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Published: September 18th 2006
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Since the last blog we have done quite a lot of sightseeing in and around Rotorua.
On Weds we visited the Waitomo Caves which have these glowworms that are quite incredible. They walk you down these caves which are deep down, they showed us a few stalactites and then in complete darkness took us along a river in a silent boat to this cave that have thousand of glowworms. They are basically lava that light their bottom to attact food like mosquitos and flies. At the end of their bottom they have a very thin web that catches its prey.
The lights are blueish and they are very small but as they were so many of them they looked like those trendy ceiling light fittings you might get. Unfortunately we could not take pictures so have no proof that we where there!
We then visited an amazing cave called Aranui that was full of stalagtites and stalagmites. Tites come down and mites go up (just in case you didn't know!)
The countryside on the way there and back was amazing. It looked just like Hobbiton, if you have seen L of the R you will know what
I mean.
On Thursday we left Karen to have a day without us and visited Lake Taupo and the Tongariro National Park. The lake is the biggest in the north island and from it the main river for the north island emergers Waitako. Near Taupo we saw the Huka Falls. They are not be tall but the water before there and after they falls is amazing, really fast and the colour of the water is clear blue with hints of green.
In the National Park they have 3 ski resorts which are on volcano Ruapehu (2797m), which is a volcano which only erupted last in 1995! Next to Ruapehu there are another 2 volcanos Ngauruhoe (2291m) which has the typical conical shape of a volcano (but could not see it as covered with cloud!) and Tongariro (1967) which has several craters.
A lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed around these volcanos.
On Friday we went for a walk nearby in Rotorua through a redwood forest, a bit of a hike up which got us out of breath but got rewarded with views of Lake Rotorua. We then headed over and saw some other lakes
nearby, Blue lake, Green lake and had a lovely lunch at Lake Tarawera which has Mount Tarawera which erupted a long time ago and buried a village in its ash.
On Saturday we went to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty and walked around Mt Maunganui with views of the sea and harbour. Karen is now working here so she is looking to buy a house out here. It's a lovely town with great beaches which are full of sea shells which spent ages looking at and collecting!
On the way there we went through the Kiwi town of Te Puke where they grow kiwi fruit. They grown on trees that look like grapevines.
Yesterday Sunday we had a day of rest, visiting friends of Karen's and sorting stuff out for our trip to the South Island.
We are leaving in 1/2 hour, catching a plane to Christchurch and picking up a 2 berth campervan. I am very excited about it all but for those of you who know Dave well you can imagine that he does not share my excitement!
Hopefully I have not bored you to death with this entry.
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Ang
non-member comment
Hey Dave
Julie sent me a link to your blog, looks like you are having a fab time. Did you take A splash of..... with you?!! Anyway, hope all goes well with your travels. Best wishes to you both. Ang xx