Waitomo Caves

So continuing on New Years day we spent 2 nights in Waitomo. We stopped in Otorahanga along the way so Sher could see a Kiwi. The pics are hard to see, but it is the only pics we have of a live Kiwi bird as they are nocturnal. We also stopped to photgraph some of the local roadkill...yet another dead possum, but this one was fresh!






So here are the PP's in their stunning caving outfits. We got to learn how to abseil first, the cave is literally in the middle of farmland, you would never know it was there and apparently many livestock haven't either and have fallen to their deaths. So we abseiled (or rappeled) 27m down into a beautiful cave where we; donned in gumboots, wetsuits, and headlamps, floated on an underground river on inner tubes. The main attraction is the gloworms, which you can see hanging from the ceiling, with the lamps off the entire place is black save for a few million glowworms lining the cave ceiling. Pretty darn cool, and pure silence to boot, quite an amazing experience. So in between we went caving and climbing through rivers, tiny spaces, up down and over rock. If we were to go through the entire cave system it would take an experienced person 9 hours to complete, it goes on for miles underground. We went in and came out the same place, but were underground for about 4 hours. That was enough, it was awesome but we were all glad to see sunlight after our 20m free climb straight up a wet wall of rock. No easy task but the 3 of us triumphed and were even more happy to get out of the less than flattering suits and to shower off our mud covered bodies. Excellent way to spend the day...




















If you look to the upper left in this photo you can see the platform we abseiled from














- The Glow worms in the dark on the cave ceiling
- A weta (Spider/grasshopper-looking thing) About the size of your palm
- An eel
- The Glow worms hanging from the ceiling in the light, they use the sticky shiny strands to capture their meals!
















So after the Waitomo Caves we drove south and stopped at the Marokopa Falls pictured above. They don't even look real!! From there we headed to Taranaki, a peninsula with Mount Taranaki in the center of it, this is where the Last Samuri was filmed with Tom Cruise because it so closely resembles Mount Fuji in Japan.

Sheri's Vacation (Dec 30 - Jan 18) New Years

NEW YEARS IN RAGLAN

The day after Sheri arrived we headed South to the west coast to the surf town of Raglan. We stayed at a bach in the middle of nowwhere with our friend Georgie and what seemed like 25 other people. The place was super cool but a huge disaster of a party cabin. Luckily, we brought along a tent for our own privacy, unluckily, Jode locked the keys in the car that night before we headed into town for the Reggae party. We caught a ride from a local in proper hitchhiking style as it started to pour rain as we were walking...



















Finally broke into Starlet with our new surf buddy Dave. Twas a very happy moment. We then had lunch in town and headed back to Lisa's to drop off Kiwi. On the way we stopped at the 55m Bridal Veil falls









Thomas relaxing and taking in some sun at Lisa's farm in Pirongia