caving, glowworms, and the maori

Yesterday, I went caving in Waitomo, where I did not almost die unlike the last time I went caving, in Guatemala. To be fair, here in New Zealand, they arm you with a wetsuit, a helmet with a headlamp, a floating tube, and rubber boots. In Guatemala, we were barefoot in our bathing suits and were given candles to hold as a light source (while being required to swim, tubeless, at least a mile through the water). In any case, here, our guides took us through the gorgeous cave system where thousands of glowworms, tiny creatures that glow in the dark, were scattered along the cave walls like bright green stars. It was incredible, and you were left to sit there to wax poetic to yourself about how beautiful the world is until one of our cave guides explained to us that the glowworms were maggots that were pooping at that very moment. 

In the evening, we drove to Rotorua, where we were taken on a cultural tour of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. It is actually quite incredible here how New Zealanders know so much and take such an interest in the Maori. It could not be more different than our complete apathy and general ignorance of the American Indians who were supplanted when the colonists showed up, which was not that much longer before the first settlers stepped foot on New Zealand. I don't mean just that they teach Maori history in schools, I mean that it seems as if Maori culture has actually been intertwined with modern New Zealand culture, and New Zealanders take pride in it. At first I thought it was just for the benefit of the tourists, but more and more it seems that that is not the case. Our resident college kid pointed out that the people who settled New Zealand were different from the people who settled America. Those who went to America were Puritans escaping religious persecution, whereas the English who were sent to New Zealand were looking for new resources for trade. Crazy how the impact of that difference in ideology is so visible today. Whereas the Americans saw nothing of value to preserve in American Indian culture, convinced by the superiority of their own religion, New Zealanders, even from the first, tried to understand the Maori because they knew it was better for business. Of course, I write this speculative account based on five days in New Zealand and one off-hand comment from a British teenager who knows way more than me about everything. Makes me wish I had paid more attention in history class instead of practicing my awesome signature or doodling Sailor Moon.

Of course, no one has explained to me yet when the hobbits came into the picture.