Sunrise Take 2

Dear adventurers!

This past weekend I went on one incredible adventure!  Along with my fellow explorers World Wide Adventurers Porangi and Aoturoa, we pulled our behinds out of bed at 4:45am so that we could hit the trails before the sunrise.  Our goal for the day: to reach Butter's Peak before sunrise and perform some form of ritual morning dance.  Was it a success?  Well, you tell me.

We were meant to meet up with a group of explorers from the University Tramping Club, but for some reason the walk to the base of the trail took longer than expected.  So it was just the three of us.  About two thirds into the hike, we could see the sun was beginning to rise but had not crested the horizon yet.  We still had a good 20-30min to go, so what did we do?  We booked it up there.  Of course this would not have been such a problem had there not been left-over snow and ice along the trail, which made it twice as hard.

But we made it!  May I just point out how views can be three times more breathtaking when you crest over a peak?  For instance, as you look at the video below, I was climbing up the rocky side of Butter's Peak and as soon as I crested over the top, I was almost blown off the mountain by the view of the red fireball in front of me.  Don't you agree?

Once we calmed down from the excitement of the view (yes, we got quite psyched, especially WWA Porangi), we started to perform the ritual.  Now we had no clue what we were doing, but to thank the good spirits for the new day and the success of our hike, we were told by anonymous sources to climb upon one of the jutting rocks and performed a myriad of poses/ dance.  Again, the instructions were lacking in information and we had no clue what were doing.  Here are just a few photos of the best poses:

The Bird

The Cat or Panther or something...

The Swan

The Gorilla or Monkey

The Toilet Squat or Frog

The Gecko

The Warrior

Which is your favourite?  Have you heard of or recommend any other rituals or regions you wish me to explore?  Break is coming up, so depending on my already scheduled trips, I may be able to satisfy the masses.

Until then, this is W.W.A. Rhondiggity, signing out.

PS: Porangi= crazy, be insane; Aoturoa= earth, nature

Photos 2-8 courtesy of  W.W.A. Porangi.

The Odd Case

My fellow Adventurers!

What crazy adventurers have I been on!  In addition to exploring the New Zealand region, I have been spending a good deal of time exploring and investigating the people who reside in the city.  My findings thus far are that a greater part of the population consist of young adults who apparently spend most of their time in big fancy buildings either listening to their elders tell them about specific topics (more than once a week!), while also spending a good deal of time in a building they call the library, researching, writing and reading.  It is wonder they don't get sick of it!

Oh wait, yes, yes they do!  In fact to get away from all of it, and I guess as some sort of reward, they appear to really enjoy the night life and going to the "watering hole" to enjoy friends company.  I believe they also hope to find a mate there, but that will require further investigation.  However I have found their method of sizing up a person as a potential partner rather intriguing.  You see, the people will walk around town in their little groups (usually gender specified).  The males will go "hang" by the bar, while the ladies enjoy moving their bodies to the rhythm of music.  This is called dancing, or more modernly "booty shaking."  If the way they move intrigues a male, then he will approach her from behind and dance along with her.

This is rather different to what many people of a certain age are used to.  Back in the day, it was more common for the male to either approach from the front, or to simply ask a female to dance in the first place, with his attraction being her personality and of course her looks.  Today, this is not the case.  The male will just strut up from behind and, whether or not the female approves or likes the male, he will get right up close and dance along with her.

If the female was not intending to attract anyone, which is highly unlikely, or is not mutually attracted to the male, she will either trick him into thinking she is pulling a new move and spin away and get in the middle of her pack, where the rest of the females will keep her from the male.  Or depending on the personality, she will be abrupt, stop dancing, and walk away.  Either method ends up being awkward and unpleasant.

As I said before, this territory is new for me and I have yet to get more solid evidence and proof.  I hope to investigate this further within the next week or so, but for now my investigation of the day life of a kiwi is yet to be completed.

Until then, this is W.W.A. Rhondiggity, signing out.