After returning to our temporary husbands (as we affectionately named Russ and Mat) in Auckland the four of us set off on a road trip in hunt of some adventure!
First stop was 'Rap, Raft and Rock' at Waitomo Caves.. I'm pretty sure the main aim of the day was to make us look as ridiculous as possible, dressing us in wetsuits (with some very questionable rips in), some very fetching bright pink baggy over-trousers (with some bigger and even more questionable rips in), big white welly boots and bright yellow helmets! Sexy!! Once we had dressed ourselves in the fore-mentioned attire (with some difficulty on Kat's part... it took 3 of us to help her on with her wetsuit, much to our amusement!) we were strapped to a big rope and abseiled into a great chasm. Now, I just want to take the opportunity to tell you that I am in fact quite claustrophobic and the thought of dark, damp tunnels didn't thrill me. However, once in the cave the part of me that may have been scared was totally preoccupied gawping at the beautiful sight of sunshine seeping in through holes in the earth and reflecting off the water, and dazzled by the amazing glow worms.
At first sight the glow worms actually take your breath away. It was like someone had painted the roof and walls of the cave with stars. It really was a magical moment and one I will never forget. I will also never forget the explanation of what glow worms actually are... "greedy, shagging gnats with glowing shit!!" Here is the slightly more scientific explanation... Their life cycle lasts 10 - 11 months and for the majority of this time (about 9 months) they live in the form of larvae. All they do during this time is eat to store energy for when they are adults and don't have mouths (yes, that's right, adult glow worms don't have mouths!). And, as they are continuously eating they are also continuously excreting waste, which due to a chemical reaction causes them to 'glow'. Adults only live for a few days (not having a mouth really doesn't give them much chance!) and all they do in this time is mate. Pretty pointless existence really, except to look pretty and make tourists go "oooh, ahhhhh"!!!
As well as exploring the caves on foot (and hands and knees!) we went black water rafting and floated along the caves in big rubber rings. We, once more, switched off our head lamps so we could enjoy the sight of the glow worms and bobbed along the water in the pitch black, listening to the rushing water, staring at the glow worms but completely clueless as to what was in front of us! Great fun! What goes down must come up and our next challenge was to rock climb out of the caves. Now I've rock climbed before and thoroughly enjoy it, but rock climbing in wellies was a new and interesting experience!!
After warming up in the Caving office with a nice mug of soup we climbed back in the car and continued on to our next destination... Rotorua. Rotorua is NZ's "most dynamic thermal area" and my god you can tell... it STINKS!! The smell of Sulphur hit us before we even reached the 'Welcome to Rotarua' sign and we almost decided to stay in the car and keep going to the next town. But we decided to stay and, to be honest, after 30 min or so you became immune to the smell of rotten egg.
On arrival at the hostel we were very happy to find out there was a thermal hot spa in the garden that we could use - a nice change to the cold water in the cave - so we settled ourselves in there with some wine and relaxed for a couple of hours before hitting the town to see what the night life of Rotorua had in store for us... we found a good bar with a live band but, once that had closed, the only place this eggy town had to offer us was a strip club!!
The following day, after some paracetamol and a big greasy breakfast, we set off for our next adrenalin fix. Jet boating at Huku Falls! It was awesome!!! Huku Falls itself is beautiful. It's not a big waterfall (to be honest after visiting Iguaca Falls in Brazil I don't think any waterfall will class as big!) but the colour of the water was incredible. The bluest water ever. Not Lake Titicaca type blue, it was a much lighter, turquoise kind of blue. The colour is created by the amount of oxygen in the water and was truly stunning, especially up close from the inside of a jetboat. After being whizzed around the water at a million mph we continued onto Taupo, where we spent to afternoon chilling out and swimming at Lake Taupo, overlooking the famous Mt Doom from Lord of The Rings. Sadly Taupo was the end of the road for the Awesome Foursome and we said farewell to Russ and Mat. They drove back up to Auckland and Kat and I stayed in Taupo for no other reason than to jump 12,000 feet out of an aeroplane the following day! Wheeeeeee!!
I had done a 14,000ft skydive 5 years ago in Australia so was planning on going one better and jumping at 15,000ft. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side and after waiting around the jump site for 5 hours it was a choice of either jumping at 12,000ft or not at all. It was still amazing and I guess I'll just have to another higher one to make up for it!!
