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Published: August 5th 2007
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Bridal Veil Falls
A very pretty place. Friday 27th July
It was a fairly early start again and we stopped at Tairua for the most unbelievably good Moccachino and bacon sandwhich that has ever passed my lips. It is now my mission to become an expert on the Moccachinos of New Zealand, maybe i could get a job out here testing them. Another stop at Paeroroa, where they had a massive L & P bottle to celebrate the fact that this is where L & P is made. ( A refreshing lemon and spring water soft drink) The best stop of the day was at Bridal Veil falls, it was a long walk down and even longer walk back up but well worth seeing the 55metre high waterfall.
The drive into Raglan, (Surf capital of the North Island) was spectacular, the bay was so beautiful and it has the longest left hand wave or something...basically you can surf for miles into the bay. I'd decided to give surfing a miss for today and catch up on the surfing another time. Instead, we (Miranda, superb dutch girl, Katherine, equally superb English girl and I) decided to go for a walk. We took a map and wrote our
This was our promised view.
This was worth the one hour of solid grade 5 climbing right?? names on the chalk board so that if we didnt reappear then they'd know who to look for, i think i even sent a text to let someone know that i was going, (See how well trained i am!) It was described as a 3 hour bush walk which doesn't sound particularly challenging but i am not exaggerating when i say that we were clambering for so most of it and being a rainforest it was particularly muddy and not the easiest to move through. We grabbed hold of plants and rocks to pull ourselves up over the steep terrain, it was fantastic! We stopped under a massive tree which i can't remember the name of but a good chance for a few photos and a water stop as well as a good chance to stay out of the rain for a while. (Pupiri tree i think!) We kept climbing and eventually got to the top where not unsurprisingly for a rainforest it wasn't so easy to see the huge view of Raglan and the bay due to the massive trees, but once we'd balanced precariously on top of some rocks we got the misty view! We'd gone up with
Sticky Strands
The gloworms use these strands to catch their food. I could be David Attenborough! the thought of seeing a beautiful sunset but the thought processes obviously hadn't quite got through to the... if you see sunset from the top surely it'll be a lot darker going down. And so it was, we rapidly descended, slipping down quite ungracefully at times, often having to climb over and under trees which had covered the track. It was dark by the time we got back and we were completely soaked but i thoroughly enjoyed every second of it! To top the day off we had a Mexican which warmed us all through and a good bottle of New Zealand wine.
Saturday 28th July
I cannot begin to express how much i loved today. It is a little known fact that i am quite an expert on cave systems and also a closet Geography geek to boot, so the trip to Waitomo caves was heaven for me. There were only 2 of us on this trip, me and Julie and US Geology student. Two geeks...woooo! Now i could unashamedly talk about rock strata and calcification. Our guide was Norm and cracking bloke who specialised in group therapy and words of wisdom, he advised us both strongly
Possum
I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when i saw this! to find a decent dairy farmer as they make most money around here. The first cave was astounding and i'd never seen anything like it, millions of gloworms covered the roof of the cave and as there were only three of us in the boat we could lay on our backs in the boats and just gaze up at the blue green light eminating from the backsides of the gloworms (maggots actually but easier to market as gloworms!) We had a break for coffee and cookies, these Kiwis are so hospitable before going into the second cave. Oh my word it was heaven so many formations to chat about, it was my GCSE project all over again (Dad i haven't forgotten a thing!) Highlights were the possum and moa remains.
We drove back to the Waitomo centre still happily chatting about rocks when suddenly Norm screeched to a halt and reversed at full speed before slamming on the brakes again. Earlier in the day i'd mentioned really wanting to see a possum even if it was a flat one by the side of a road just so i could see what one looked like. There beside me just 2
feet away was a possum eating something so i leapt out and got as close as i could. Norm warned me that if it felt cornered it may try to climb to the top of my head but it just ignored me completely, i was tempted to touch but restrained myself as they carry TB apparently! I was happy beyond belief as we got back to the Stray bus.
A good night of Maori entertainment followed with a roast lamb dinner. The entertainment was a traditional play about Tutanakai and Hanamoi, a sort of Romeo and Juliet but it all turned out well in the end no one died! We had to do a bit of Maori dancing, sadly i have no photographic evidence of that!
(Photos will come when i find a computer that was built in this century!)
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Mike
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Despite speaking to you as you wrote this blog and knowing everything that is on it I still thought I would read it and leave you a comment as I know how stat-orientated you are and all... made for good reading and trust you to find dangerous spiders and TB carrying possums,not to mention night time treks, now you just have to pet a shark and all your missions will be complete!Keep having fun but try and stay a little safer!! Speak soon no doubt xx Mike