Opinion piece.

Shared lunch, a Gods meal, but for us. While I stuff face my with food, some others can’t.

Kia ora.  As most people know celiac disease is a thing and you can grow out of it … MYTH! If you don’t know was it is, this is it: Celiac disease is basically where you react to gluten. Some people get it worse than others. When I mean that, basically, for some people, their throat swells up and their lips and tongue expand so it can be deadly. For others, their immune system plays up and they get sick a lot. Do you not know what gluten is? It is basically two components of wheat. And the worst thing is, that a lot of people are allergic to it.

Something else, that only gluten free people realize, is that the “mistakes”  those big food companies make. Lots of them just write MAY CONTAIN GLUTEN. They just do that so they don’t get sued if they add a bit in. But what they either don’t care about or they can’t be bothered thinking about it, it that this can be very bad for the celiac person eating it. Talk about false advertising! There is another thing that they sometimes write on food packets, though this one isn’t as bad. They tend to write “MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF GLUTEN. This basically means that the food is made in the same building as foods with gluten. You might be thinking, this won’t make a difference. What’s the chance of some gluten getting into it anyway?! Most likely, the chance is bigger than you thought. And what if someone that eats it, is really, really allergic to it?

Another annoying thing for people with celiac disease is the price differences. Just about all of the things you can by at the supermarket, is more expensive if it is gluten free. Don’t believe me? See for yourself. At the supermarket, a simple pack of 200g gluten biscuits is $2.00 but a gluten free 145g pack of biscuits is $4.00! Something else that can be not the best for gluten free people. If you go to the supermarket or somewhere and take out all of the gluten food and all the gluten free food and put them in two different piles, the pile with gluten free stuff is much smaller. And if you take a closer look at the gluten pile, you will see some foods and you will be very surprised by what you will find some simple things that have gluten in it. Some types of coffee, lots of types of sausages, Even some salt! About 1% of the population is celiac but 95% percent of gluten free people are undiagnosed. To people with this disease, or people that know a lot about it, this is a lot of people.

Though there is a solution. If food companies just made there gluten free food a bit cheaper and better quality, it will be fair for everyone.

Cave Stream.

My feet were freezing, my hands cold from testing the coldness of the clear liquid that I would spend over an hour in. I gathered up my courage to jump into the water. SPLASH! It was, so, so, so... not too cold actually. Just you wait, I said to myself. A couple of minutes and I'll be as cold as the Yetis freezer.

I started wondering myself up the stream. I hear a splash and a scream I look behind me, but I don't have to. I already know what has happened, somebody fell in! It's not the first time, and it won't be the last! I look around, and I see a large dark circle on the wall, darker than the surrounding space. I look closely and realize that it is a side cave! In no time at all, I had scurried up there. I felt my legs, or at least I tried to. As soon as I had got up, everybody else has to. We then would all get back down again, though every few minutes, we would find another one. In one of these, we all had to turn our lights off. I remember that darkness still. I was so peaceful... Until someone just had to yell out BOO! UUUGGGHH!

When we all heard the rushing water getting louder, we knew we had encountered yet another waterfall. I would trie a few times to get up. Sometimes I would succeed, sometime, a couple of adults would have to drag me up. The water would be so strong that I would never touch the rocks, as the water would keep pushing me away. We kept on moving until we didn't have to rely on the light given by our torches. I remember, climbing up the last little, though fast flowing waterfall, running up to a big great rock and lying down.

A great experience to say the least. A view to last a life lime. The best adventure around. A memory to never forget. Whatever you want to say, that day will stick in my mind for my whole life. From my legs being numb just about the whole time to climbing/being dragged up a waterfall, to the thrill of having to crawl ten metres, fifteen metres of the ground, on a less than a metre wide ledge, holding nothing but a chain. It was a real adventure.