Guardian

After almost an hour's drive we arrive in Rotoura and pick up a few flyers at the visitor center. Here we want to get to know the Maori culture, go on a rafting tour and go on a volcano hike. We have to book for everything and haven't informed ourselves yet. We start with the Maori tour, a tour of the village, food and dancing. So the whole tourist program. But since we didn't meet anyone during our trip, we wanted to learn something from the culture. There are a variety of providers, but the one we liked best is unfortunately fully booked for the next two weeks. Everyone else doesn't convince us and we now have doubts as to whether we would like such a tour. So here it is for everyone who might ask: No, we didn't see any famous Haka dances.

The next day we drive to the rafting and volcano provider at lunchtime and book a combination tour for two days with them. Since most people do these two activities in one day, she hassle-free rebooking for us so that we can split it over two days. In the end we are all confused and hope everything works out. Afterwards we walk along the Okere Falls and the river. Here is probably the highest raftable waterfall in the world at 7 m and we will paddle down it tomorrow. We see a few other rafters and Maren is really excited. We end the evening with a glass of wine and a wonderful sunset.

After a hearty breakfast and a shower in the visitor center, our volcano hike begins. We are picked up at the center by our two guides and are a little nervous as to whether everything will work because they are both late. Since the booking was so complicated, we are worried that something went wrong. It's not and we are picked up by two very funny, sweet and relaxed guys. A few other people are picked up and we drive the van up to the volcano that belongs to the Maoris. The boys tell us a lot about the story and one of them prays for us in Maori. He also explains to us the word kaitiaki, which means "protector". He means that we are all responsible for protecting the earth/nature and therefore we are all kaitiakis. I can't quite summarize his speech, but I remember that we were very moved. One of the group has never been on a mountain in her life and is already sliding unsteadily on her sneakers after the first few meters. The other one is wearing sandals, well that could be something. The views are amazing and since we have our hiking boots on, we are always the first at the next stop. The highlight for us was running steeply down through the lava sand. With a huge cloud of dust behind us and a lot of distance, we are the first in the crater below. Then we went back up the stairs and took the car back to the city. After washing the cat in the lake, we go to a food market and then to a bar that simply closes at 10 a.m. Maybe it won't do any harm, because our rafting tour is tomorrow morning.

We are picked up again in a van and drive to the rafting base. Here we are equipped with all the equipment and driven to the start of the tour in another bus. Here too, the guides are incredibly relaxed and nice, we feel very comfortable. Before we go into the water, we pray in Maori. After a few meters of practice, you can get started straight away. Two waterfalls, several rapids and a few moments of nonsense in between. Everything goes super fast and I can hardly say “Ouch!” Maren is supposed to sit on one of the rapids at the front of the boat and it looks very funny as she jumps around on it. I hang on the side of the boat with 3 other people and almost get washed away. And our boat makes it down the waterfall without capsizing. Zack, we were already at the end of our tour. We had a lot of fun with that. We spend the evening relaxing at the lake again before continuing the next morning.