fish and chips and walked out along a cliff like out crop. 

We stopped at a waterfall on our way. This was the only picture I felt like posting.

Eating our lunch

Our view while eating lunch

My barefoot again

Where we ate lunch

Somebody's house (they breed race horses)

To end the day we wanted to climb the small mount and watch the sunset. So we did. The climb was nothing close to the future Mount Doom climb but it still drew some sweat. We got up about an hour before the sunset and enjoyed the beautiful view.

The beginning of the walk

I took the hard route

Sultan enjoying the view

Me

A quail

Sheep below us

So this was a highlight of the things we did with Sultan before we left. It was a great deal of fun and I hope someday to see Sultan again. One interesting thing I learned from Sultan was that in Saudi Arabia they pay for their gas with the change in there car. 

Another thing you may have noticed throughout this entry is me mentioning my barefeet. Walking around barefoot in New Zealand in public places is completely normal, which is pretty damn sweet. 

This was just a highlight of some of the things we got to do with Sultan before he left. We did throw him a big mexican fiesta before he left (on his request) but I feel like this is not the time or place to tell about it. 

This was just one of the many great people I have met during my time here.