WAITOMO CAVE (NZ)

Here we go again! Phil coming stumbling back from a work party at 4am in the morning. Unfortunately Petra wasn't much better of falling in bed unconscious after drinking with housemate Chris. Anyway, someone had to drive the hired car and we still can't believe they even gave us one the state we looked like.

On the way driving we took a German hitch hiker as we know how frustrating it can be waiting along the road for a ride. He was a carpenter and did the traditional 3 years travelling in his traditional work clothes and we had something in common to talk about.

We reached Waitomo Caves early afternoon and were quite disappointed by the bad explained tour of such an impressive cave. We booked into a cabin in a holiday park and it must have been that comfortable that Phil slept the whole rest of the afternoon. In the evening we went for a night walk along in the Ruakuri Scenic Reserve. We saw many glow-worms but no Possums as Phil may was hoping.

Next day we were woken up by rain and it didn't stop till the afternoon. We stopped at Marokopa and Bridal Veil Falls and the small communities of Raglan and Kawhia. Apparently its all really pretty and we may do it again if the weather is a bit more sunny.

ROTORUA (NZ)

Our First weekend trip was going to be Rotorua. Phil was ill from the beer the night before so Petra kindly took over the driving. In Rotorua we wanted to ride downhill the Luge so we went and had a look. We asked for directions and got told we are not allowed up there by foot only by cable car. We made up our mind quickly and gave it a miss!

Instead we walked around the thermal areas in Rotorua and around the lake. We visited Tamatekapua Meeting House. Its a sacred meeting house for Arawa people and unfortunately not open to the public. In the evening we went to Rainbow Springs Nature Park and we saw 2 really active Kiwis looking for food. The good part was we were the only ones in there, the bad part was we were not able to take any photos of them in the dark.

We stayed in a hostel and the next morning they gave us back a key deposit we never paid. That seemed like a good start and we headed of to Wai-O-Tapu, a large thermal complex including boiling pools,volcanic craters, bubbling mud, mineral terraces and the Lady Knox Geyser. We also went to the buried village of Te Wairoa. The story of the eruption of the volcano Mt Trawera was very interesting but outside there was not much left to see. As the name already sad, a "buried village".

We had a wonderful weekend and we are hoping to do something similar again soon.