Days 19-21

Day 19
We woke up this morning and loaded the bus to head to our next destination. We left Raglan at 8am and headed towards Maketu, back to the east coast of the North Island. We stopped off at Waitomo Caves to see the glowworms.
Before we entered a cave, we encountered some long fin eels in the water just outside the cave entrance. Our guide was feeding them and even picked one up. Cute little buggers huh?














We did a tour through one glowworm cave that was amazing! The number of glowworms on the roof of the cave was like being under a star filled sky. We had lights on our helmets when we needed them, but once our eyes adjusted to the darkness it was incredible how much light the little worms produce. They are also highly efficient as the light they have is 98% light and 2% energy.
After the glowworm cave we headed into another cave filled with stalagmites and stalagtites. It was neat to see all the formations and the hidden world underneath. This cave has too much airflow for the glowworms, so there were only a few in this cave.


































Then we headed to Maketu where we were staying for the evening. When we were about 15 minutes outside of our destination for the evening, quite tired and hungry I might add, our bus blew a tire! So it was a minor delay before we reached Uncle Boy's Place. Here we had a Maori Cultural performance














and then each got to learn the Haka (men's war dance)




















and the Poi (women's dance). Then we had some dinner and relaxed for the evening. The whole bus slept in a big open room, so that was less than ideal, but all part of the experience!

Day 20
A fun day ahead! The morning came a bit too early as we had to have breakfast and leave by 8am, but we were ready to go. We left Maketu and Uncle Boy's Place to head for Rotorua. It was a nice morning and the bus was quiet!
We arrived at Kaitiaki Adventures where we did a raft trip, it was a blast! We rafted the Kaituna River and went over some great water falls. The rapids are class 5 and we went over a 7 m waterfall named Tutea, which is said to be the largest commercially rafted waterfall in the world, so that was cool. It makes it sound so dramatic doesn't it? Sweet as...




















There were 6 people in each raft with 1 guide and 5 boats traveling together. Nobody on our boat wanted to ride in the front, so John and I volunteered. Nigel was our guide and he was a lot of fun. We practiced our paddling backwards and forwards and our “get down” position that we went over the waterfall in. We started the rafting journey going over a few smaller waterfalls to get warmed up for the big one. We had to stop the boat before the big waterfall so Nigel could ask anyone if they had changed their mind since the beginning of the trip, of course it is partly for added drama. Then came the big waterfall.
Now, remember that we both sat in the front of the boat...





















HA! Ok, so here is some explanation for what you are seeing. The front of the boat twisted as we went over Tutea, and Andrea was in the drink. Then, John came over head first and was also in the drink, so those are his feet dangling in the air on his way into the water.






















Then it was a few seconds before we popped back up again and had huge smiles on our faces.
Amazingly enough our guide was also completely vertical at one point in time and his feet were in the air, but he was still holding onto the raft. So yes, we were the only 2 that fell out of the boat. We got back in the boat and continued along the river. We had a great time and enjoyed the ride. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day to enjoy the water. Nigel was a great guide and we had a lot of fun with him.















Once the rafting was over we checked into our hostel, Funky Green Voyager, and spent some time wandering around Rotorua. Not too far into our walk we found this perfect store and the big kid had to take a picture underneath the sign.















We can think of 5 other monkey kids!

The rest of the evening was quite relaxing.

On our 21st day in New Zealand we woke up to the sweet smell of sulfer. Rotorua is a large geothermal area and there are lots of pools around to explore and some to relax in. We spent the first part of the morning wandering around a free geothermal park in Rotorua, Kuirau Park. It wasn't quite Yellowstone, but it was neat to see. There was a very hot bubbly mud pool














and another larger clear pool.















Unfortunately, a few of the other pools were quite dirty. Along our walk through the park we noticed some orange fence around a couple of areas where new geothermal activity was making its way to the surface.















Then we spent some time online to do some communicating and catching up. We spent the afternoon relaxing around the hostel before heading to the Polynesian Spa for a few hours in the evening. It is a series of about 26 hot mineral spring pools/spa pools that are heated from the geothermal water in the area. It sits right on Lake Rotorua and was quite relaxing! It was a nice way to finish off the day.