Blogs from Waitomo, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

The down side of taking buses, is that you are dictated by their times, and now being out of peak season, there is only one bus out of Waitomo everyday….at 6pm! So this leaves me the whole day to kill. I go for a run in the stunning morning sunshine, and then enjoy a leisurely shower before checking out at 10am. After this I sit on the outside terrace of the café section of hostel, using the internet, before it starts to rain. The rain continues all day, getting very heavy at times, so I am camped out if the café, sorting my photos and working on job applications until 5.30pm. As I am sitting in the café area all day, I decide to order lunch there, and enjoy a chicken wrap which comes with curly ... read more

Visited the caves today has been interesting although you couldn't take any photographs due to the glow worms that live there. There was one beautiful cave there which was called the Cathedral Cave the owners daughter got married in it apparently which I think would have been amazing. The height of the cave was about the same height as the inside of a cathedral and with the stalactites and staglamites giving a very majestic feel. The guide told us that in New Zealnd if your land has caves beneath it then the caves belong to you, the government take a small skim off if they are open to the public. The lady who got married here was a direct descendant of the original Maori owner. It takes about twenty minutes for your eyes to adjust to ... read more

21. Oktober – Waitomo Caves Früh um 06.00h: Der erste Blick aus dem Fenster entscheidet das Programm für heute. Nein, jetzt wird noch nicht aufgestanden! Der Himmel ist mit Regenwolken verhangen, dicken, dunkelgrauen Wolken. Eine Überraschung ist das eigentlich nicht, denn diese Störung wurde vom Wetterdienst vorausgesagt. Wir nehmen es heute gemütlich, stehen nach 08.00h auf und frühstücken in aller Ruhe und ausgiebig. Gegen 10.00h besteigen wir unser Auto. Rolf als Fahrer übernimmt die Hauptarbeit für diesen Tag (wie immer! Ich möchte an dieser Stelle mal Danke für deine Fahrkünste sagen, schliesslich fährt es sich auf der linken Strassenhälfte nicht so einfach für Europäer). Ah ja...Ihr wisst ja noch gar nicht, wo es hingehen soll! Unser Ziel sind die Waitomo Caves, die ca. 150 km in nord-westlicher Richtung von Taupo liegen. Das Besondere an diesen Höhlen: ... read more

Another busy day started with our 9AM reservation to hike through another cave on a 2-hour guided tour. We were hopeful that our guide on this adventure would actually finish the tour with us. The Ruakuri Cave is one that was only recently reopened to the public (about 6 years ago). The government had been running tours for about 120 years via boat until a Maori burial site was found in one of the caves dry entrances. This led to a legal dispute that resulted in the land owner above the cave claiming the rights to the caves below. A company contracted with him to build a separate entrance with a 60-foot spiral ramp down to the caves below. Nearly all of the tour was conducted on walkways that were built above the cave floor and ... read more

De senaste dagran har varit valdigt intensiva. For 6 dagar sedan anlande vi till Auckland. Efter 3 hyfsat lugna dagar i Auckland klev vi pa Kiwi Experience-bussen for vidare fard genom NZ. Forsta stoppet var Mercury Bay dar vi besokte Hot Water Beach. Vi gravde egna halor i sanden som fylldes med upp till 80 grader varmt vatten. Dar satt vi sedan och njot av varmen. Sedan begav vi oss till hostelet dar vi skulle bo for natten. Dagen efter gick vi upp tidigt och korde vidare mot Rotorua. Pa vagen stannade vi vid en gammal guldgruva dar vi gick en promenad i de morka tunnlarna. Vi gick en guidad tur som handlade om Maorifolket och gick aven runt bland svavelluktande vulkankallor. Efter det akte vi ludge (typ som gocart fast ner for ett berg och ... read more