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After Taupo we tracked across to the West of the country to go into one of the Waitomo Caves. Waitomo is famous for it's caves and has over 850 of them with some 300 being large enough for a proper exploration. We decided to do some blackwater rafting (in a tube underground) and check out some of the glow worms. We had an excellent afternoon underground walking through the caves in wetsuits and floating along in our tubes, not to mention a few small spaces to squeeze through! The highlight though were the glow worms which were amazing. It is like looking at a really clear night sky with hundreds of stars twinkling away... amazing. We also learnt that the glow is the worms way of burning off their poo... as they can't excrete it! nice, and that the adult fly that comes from a glow worm has no mouth, it's only function in life is to reproduce and when it gets too tired (after about 3 days of reproducing) it dies! You live and learn.
We next drove south toward Wellington and, as we had not been able to do the Tongariro alpine crossing, we decided to climb the 1,200m Mount Holdsworth the following day. We camped at the bottom of the Mountain in our tent and were the only ones there, except a Possum that decided to eat our lunch for the following day, after much crashing and banging he ran off only to return later and bash the tent several times in a very scary horror movie style episode!
Anyway once we had survived the night we cracked on with the walk that was very steep at times but a fun climb and some great views, you can see why they recorded Lord of the Rings here. (See the photos). An excellent if knackering day.
Anyway that's it from us for now. Have a very Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.
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