New Zealand is the country that just keeps giving. The further south we drive the further our jaws drop in wonder. Driving through New Zealand is definitely the way to do it! On top of the lush scenery New Zealand has an endless number of adventure sports to choose from! We had our first real taste of adrenaline when we went on the Black Abyss tour in Wiatomo. The Black Abyss is a 5 hour tour that starts with a 65 meter abseil straight down! After squeezing through the throat you find yourself in a massive limestone cave. This was by far the scariest part as we had to let ourselves down into the pitch black. Once we hit the bottom our other guide was waiting to unhook us and instructed us to wait in the dark with the others. This was our first chance to see some glow worms on the ceiling of this cavernous underground space. The next stage included a short walk admiring stalactites and cave coral until we reached a flying fox (zip line). Chris had the pleasure of going first having no sense of how long the ride would be into the pitch black. It ended up not being very long but was super fun regardless! After a quick snack of hot chocolate and granola one by one we jumped in the icy cave stream with our tubes and made our way through the caves. Once we got far enough into the cave we hooked feet and turned off all the lights. From here our guide pulled us through the caves as we gazed upwards at millions of glowing worms. It is honestly one of the most bizarrely beautiful things we've ever seen! Unfortunately we don't have any photos from this portion but imagine millions of green glowing specs surrounding you. Now imagine knowing those specs are larva that glow after eating their unhatched siblings. Eerily beautiful. After a relaxing ride we ditched the tubes, splashed down a water slide and continued deeper into the cave. After more cave exploring we reached the end of our tour and were given 2 options. A) take the easy way out B) take the fun way out. Obviously we all went for B. The fun way involved climbing up and over two reasonably powerful waterfalls into a small crevice of rock we had to crawl through until eventually we hit daylight. We would highly recommend The Legendary Black Water Rafting co. They were professional, excellent guides and a great time! After a good night sleep we were up and ready the next morning to see some Hobbit homes! We arrived into Hobbiton in the early afternoon to discover the cost was pretty steep. While we both love Lord of the Rings $80.00 per person to be cattle herded around a movie set with 40 other people seemed like a major ripoff. We were hoping they offered an option to wander around on your own for a smaller fee but this was not the case. We took some time to think about it but decided in the end $160 was not worth it and carried on to Rotorua disappointed but happy with our decision.
Tonight we're staying at a TOP 10 paid campsite. I haven't figured out yet why the paid parks in New Zealand charge per person when we're getting 1 site for 1 vehicle. If one of us hid in the car we could pay half the price? We've been too honest to try so far. Despite the $50.00 fee for the night we've got power for the night, hot showers, minerals pools, free wifi and are walking distance to Rotorua city center so we'll suck it up for tonight. Tomorrow we're going to further explore the region ending our day with a Maori cultural show and dinner which we're both really looking forward to!
2 Comments
Sharron
9/26/2016 03:32:26 pm
Well written blog & great pictures. Yes, I love the Waitomo Caves also, that was years ago. Along the beaches of NZ, Norther part you can dig for pippies (small clams) and boil them up - they are delicious.
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Erin
10/2/2016 08:54:53 am
Wow, that cave adventure sounds amazing!!!! Hope you get drier weather in the future!
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