Cowboys and Indian

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Fri 22 Dec
Went on the Black Abyss trip at Waitomo caves. Started off with a bit of abseilling with a 30m descent down thru a small gap into a labyrinth of caves and then onto a flying fox through a glowworm cave, with lights out. Did a bit of blackwater rafting by launching ourselves off some rocks into some water about 15 ft down on a bit of tubing. Walked through the caves for a bit and then climbed up 3 waterfalls. It was an absolutely awesome trip - took about 4 hrs and others in our group were saying it was one of their top trips in NZ.

Did our first cooking of the holiday - a terrible Thai curry. Had some beers to take the taste away. Practised on devilsticks and getting better, beer must help. Vanit still shocking on them.

Sat 23 Dec
Decided to kill a couple of hours by going horse trekking. Saw the Waitomo country on the back of a horse for a couple of hours. Some worryingly steep climbs and descents but great way to get around rather than in a car. Rode western style, apprently different to normal, trotted a bit but painful on the old arse bones.

Saw some freaky looking Angolan rabbits on the way back at a shearing shed before going to Billy Black's kiwi show - a 'humourous' take on kiwi history and culture. Bad jokes galore and ended up on stage with another Brit powering an old style shearing tool while Billy sheared a sheep.

Drove on to Rotorua, or Rotten Rua as I've heard it called. An active geothermal area so could smell rotten eggs from about 5km away!

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Photos

Going down
a black hole

Ready for caving
and looking good(!)

All done and still alive
wet but buzzing

Billy Black
up a big log in his Kiwi Culture show