NZ North Island - adventures, volcanos and more

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I've been on the north island for almost 2 weeks now - and although I had heard that the south island is better than the north island, I have to say I have really enjoyed the north. Lots of things to do, beautiful scenery (lots of green and rolling hills, great beaches, and all the volcanic zones makes it pretty interesting even if a bit smelly in places). There are lots of outdoorsy adventures to be had here, I've gone caving, kayaking, whitewater rafting, hiking - and I've also treated myself to a very relaxing day at the spa.
Caving was great - you get fitted up in your wetsuit (very tight squeeze) given a hard hat with a head lamp and some big white wellys and away you go, down throught the caves. Lots of scrambing around (over, under, through the rock formations in the cave), trudging through the river- and in the deeper spots either swimming (with the eels), or floating through on an tube - when everyone turns off the headlamps all you see are the glow worms lighting up the roof of the cave like little stars.
I did the kayaking at Cathedral cove - beautiful sunset kayak trip, lots of arches and caves formed along the east coast here. Whitewater rafting was good fun - there was a 7 meter waterfall - but it was over way too quick, we only had about an hour on the river !
Rotorua is kinda the centre of the volcanic zone - it is on lake Rotorua and depending which way the wind blows it can smell pretty bad (they didn't name it sulfur bay for nothing). as you drive around you can see all the hot springs with the steam rising from the ground, there are gysers and boiling mud pools around too - very neat place.

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