Auckland-Whitianga-Rotorua-Waitamo

Well folks, I returned to Auckland after my trip to the Bay of Islands. Stayed in and watched Firewall on Friday night, good film if you haven't seen it! Saturday I dragged Mike around a market, he loved it...and then we went to a beach party in Mission Bay. Would have been really good with a load of people and cool boxes full of booze like everyone else had, but Mike and I weren't quite prepared! We returned from there and we went out to the Viaduct, the harbour area in Auckland.Met Kiri out, a few of her friends and Mikes as well. One of Mike's mates was on a work do and dressed as Rambo, which was fairly amusing. Had a really good night, Kiri MADE me drink lots...Simon will vouch for me on that one!! Sunday we struggled, but managed to get up and head to Mike's friend Donna's house for a BBQ. It tipped it down, so we left the garage and headed back to Mikes. Just relaxed and watched another film!....not so good though!
From Auckland I headed up to Mercury Bay, a small town called Whitianga, stopping at Thames and Cathedral Cove on the way. We had a nice walk down to Cathedral Cove...but then we had to walk back up again!! We arrived in Whitianga, very little to do there, so we had tea and a drink and then got an early night ready for our 7:30am set off. We set off for Rotorua, stopping in a couple of small places on the way. When we arrived in Rotorua we had a free tour around the Maori village place, and learnt a bit about the Maori culture...before the New Zealanders. We then went to the hostel, the worst so far I reckon...a little bit seedy. I spent the afternoon with a couple of gilrs at the thermal baths, it was cool, pouring with rain sitting in hot pools of sulphur. I had a blonde moment and after being told to take off all silver left on my silver bracelet...it looked like an antique after going in the pools. But, I admitted to the guy that I was stupid and he dipped it for me...don't worry Helen, it's all good now! I then spent the evening at a Maori night where they show off their culture, put on a show and then you have a meal. It was really cool, and I managed to have vegetables and pavelova, which was awesome!! Yesterday I had a little lay in, much needed after a couple of 7am starts. I had a look around Rotorua and went to the Rotorua museum. I've been overloaded with information on the Maori culture and know everything there is to know now. I have even learnt about all the fault lines around here, as I've spent 2 days in a volcanicly active town. On the way out of Rotorua we visited the biggest thermal activity park, it was cool, loads of geysers and mud pools, I saw kiwi birds too...but they were asleep.
I arrived in Waitamo about 2pm and we went to the hostel and then went for a little wonder in the bush. Walked through a few caves. Only a short walk, but it was cool. Since, just been chiling in the hostel, having tea and drinking some beer..now I'm blogging! Tomorrow I'm going black water rafting...actually caving through dark caves in wetsuits and rubber rings, it should be cool....I'll let you know how it goes...
Well, I got up early and headed for the caves, another great experience. We put on wet suits and white welly boots, all freezing cold...and our hard hats with head torches. We went off to the caves, first they threw us backwards into a river outside to get us used to the water. We then went down into the caves, some tight squeezes lots of water. It was quite scary really. We had with us our black rubber rings so at times we could float, like a lazy river...but it was only a lazy river after jumping backwards down a waterfall in the dark, I was pretty scared...but it was also very exciting. On the top of the caves you could see all the glow worms, it was quite facinating. We laid down, switched our lights off and looked up and they led our way out of the caves. We got dunked by the guides if we put our light on! The guides were super though, really helpful. My hands and feet were freezing, but I got there! It was really cool, another experience that I've done. It's a real shame I have no photos, but it was pretty wet down there! But, you can see me in my wetsuit! Just hanging around Waitamo today and heading onto Taupo tomorrow for the weekend and for Christmas. i spent a couple of days chatting to a couple and they very kindly bought me a Christmas present as they didn't like the thought of me spending Christmas on my own with nothing to open, so that was really kind...thanks Roseann and Paul. Bye for now....Merry Christmas and a Happy new year everyone, going to really miss the pub on Christmas Eve and my Mum's superb Christmas dinner. Lots of love xxxx