Waitomo & Taupo

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/Day 57, 58 & 59

We got on the Kiwi bus and stopped at Te Puia (a large thermal mud park). We had a tour around a Mauri village and were driven through the park. We stopped to see some bubbling mud pools and then some massive geysers blowing off a bit of steam. One was 30 m high! We then saw a Kiwi bird (their native bird) in an enclosure - funny looking fellas and jumped back on the kiwi bus and were taken to our hostel. We had a BBQ and a game of pool and just chilled out as we had a big day ahead of us....

The next day we were picked up early doors to go black water rafting. We were kitted out in our gear and then absiled down a 30 m hole into the underground caves. It was a really good absiel as the first few metres lead to a little crevace which you had to squeeze down and then abseiled down a wider open space. Once at the bottom we went on a zipper wire in the pitch back. When we got to the bottom, you could see thousands of glow worms lighting up the caves - they looked like stars. We jumped into the water in big rubber tubes (well Stuart did - Carly was too scared to jump so climbed down a rock into the water) where we paddled our way upstream. We stopped at some points of interest and then we all held onto eachother's feet and the guide pulled us back down the caves while we layed back in the pitch black silence and looked at the glowworms. We then walked and swam through the caves (which had eels in them - yuck) until we got to some waterfalls. With the guides help, we climbed up the waterfalls (not easy when your legs and hands don't work as they're so cold) until we were back into daylight. It was absolutely awesome, a really unique experience that we'll never forget. We had some soup and jumped back on the bus to Taupo. In the evening we went out for a pub quiz (which we didn't win, of course) and had a few drinks. We went into The Holy Cow - Taupo's only club for a bit of a bop at the end of the night.

We were really lazy the next day and didn't do much at all expect look around the shops. Stuart was going to do a High ropes course but felt really ill and went to bed to sleep it off.

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