So with abseiling, caving, black water rafting, rock climbing, jet boating and sky diving covered in the space of 3 days Kat and I thought it was about time to head to the South Island...
Monday 5 January 2009
20 - 28 November 2008: Auckland / Coromandel Region, New Zealand
Kat and I were lucky enough to have been offered sofas at a friends house in Auckland and on arrival at the airport our new housemates, Russ and Mat, were there to pick us up. Bearing signs and everything!! It was so lovely to have some ready-made friends ready and waiting to help us settle in and show us the ropes.
It was bizarre being back in a big westernised city. Sky scrapers, motorways, traffic jams etc all seemed so alien. Lots of people had told us not to spend time in Auckland but, largely thanks to our fantastic hosts, we had a great time. As well as the obligatory sight seeing - One Tree Hill, Mt Eden, Sky Tower, Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Experience (Kat's obsession with Penguins raises it's head once again!), Devonport, Auckland Museum (which is MASSIVE! We only got round a couple of floors!) - the guys had arranged a BBQ for the Saturday and had got us tickets for a dance night in the huge Vector Arena. The BBQ was great - the sun was shining, the freshly caught snapper (caught by Mat on the Friday) was on the barbie, the drinks were flowing, everyone was so friendly and, only 2 days in, I felt at home in NZ.
Kat's sister, Rosie, was also in NZ staying in a small town called Thames in the Coromandel Region, only a couple of hours drive from Auckland. Once a thriving gold-digging town, Thames is scattered with cute little 19th-century wooden buildings and is now home to many Buddhists, hippies, and eco-warriers. I loved it! We stayed at 'Sudarshanaloka', a Buddhist retreat out in the mountains and surrounded by beautiful sub-tropical rainforest. It was too far to walk from the centre of Thames to the retreat but Rosie said we'd be able to get a lift with a friend of hers at 9pm after he had finished his Tai Chi class. This would not ordinarily have been a problem, but it was a Tuesday and, as our luck would have it, Thames is conveniently shut on a Tuesday! Completely shut. We arrived at about 4pm and wandered around the streets (all 2 of them) for as long as we could bare before finding a pub that was open. We enjoyed a couple of beers with locals (there were actually only 2 other people in the pub!) and managed to find somewhere to get dinner and slowly but surely 9pm was upon us. Thank god!!
There were only 6 people staying at the retreat, including Kat and I. We had only planned to spend one night there but became mesmerised by the calm and tranquility of the place and stayed in the Coromandel Region for the rest of the week. I woke early and did yoga overlooking the forest, went on bush walks (armed with machetes to cut our way through), ate nothing but healthy, organic vegetarian food, and, for the first time in a while, really felt at peace with myslef. Being around such open minded people and in such an open environment was refreshing.
Kat, Rosie and I hired a 4WD and, as the only driver, I enjoyed 2 days cruising around the Coromandel Peninsula. Until that point in time it was - hands down - the most beautiful place I have ever driven. Sweeping, rugged coastline, rolling hills, stunning views from the top of mountain roads... we really were driving through Middle Earth (only in a very pleasantly air-conditioned, turquoise 4WD rather than on a horse!).
We drove through many small towns, apparently stuck in the 1950's, and visited an absolutley stunning Buddhist retreat where we followed the 'Goddess Walking Track' to a monastry at the top of a hill. It had the most incredible views of the Peninsula, a labrynth pathway to one side and the biggest daisies I have ever seen! The car looked very pretty covered in daisy chains! We arrived at Cathedral Cove later in the day, perfectly timed to avoid all other tourists. The coastal walking track was practically deserted, taking us through rocky Gemstone Bay and sandy Stingray Bay before veering inland through sub-tropical rainforest and eventually coming out at the beautiful Cathedral Cove. We had a great time dancing around under the giant limestone arch and paddling in the sea as the sun began to go down, and set off to Hahai Beach - our camping spot for the night - in time to have a picnic and watch the sunset on the beach. Simply beautiful. After spending the day surrounded by such gorgeous, natural beauty I snuggled into my sleeping bag a very happy girl!
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