On to Aotearoa...New Zealand!!!

Black Water Rafting through caves in a mountain. It's like Nutty Putty Caves, but with a raging river through it, and it doesn't smell like pee. You go in this teeny, tiny crack in the hill, then split between floating in your tube, hiking through rapids, and ducking your head because there's about a foot between the water and the ceiling. The coolest part is that there are glow worms on the ceiling, it's like Space Mountain at Disneyland where all the stars are on the ride, only they're worms. Very cool, and freezing!
Huka Falls...

I know many of you are like, "Okay Jenny-we get it. You went on a trip, enough with the marathon of pictures!" which is totally true, so I'm sorry but I am pretty sure this is the last post of our trip...New Zealand everyone! It's as amazing as you could possibly imagine...:)

Below is a video of the dorm at Church College that is headed by a former player of my dad's. They did the most amazing haka for my dad to say thanks from his old player Brett...awesome. My camera ran out of memory, but it was like a 4-5 minute haka, and was crazy intense...

This is our really good fam friend Dean's son Menassah playing Paper, Rock, Scissors with Brandon. I put this on so you can hear his cute accent.

Bungy Jumping in New Zealand!!! Awesome!!!

This was by far the most terrifying thing I have ever done. Sara and I decided to do it together to try to muster up more courage. So we went out on the platform, after my mom, Keaton, and Brandon all went, got strapped in, and almost wet ourselves. We waddled to the edge, and the rope was so heavy I thought it was going to take me right over. Then we smiled for the camera in our half smile/half terrified out of our minds look, listened to the worker yell "3,2,1,BUNGY" and it was all we could do to just fall off the edge. Most everyone else got dunked in the river as they bottomed out on the first jump, and we asked to but didn't make it. This was amazing!

Here is the video my dad took. I couldn't figure out how to get it to rotate right side up, so you'll just have to turn your head. If anyone knows how to rotate videos, please lend me your expertise.:)

Back to Tonga...

So I put a slide show on earlier, but I figured I'd put more on here before my trip is so outdated that it doesn't matter. So bear with me as I put more pictures up from my trip. Tonga was awesome. It is very poverty-stricken, but sooo beautiful. It really made me feel greatful for what I am used to on a daily basis, even electricity and running water, because so many people there don't have anything, and associate the US with what heaven would be like. It's a dream to them, and we have it so easy. It was just an amazing cultural experience...

We had to make a pit stop in Samoa on our way to Tonga...
At church...
We all bought these big clubs and started a white street gang at the market...

It was all coral and rock where you walk into the water, then about 75 yards out there are big coral rocks where the reef breaks with the water. All of us would sit out where the water came in and just get rocked. Most of us ended up with big cuts and scrapes because that coral is super sharp-but it was definitely worth it!


A sweet blue starfish we found in the shallow reef.
Blowholes on the coastline. They went up and down the coast for as long as we could see. These HUGE waves would come up and kablast the water up.
The newly re-built Tongan temple.

Kaituna Cascades Rafting

We went to Tonga first, but I had this disc and thought I would share my rafting expedition since it wouldn't take that long. We went down to Rotarua in New Zealand and went on the most amazing rafting adventure ever. I love rafting in Jackson Hole, but this place puts it to shame. The best part of the trip was the 19 foot waterfall that we went over. Our group didn't tip, but others did, and it was awesome.

A quick quip...

I just laughed the hardest I have laughed in a while, so I thought I'd share... Sara, Brandon, my mom, and I were waiting in the car for Dean's sons rugby game to begin. While we were in Tonga, my mom collected a boat load of sea shells. Turns out that she is going to Young Women's camp soon, she's the YW pres, and she has to do a lesson. So she was going over some ideas in the car and wanted to do a lesson on how life is like a sea shell...hmmmmm? So on we went asking what in the world she was going to take from that. She started rolling off her ideas, like " some are really pretty on the outside, some aren't...they carry their homes with them..." We busted up laughing..."So mom...you want to teach your Young Women that some of them are ugly, and they should strive to be homeless bag ladies?"...It reminded us of sitting in church and hearing analogy after analogy that people come up with from their life experiences, and alot of the time, Sara and I just look at each other like "what?"...I love it. Gotta love Cathy G. She tries oh so hard...:)

Tatatatonga Preview-tastic!!!

We have escaped reality and gone off with the rugby team on tour to Tonga and New Zealand for 3 weeks. I thought I'd just post a few pictures of some of our adventures and then will do more when I get home because I know you are all just dying of anticipation to see pictures of us! We stayed at Liahona High School, an LDS high school, in Tonga for a week, then flew here to NZ yesterday. We are staying in Papakura with some good friends of my family's, Dean Grace-for those who have known me for a long time, you might remember him. Then we will be off to Hamilton and Church College, another LDS high school, to stay. We are going to a Maori All Blacks game tomorrow, which is a step down from the NZ All Blacks...very fun! Well, you can view the slide show if you want, and I love you all :)

Champs!

My cousin Daniel won the MVP award for the Championship game.

Downtown Pittsburgh. My Aunt Val, Sara, Leima, Amy, Lisa, me...
Noa, Leima, Sara, and me on the ducky tour that drove on land and then went like a boat into the river. Pretty Cool...
Stuart Bradley who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, and Haloti Ngata who plays for the Baltimore Ravens are alumni and came out to support the boys.

The boys modified the end of the haka to make it specific to Highland Rugby. I absolutely love it.