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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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My god...we're nearly up to date and my time runs out in 4mins!
Arrived here early feeling none too good and went for a walk into town to get some food etc. This place is amazing, am in the middle of nowhere again! It's like a petting zoo!! Animals everywhere...no banks, no ATM's, pretty much some hostels, a pub and some fantastic caves.
Short break there of about a week, but I'm back and we're seriously behind the times here so have a lot of writing to do.
OK...big limestone caves...and when I say big, there are about 800 cave systems and only 300 are mapped. That's a lot of caveage. And the only reason people come here is to do the rafting obviously cos there is simply nothing else except sheep for a long way.
As I said this place is just one giant petting zoo and once you've seen one cute little lamb you really have seen them all. Did I mention the pet lamb my horse ridding guide had? Now that was cute, but what amused me the most was that some friends of hers had come round for a party and wrapped it in tinfoil and placed a jar of mint sauce on the table...Kiwi humor at it's best!
So when I arrived at the caves I was in no fit state to do anything and had a rest day at the backpackers/petting zoo. This place had no locks on any of the doors...inside or out. A strange concept for anyone coming from the UK but this country is like Britain in the 1940's and very safe. Luckily I had a dorm to myself and could do some much needed veging.
Friday morning brought with it the main event...Black Water Rafting! And I found myself wearing another silly outfit...this one really took the biscuit! Very attractive wet suit and nackered shorts, silly helmet and white welly shoes. My group consisted of a load of medical students from Nottingham uni...excellent news I thought, if I hurt myself down there I'm sorted. Problem was they were more scared than me!
We abseiled down a 35m drop into a large cavern and cos I've done it before I decided to show off a bit and am just recovering now from the pain in the abs it gave me. Note to self...stop showing off during extreme sports! The next couple of hours were spent doing zip lines through caves in the dark, wadding through some of the coldest water known to man (thank god for the silly outfit!), floating on an inner tube through caverns full of glow worms and climbing up subterranean waterfalls. The glowworms are incredible, they don't look real and you have to keep reminding yourself they're not fairylights stuck into the rock for tourists.
Whilst wadding along I was at the back of the group and thought I'd try scaring myself silly by turning my torch off and looking back into the darkness...and yes the rest of the group moved on and I got left behind a bit...had to peg it full force to catch up but nobody seemed to notice my disappearance...mmmm.. .dodgy!!
Phillips will appreciate this...we did an extreme pet rescue! A ducking fell out of the ceiling of the cave can you believe and we named him Bob. Had to smuggle him out in a biscuit barrel to the surface! Ahhhhhhh....
So that was a pretty good day...not really the adrenalin rush I was after but fun none the less. I had visions of the Goonies style sliding down watery channels into huge submerged lakes, or actual white river rafting but in the dark!...but no. Spent the anoon walking up to a Par which is a traditional Maori hill fort thing where the views are generally good. And yes they were very pleasant.
Early to bed as I had another mammoth trek ahead the next day over to Lake Taupo...adrenalin junky heaven and plenty of volcanoes to look at.
previous travel blog entry
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