Sunday 28th August (this was written on Sunday)

We are writing this post from a cosy wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere - actually on the top of nowhere (we're quite high up!) - with the faint bleating of sheep and tooting of owls. Where are we? We'll get back to that.

We spent Sunday morning in the air over Taupo thanks to Helistar's Taste of Taupo helicopter package. From the helicopter we got incredible views of Lake Taupo, it is vast - much bigger than we could see from Taupo town (as you can only see the enclave of a bay rather than the expanse of the entire lake from the ground level). In fact it is as big as Singapore! The helicopter took us to an amazing remote geothermal area that is inaccessible without a helicopter - see our photo!

After landing we headed back into the middle of Taupo for some pizza. Then we set off on our journey to Waitomo. We took the scenic route, driving past 'Mount Doom' and stopping at 'Gollum's Water Fall'. The water falls were incredible - it was exciting being on 'set' of a scene from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films (John loved it!). The rain came down heavy after that, which created a great mood to complement the rugged scenery. Conveniently the rain did momentarily stop when we came into the town of Te Kuiti for dinner. We ate at Tiffany's (it was very nice). Then we headed off on the final leg of our journey, finally arriving at Te Tiro, which is where we are currently writing from.

We are staying in a sparsely populated part of the world (apart from sheep and - strangely - glow worms) in a beautiful wooden cabin called Te Tiro. Our cabin is spacious with lovely wooden furniture. A two minute walk from the cabin in the garden (which is actually native bush and walking through it feels like you are miles from anything man made) you can see glow worms! Off to the Caves themselves tomorrow!

Monday 30th August

We woke up very early this morning to a beautiful sunrise. The purpose of our early start was to go and see the brilliant Marokopa Falls and a natural land bridge called Mangapohue. The falls were the best we have ever seen and we were reluctant to leave them behind. But we did, next heading to view a wonderful and big natural land bridge (it had once been a cave but has collapsed, except for the part which now forms a limestone bridge). Next we headed into Waitomo village to go on a tour of the glow worm caves with Spellbound.

The tour was magnificent, lasting about three hours and including a trip down an underground river to view the glow worms. We were driven over to the cave and then after a walk to the cave we got aboard a dingy boat underground and floated along in the pitch darkness looking at the wonderous glow worms. Then we headed to a shelter in the middle of a field for tasty cookies and a cup of tea before walking to the next cave. We walked through the next cave, looking at the incredible cave formations and and a few extra treats, such as sink holes (you could see straight through to the top) and the 20,000 year old remains of a Moa.

Following the great tour we had lunch at More Pork - the food was excellent. After lunch we drove up to Auckland to an apartment we are renting, which is very comfortable and also very strange after being away from a city for quite some time! The next couple of days will involve exploration of Auckland and we can't wait! :)