Why are we the only white people here?

Wow, this week has just flown by. On Thursday we met up with some people from our group and went to an English pub, where Candace, Averil and I danced to a live band playing Bon Jovi. I am pretty sure Candace and I were they only ones dancing who were not intoxicated.

Then Friday we found a Mexican restaurant, which is rare, so we tried it. It was good, but didn't really taste like Mexican food. Our waitress was Indian and the cook was from Cairo, go figure. We then went to a stake dance, with a western theme. I felt like I was recreating a scene from Napleon Dynomite. It was so hilarious. There were lots of old people, and awkward couples all dressed up in what they considered "western" wear. They had a live band, kind of. They played songs from their laptop then strummed the guitar and sang along. There was usually only 8 people dancing, 5 of which were us. At one point everyone was doing a line dance and following a 90 year old woman. We did meet someone from Utah State which was weird. Then (because we hadn't had enough awkward dancing) we decided to hit up a YSA (Young Single Adult) stake dance. I have never been to one of these in Utah and don't know why I was expecting it to be different in New Zealand. It was still the same group of people, and I felt like I was 15. I am not much of a dancer and while I was doing the safe slide-step clap, slide-step clap I was surrounded by Maori girls who were "gettin' jiggy wit it" to the blasting hip-hop music. As if I didn't stick out enough here.

Saturday our group went to see the Waitomo caves with the glow worms. You may recognize them from such films as PLANET EARTH! First we decided to go black water rafting where we suited up in wetsuits, jackets, boots, helmets and tiny inner tubes. Then we hiked across a green field and down into an underground cave.

Brooke, Jaylayne, Candace and I , looking very tough in our gear.

Once we started hiking the cave filled with water. We had to sit on our tiny inner tubes and float through the cave. At times they had us all turn off our lights. It was slightly creepy being in the pitch black floating down the water in a cave. Who knows what little creatures were there (that is probably why they had us turn off our lights).

There was a drop off where we stood at the top, held onto our tubes, looked up and fell backwards. It sounded very loud when people were dropping, but it actually wasn't too far, maybe 8-10 feet. This is me if you can't tell.


We saw glow worms when we were caving, then we also went on a tour through another cave where there were even more. The worms light up the tips of their tails, then secrete these long sticky strings. Other bugs fly to the light then get trapped in their nasty strings. They bring up the string and eat the bugs. The worms form cocoons like butterflies. When they emerge as adults they don't have a mouth, so they quickly mate and reproduce, then die of starvation. Awful eh?
At the end of our tour we took a short boat ride. There were so many glow worms it looked like stars in the sky. It was so beautiful, in a creepy cave sort of way.

Today, Sunday, Candace and I decided that we should go to church. We didn't really want to go to the singles ward (especially after the dancing) so we decided we would just find a church and go at 9:00 am. Steve said he knew where one was so he dropped us off. We walked in, sat down and realized we were the only white people there. We couldn't figure it out until we grabbed the hymn book and it said "Tongan branch". I was laughing so hard. Luckily the speakers were an older missionary couple who spoke in English but the rest of the meeting was done in Tongan. It is amazing that even though we don't speak Tongan, we still knew what was going on and it was still spiritual. I did feel like a missionary for a moment though, in a different country, it was just me and Candace, singing Choose the Right in Tongan.

After church we went on a drive to Pirongia, one of the mountains near by. We went on a little walk and had a picnic. It was beautiful. I wish I could take a picture that would really capture and show what the bush looks like but nothing does it justice.