Blogs from Waitomo, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

I might as well just admit it. There’s no way I’m going to see a real Kiwi in the wild (they’re a threatened species, they’re very reclusive, and they’re always nocturnal) so I might as well just suck it up and pay the admission price to see them in captivity. Because going to New Zealand and not seeing an actual real live Kiwi is just not an option. So we went to the Otorohanga Kiwi House. The Kiwi is truly a peculiar evolutionary oddity. I’d seen zillions of photographs, heaps of artistic stylizations, truck loads of stuffed toys, and dozens of cartoons of the bird so I felt like I knew pretty much exactly what to expect. But looking through the glass into the dark Kiwi habitat I was still a little awestruck. The birds seem ... read more

Once we left Auckland we had a good idea of the route we would take to Wellington and a list of must see places and activities to do. We started with a visit Waitomo. Here there is a massive system of underground caves, waterfalls and passages and we were keen to explore. After kitting up in our wetsuits, helmets and lights, our day here was spent abseiling down a waterfalls, climbing up rock faces and crawling in and under passageways filled with water, all this a total of 400ft underground. The entire cave system is littered with stalagmites, stalactites, columns not to mention the millions of glow-worms that light up even the darkest of chambers. This was the perfect start to our many New Zealand adventures. We loved it and were sorry when our day trip ... read more

Blackwater rafting was unreal! At first we had to put on the wetsuits,socks,thermal vests,balaclavas,helmets,boots (one white and one black for me) and a harness. This was not pleasent as it was about 8 degrees and the wetsuits were soaking wet and cold. We headed off in the van to the desent into the cave where tom cruise and the director of lord of the rings had been recently! We had a miniture practise outside with the absailing gear.. and to the instructors delight failed miserably at doing anything correctly. Good start. But we were allowed to embark on the adventure. There were 5 of us and 2 instructors and we all headed down the 40 meter drop into pitch black. The hole we had to go down was very small. As in my back was on ... read more

As we’ve previously mentioned, our visit to Te Kuiti had the happy coincidence of being at the same time as the annual Sheep Muster Festival and Sheep Shearing Championships, awesome. So not knowing what to expect from the day (apart from the obvious, a lot of sheep) we left our dreary campsite for the short drive into town. The whole of the main street through town had been closed off for the day, a stage was set up with bands playing and dance groups doing their best to fit 20 people on a tiny stage and dance without falling off. Oh, and most importantly of all there were dozens of ridiculously cheap and tasty food stalls, good times! So we spent the morning munching on bbq’d meats, well Matt did anyway and window shopping around the ... read more

Day 72: Sunday, February 7th, 2010 Paihia, New Zealand to Waitomo, New Zealand. Per the Contiki brochure: "We head south, stopping in Auckland for lunch before traveling through the lush Waikato farming region to Waitomo, home of magical limestone formations and sparkling Glow-worms. Tonight there's the chance to meet the local characters." So, I'm now writing this blog on 2/22/10- needless to say, I have forgotten much. I do remember that we left Paihia and stopped in Auckland again. Here, we dumped off the "olbies" (their tour was up) and picked up some "newbie newbies". We then headed down to Waitomo and we got into the hotel (Kiwi Paka Waitomo) at the same time that the Black Water R... read more