Waitomo here we come

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Tuesday 3 Feb Left Russell at the usual time about 11.00 decided not to go to Cape Reinga but to head West towards Waipoua Forest. Stunning coastline particularly at Opononi with giant sand dunes across the bay. Through a forest of Kauri trees with one giant tree 1500 years old. Al, met a group of hairy bikers all leather and Harley Davidsons and all shepherds or shearers on an 8 day biking holiday. Stayed the night at a tiny campsite on the beach at Pahi (Bazza, this is on the edge of Kaipara Harbour) only 3 other campers. Heard about the snow in England as we sit in 28 degrees of sunshine and blue skies - sorry about mentioning that!

Wednesday 4 Feb woke up to mist over the estuary and headed for Waitomo. Hardly any traffic on the roads apart for through Auckland. Stopped at Otorohanga to visit a Kiwi sanctuary. Funny little things not much chance of seeing them in the wild as they are nocturnal and brown! Sanctuary also had a huge walk through aviary 20m high with loads of native birds. Waitoma campsite fairly busy because of all the caves so in the evening just went for a walk at dusk and saw the rocks absolutely lit up with glow worms.

Thursday 5 Feb visited some farming friends of the family who have got a dairy farm about 30K away. John & Dawn really generous with their time and gave us a tour of their farm set in amazing country. Steep hills and limestone outcrops. Had a lovely lunch with them in their beautiful ‘home’ before leaving to take their suggested route back to Waitomo along the coast. This was 66K along winding, deserted roads sometimes sealed sometimes gravel and incredible deep limestone gorges - we saw a total of about 7 cars in 66Km. Drove off this ‘main road’ along a gravel track at Waikawau road got so narrow campervan would only just fit through the gap! At the end there is a tunnel about 50M long and 3M high and 3M wide that had been chiselled out of the solid rock by just 3 guys so that their stock could be driven through the tunnel to the beach and loaded on to boats some 100 yrs ago. Went through tunnel - black lava sand beach deserted - beautiful. Back to the main track and made our way back to Waitomo on the way negotiating a flock of sheep being driven along the road by a quad bike driving shepherd and his 4 Huntaway dogs (Al, thought you would be interested in this!). Eat out tonight at The Thirsty Weta bar and eatery in Otorohanga - huge meal and Oyster Bay wine for less than 80NZ dollars - can’t be bad!

Friday 6 Feb Today is a national holiday for the anniversary of the Waitangi Treaty. We decided to go underground today! Booked up with a Canadian girl and a Japanese guy to go abseiling, caving, blackwater rafting and climbing - got the gear, wetsuits, helmets, harness and a bit apprehensively went off. Abseilled 30M into cave then walked and waded in the dark through a tunnel of Glow worms - awesome. Stopped at one point to squeeze and climb through narrow crevices - no time for claustrophobia. Then it was into the rubber rings for rafting through more caves lit only by the Glow worms before finally having to climb 30M back up a near vertical rock face. Great sense of achievement, great fun and a memory to be treasured. Off to see Marokopa Falls this afternoon before heading southwards again tomorrow towards Lake Taupo and the Tongariro National Park.

PS We have photos of the caving on CD!!

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