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The past few days were pretty adventurous!
10.11.2016
On the way from Rotorua, we stopped to have a stroll in the Red Woods. - We were wondering around the beautiful Canadian red woods for nearly an hour. Chris kept making huge plans of nicking some of the pine cones and planting "those amazing, straight trees" in England, so in the future he could make some incredible furniture out of the great timber! (I found it quite amusing!) After a pleasant walk, we also stayed there for lunch and met people from the previous campsite.
11-12.11.2016
For the next two nights, we stayed in a free Reids Farm Campsite, in a truly beautiful spot by the crystal clear river in Taupo. After Chris ran over his skateboard, he was pretty desperate to find himself something different to do! So off we went to Taupo city centre and bought a cheapish foldable fishing rod, so the first evening in Reids Farm happy Chris spent on fishing. The next morning was pretty rainy, so after a quick breakfast in the car, we found shelter in a cosy "Café 99" in Taupo. As soon as it stopped raining, we went for a 2 hour walk to the Huka Falls which we finished with a soak in a free natural thermal pool by the river. It counted as shower (oh well!) as that night we stayed in the same free campsite again. - Which was a good decision, as Chris caught us a trout for dinner! (And learned how to fillet it as well!)
13.11.2016
The plan for Sunday was to see Tarangui Mountain. We really hoped to to do the Alpine Crossing hike, but the weather hadn't been good and most of the people we spoke to advised us doing the short walks instead. So we went to see the Taranaki Falls, walking through the volcanic terrain and imagining the lava finding its way down and sculpting the paths we were walking on. We were amazed by the views and autumny colours around us. Pretty cold air (we were wearing woolen hats, jackets and thick socks) ensured us that we had made a good decision not to do any higher walks. - Although we still feel it's such a shame!
That night we also camped in a free spot by the river - on the way to Waitamo Caves, where we had booked our black water rafting experience for! We fried our yummy trout and went to sleep excited about the next day!
14.11.2016
Waitamo Caves tour was one of the coolest experiences we had! We woke up to a number of mesages from people checking if we were alright, as there had been a powerful earthquake on the south island, which added a bit of extra adrenaline to our caving adventure! (We assumed if guides are ok to continue with the plan, then we are too!) The tour included abseiling, glow worm watching, black water rafting and rock climbing. After all six of us put our wetsuits, helmets, wellies and "sexy smerf trousers" on, we were ready to go! (And looked pretty special!) Abseiling was first. - Good fun! It was interesting to learn more about climbing ropes and safety. Next, we squelched through the water and squeezed through some tight holes to get to the part of the cave, where we could watch glow worms with our torch lights off. It looked amazing - we were in a pitch-black cave, yet we felt like we were sitting under a beautiful starry night sky. And we made some friends - Stephen the eel! Black water rafting came next - it was fun, drifting down the stream, sitting on the big rubber rings and catching glimpses of some more glow worms! To warm up, we had a break during which we got some hot drinks and chocolate to boost the sugar levels. Towards the end of the tour, we had a go checking how flexible our bodies are, as our guide, Rachel, made us squeeze through some pretty narrow holes/ passages and took photos of our distorted, funny faces, as we were snailing through. The best was saved for the end. As we abseiled down the cave to get in, to get out we had to rock climb (as you have probably guessed!). That was the part I was apprehensive about the most, so decided to go first and get it done. Wasn't too bad in the end, got stuck at some point, but made it and didn't slide, so that's good! Chris zoomed up real quick, as you can imagine and the adventure was over! After we had our hot showers (first time after three days of being smelly!) and hot soup for lunch, we bought our photos (b******s! made us pay for them!) and drove off to explore the rest of gorgeous New Zealand!
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