We were fortunate enough to meet some Americans who had been living in Queenstown for the last six months or so and who showed us an incredible amount of Hospitality. Jacques, Frank, Chris and I slept on their living room floor all weekend while they were showing us their favorite spots in the area. They took us out on the town, they took us cliff jumping, they even took us cloofing—go ahead and look that one up. It was great to get to know them, hear their stories, and have some locals to show us the less touristy points of Queenstown. However, what was most incredible was their excitement for life and the willingness to open their incredibly crowded flat to us. They really taught me a lot about what it means to serve without expectations as they refused to let us repay them in any way and continually went to great lengths to ensure we had a great time. Thanks for a great weekend guys!
We also took a little late night detour North alongside lake Tekapo in search of a spot to camp. What we found was a New Zealand Alpine Club hut with no vacancy but an all too inviting living room. We proceeded to squat at the aforementioned club’s living room floor only to be awoken by 50 high school girls on a biology trip as well as some of the most incredible mountains illuminated by one of the most spectacular sunrises I have ever seen. Below are some pictures of the sunrise as well as Mt. Cook, New Zealand’s tallest peak and most sought after mountaineering adventure.
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"Cloofing typically consists of a group of around twenty people spending a weekend in the country helping to build a temple for a Buddhist community, renovating a church roof, or putting up marquees and portaloos for a village fair. An ideal weekend for cloofing will be persistently damp and overcast, and it must rain at least once. It will be held in a place you can barely get to by four-wheel drive down miles of muddy tracks. One or two of the cloofers will do the cooking, and produce a watery vegetarian stew with too many tomatoes in it. To drink, there will be instant coffee with soya milk. Sanitation will be primitive, and you will not be able to wash anything more than your hands, if that, for the whole weekend. You will sleep in tents, and it will be too cold to take anything off except your boots. Take more layers of your oldest clothes than you think you could possibly need, and be prepared to bring them back with their own weight of mud on them. To really get into the spirit of cloofing, don't wash for three days beforehand, and make sure your tent and sleeping bag have a hint of mildew. It is unwise to go cloofing unless you really like the people involved and think the cause worth while, otherwise it can turn into a very tedious and uncomfortable waste of time."
I also found this at urbandictionary, "cloof
a slang term for vagina a.k.a da pussy."
Cloofing is actually spelled with a K, as in "we went Kloofing." The intelligent rambling of wikipedia say: "Kloofing is an adventure activity typically involves the decent of a deep ravine or watercourse that may be dry or wet. The defining factor is usually that the ravine is several times deeper than it is wide. All manner of walking, scrambling, climbing, swimming, plunging, jumping, bumslides or abseiling (rappelling) could be involved.
A kloofing trip usually combines a hiking trail with the decent of a watercourse. Some of the more "interesting" kloofing involves long abseils or high jumps into pools from varying heights, up to as high as 20 or more metres (for example the popular 'Suicide Gorge' in South Africa). Trails can take as short as 3-6 hours, although there are a number of multi-day kloofing trips requiring a party to overnight in a ravine.
Depending on the nature of a particular trail a kloofer (noun) might require specialised equipment such as a belay device, rope, wetsuit, rock climbing anchors, etc. Every year a number of kloofers get injured or need rescue and hence kloofers need to take great care and preferably be accompanied by an experienced kloofer.
The recommended jumping technique is the 'pin drop', which involves hitting the water with your body as straight as possible and your hands held firmly by your sides. Closing your mouth completely is a good idea (to avoid biting your tongue) and pointing your toes is optional."
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