Wai-O-Tapu, Waitomo, Raglan & Auckland

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November 1st 2006

Published: November 24th 2006

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Wai-O-Tapu

Champagne pool

Before leaving Rotorua, we decided to stop at one of the many natural geothermal parks that give Rotorua it's distinctive aroma. Wai-O-Tapu thermal area is covered with collapsed craters, boiling pools of mud and springs, which makes the whole surrounds look more like a film set for a moon landing than someplace on Earth. One of the highlights was watching the eruption of the Lady Knox geyser...which is encouraged by the manual insertion of soap-flakes into the mouth of the geyser! A little farcical,but fun all the same.

After Rotorua, we hit for Waitomo on the west coast of NZ, where there is an abundance of glowworms inhabiting the limestone caves in the area. We joined a Rap, Raft 'n' Rock tour, which involved rappelling 30m into a cave, blackwater rafting (floating along the cavern rivers in an inflated inner tube) in the darkness while viewing the glowworms set into the roof of the caves, squeezing through some narrow portions and finally rock-climbing out of the caves......all in a wetsuit, some white wellington boots and a flashlit helmet. Another attraction in Waitomo is the shearing of rabbits for angora wool...we thought it was a little TOO weird, and gave it

Wai-O-Tapu

Lady Knox Geyser..helped along by some soap!

a miss!

Moving on, we settled for a few days in a wee picturesque surf village called Raglan, just west of Hamilton, with nothing to do but surf....read books while swinging in a hammock..and...eh surf!

One weird thing about NZ is the legal sale of "party pills" which essentially amount to ecstacy, LSD and other concoctions - one of which we had read in the local press as being originally derived from worm dosage for cattle...not entirely encouraging!

Finally finishing the trip in Auckland, we avoided the city by booking on a canyoning trip. For those in the dark, as we were before we arrived, canyoning involves following a river canyon from top to bottom, clad only in a wetsuit, jumping over waterfalls, sliding from pool to pool, abseiling down larger waterfalls, and general larking about. Another fantastic NZ activity, well, except when Thomas nearly fell to certain extreme injury over a steep ledge and tried to drag the guide with him before regaining his balance. Note that these pics are delayed as they are currently in baggage storage, but I will update as soon as I'm home!

Last night in Auckland happened to be Guy

Waitomo

Abseiling down into the caves

Fawkes, and so we had great celebrations in the hostel with fireworks and a huge BBQ. It had been a tiring day on the canyoning, so I took complete advantage of the free-for-all on the food.....although I did have the grace to blush a little as I lined up for my 4th slice of pavlova!

Additional photos below

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