A Crash Course

In updating the world... I realised I haven't actually written here for a while, so a cliff notes version of the last month is due. Firstly my much needed holiday – photographic evidence can be found on Face Book.

First stop was Rotorua (my lovely overseas reader... ;) I recommend you Google a map of the north island so you have some idea where I am talking about lol) a thermal town which has the scent of sulphur in the air constantly. While there we indulged in the Polynesian spas... it was so relaxing just lying in the hot water, under the awning and watching the occasional raindrop fall into the water. We also went on this adventure ride called a “Squeeb” basically its a track set above the ground and connected to it are this plastic cylinders, inside is bike pedals and handles and room for a person to sit in! Its sounds nuts but it was actually a lot of fun speeding around in the tracks.

The second day went drove from Rotorua to Taupo stopping at a few things on the way. First was the Buried Village just out of Rotorua this place was completely covered in mud after a volcanic eruption in 1886. The place had an interesting feel about it, and it wasn’t far from my mind that over 100 people died here when Mount Tarawhera exploded at about 1am. I got some great pictures of some of the buildings peaking out of the ground, and there was a short bushwalk that past a lovely waterfall. I love NZ bush, I don’t think that there is anything else like it, and I think of home when I smell that earthy wet smell from damp bush soil in the air.

We also went on a boat ride the same day up the Waikato River towards Huka Falls. Which are no where near as impressive as some more famous falls but are still very cool. We could have gone on a Jet boat spinning donuts around the falls, but I think I enjoyed the lazy boat ride more. Our guide Simon was lovely and it was only the three of us actually on the boat.

Day three was spent visiting a couple of interesting Maori sights. One was a thermal walk which we passed swamp like areas but with boiling hot mud pools and steam pools, where people used to bath and cook. The other was called Opotaka Historic place, and although it didn’t look like much there was a war that was waged there years ago, plus it gave us a lovely spot to get pictures of the mountains with snow on them!!

That was our next stop; I had never seen snow before so I was a tad excited! We wandered up to the chateau near Mt Ruapehu (which is one of the main skiing mountains) completely without any skiing clothing or gear L but I did get to have a little play in the snow... I was amazed at how much of it there actually was. Ironically it was the sunniest day of our trip so it didn’t even feel that cold!! But yay I can finally say I have seen snow now!! Woot! We ended up driving a bit more up to Otrahonga after that so we could get to Waitomo Caves bright and early the next morning.

We were greeted by a rather frosty morning on day four and wandered next door to the Kiwi House Native bird Sanctuary. NZ is an odd country that 99% of the animals here were introduced to the land by Man. The only native animals are Birds and a few lizards/geckos...

The Next part of the day was the place I was looking forward to seeing the most, Waitomo.
This is a town where the population is around 41, but they had over 500,000 visitors there last year. It is a place with farmland fill with Pancake rocks, and caves deep underground with funky limestone rock formations and glow worms. Very unique to NZ, no other caves like them in the world. We went with a company called Spellbound which is a smaller company but better than the mass produced “look to your left. Look to your right. Now the trip is over” tour which I had been warned about by my father. After paying our $55 we spend the next 3 and a quarter hours, wandering on farmland limestone paths, passing 'Pancake' Rock formations (formed because of earth movement near fault lines, i think??!) Putting on hard hats and going through a cave by boat into the blackness and seeing thousands of glow worms above us. I can believe how people could have thought this is where the stars came during the day time, because it was like looking at a starry night only 5 feet above our heads. Beautiful. I wish I could have taken pictures inside but being pitch black not really possible without the right equipment. After another short walk and a cuppa we wandered into the second cave. This one we went through on foot and got to have close up looks at the formations and things. Also heard (and saw the evidence in skeleton form) stories of animals falling down into the caves and not being able to get out. Including Moa, which is a giant bird similar to an emu but larger that has been extinct here in NZ for 1000’s of years.

After Waitomo it was time to head north, we stopped and had a lovely lunch at a cafe near the base camp for spellbound and went on a short bushwalk called “Ruikoura”, past where people were coming back from Black water rafting (basically white water rafting but in caves!) got some nice shots of little cave arches that you had to walk through too.

So that in a nut shell was the whirlwind holiday. I had an great time and saw some breathtaking places and basically have caught the travel bug now. I want to see more of the world.

Okay that's all of the last month you are going to get (my fingers hurt!) but that was the most exciting bit.

Oh and i have a new job. and a new crush ( a realistic one this time!)... but stay tuned for the next exciting episode, same bat time, same bat channel :P

X's and O's
Ness