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Published: February 14th 2007
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Again its up early, around 8am today we have much to do today, first up we are off to book some tickets to go into the two main tourist caves and to book a black water rafting trip for me and a horse riding trek for Ruth. The horse trek didnt work out, for some reason the place isn't open Friday to Monday so Ruth who hates rafting has decided to come with me.
That taken care of we took off to Marokopa Falls, which were the best we have seen so far in NZ the bushwalk to the falls was pleasant as well with lots of ferns along the route. It was then onto Piri Piri cave which has fossils but unfortunately our torch died and we failed to see any, finally we went to the Natural Bridge which was a 20 metre limestone formation. The walk to it was great we had to cross a suspension bridge before viewing the "bridge" over head then it was over a few styles and a tramp back to the car through a few sheep paddocks.
On arriving back in Waitomo we had a great pizza for lunch before going to
Suspension Bridge
The natural bridge the Shearing Shed where we watched this woman shear German Angora rabbits, it was strange because she tied this huge rabit onto a rotisery it looked more like she was cooking it. Aranui cave was the next stop as we had a tour booked at 2pm, we were lucky as our group was small and the guide entertaining so it was a good walk. The cave was incredibly photogenic excellent stalagtites, stalagmites, flowstones and chambers were a highlight until my camera batteries died, but not before some good shots. The tour went for about 45 minutes and the guide showed us some Weta (cave crickets) which I have not seen before.
At 3pm we began the Glow worm cave tour, the caves werent very attractive , but rock formations are not why we came here, we came to see the glow worms. The glow worm is a cave living maggot that drops threads down from the ceiling to capture insect prey, the glow is there to attract these insects, the worms are only found above water as they need this to bring the prey into the cave.
We walked for a while before piling into a boat and
A nice waterfall
Waitomo (Water Hole) floating down a short river watching the maggots glow like the constellations in the night sky, it was an amazing sight.
The plane is unfortunately like a sauna in the evenings, but then basically it is a tin box, so we should have expected this, so the novelty has worn off a bit.
Tomorrow we do the cave rafting and then we leave Waitomo, I must admit I am feeling pretty shit and am not keen on doing it but we have already paid, so at 9am we are putting on helmets, wetsuits and rubber boots which in itself is an experience, before piling into a van for the trip to Ruakuri Cave. On arrival we selected an inner tube received some training and then walked to the cave entrance before plunging down into the darkness, it was a fantastic experience floating down an underground river looking at the glow worms, jumping backwards off water falls before turning off all the lights and trying to find a way out, totally amazing.
I shouldnt have watched The Descent or The Cave, before going as I kept expecting to get eaten by cave freaks, when we finished we headed
back to the Long Black Cafe for a shower before eating some some soup and bagels. I bought the photos as I couldnt take my own and then we hit the road for our next destination New Plymouth.
New Plymouth 161km down the road was a bit dull but they did have an excellent museum (yeah I know, another one). The room is stinking hot at the motel but otherwise excellent we relaxed watched some TV and just chilled. Tomorrow we head to Wellington via Mt Taranaki.
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Jill
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Great trip!
Gotcha! by fiddling " Atts in New Zealand" on the blog site. Great stories and pictures. Liked the maori dinner, who the heck was that - didn't look too happy. Great shot of Ruth falling in the water. Bet she wasn't too happy either! Pity about the blob - I think it was a kiwi. Want to see the whale pictures now. Keep enjoying, and don't fall down any crevasses.Chas back in hospital, very sick - another fall, will see how he is tomorrow....