Finally, Some Warm Weather

We were sad to leave lovely Waitomo but we needed to head north to stay on schedule. With only a week to spend looking around the North Island we had to spend a significant amount of time in the car each day. It wasn’t hard though! Part of what makes traveling through New Zealand so enjoyable is its varied landscape – you can spend 2-3 hours in the car and transition through about 3-4 types of countryside…green farmland, snow-capped mountains, low volcanic lands and forest to name just a few.

Carly's epic bruise from the cave tour!

We took a leisurely route to the Coromandel in our little rental! The coastline was gorgeous and we were so happy to have nice weather after 6 months of wind and rain in Wellington. We ended up in the township of Coromandel, a sleepy seaside community that clearly bustles in the summertime. Really tired from the day before, we found our hostel and set up camp. With the weather prediction favorable, Carly and I decided to camp on the lawn of the Tui Lodge. Lots of hostels in NZ will allow you to set up a tent on their property for a cheaper nightly rate. This was one of our favorite hostel experiences, to be honest! All the fun of staying in a tent but with a bathroom, hot showers and a kitchen just a few meters away.

On the agenda for the next day: a stop at Cathedral Cove and a drive through Rotorua to Lake Taupo for two nights. The cove was spectacular – a filming location for the second Narnia movie and I’m sure countless other ones. The weather was still perfect and of course we stopped for the obligatory ice cream at the local dairy!

Leaving Taupo we found our way to Rotorua for a quick stop to see the hot pools and steam vents in the middle of the smelly, sulfuric city. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stay there but we were headed for Taupo and adventures there!

Skydiving! We both did it! We have no pictures to prove it because we didn’t want to dish out $180 for them so you’ll just have to take our word for it! Both of us were surprisingly calm as we jumped into some catsuits and got harnessed up. The people at Skydive Taupo were so insanely efficient that we really didn’t have time to be nervous! We climbed into the hot pink airplane and took a 20-minute flight up to 12,000 feet, our jumping altitude. The day was cloudless so we were able to see very far – all the way to Mount Taranaki a few hundred kilometers away. We could also see the volcanoes Ngarauhoe, Tongariro and Ruapehu that sit very close to the lake.

After our ascent we attached ourselves to our tandem skydiving guides and scooted our way to the back of the airplane – Carly went first! We both agreed that the craziest bit of the fall was hanging our legs outside the aircraft for the first time. The initial plunge was stomach-dropping but after falling for a few seconds we were having a complete blast. Both our chutes worked (yay!) and we floated for about 4 minutes down to the airfield just outside the skydive hanger and landed gently on our butts. It was an incredible experience that both of us can’t wait to repeat – next time at 15,000 feet!

The rest of the day we spent walking to Huka Falls upriver from Taupo. The day was a scorcher but we enjoyed the time in the surrounding bush. The falls is really more of a small bottleneck through which the river rages – the river is of course harnessed and provides around 15% of the North Island’s power – incredible! The day ended with Thai food on the lake and an early night. The next day we headed back to Wellington for a couple nights to organize and prepare for our Australia trip!

The North Island: Waitomo Caves

It’s finally time to update the long untouched blog – our apologies!

We’ll start with our incredible adventure under the Earth! On the 26^th of October Carly and I had our last day of work. We both had such an amazing time at our respective workplaces and will sincerely miss everyone who made our time their enjoyable – we are certainly leaving New Zealand with many new friendships. Additionally we could not have asked for better flatmates – Crina and Jess, know that you will be missed and that we had an excellent time living with you!

After moving out on Saturday and a brief stay with Gavin Howse we headed up to Te Kuiti/Waitomo in our rental car via some gorgeous farmland and green rolling hills. The weather was awful but luckily that was the only day of our week-long journey around the NI that was poor. We arrived in one piece after navigating the crazy Kiwi roads on the left side of the road and plopped down for the night to rest up for an insane next day.

On a lovely Monday we headed to Waitomo Adventures for a 7hr “Epic” trip down into the caves. We were so lucky as the only 2 on the trip with the best guides ever – Allan and Chris. They geared us up with some flattering wetsuits and harnesses for our abseil down into the cave – 100 meters! Carly handled it incredibly well though I have to say I laughed nervously all the way down…not looking good for our skydiving plans.

At the bottom we had a spot of lunch, met a friendly cave eel and then headed downstream for a few minutes into the cold cold rushing river. After surveying a few waterfalls we headed upstream – we would be fighting the water for the rest of the day!

Going over and under water/rocks/waterfalls we climbed our way out of the cave slowly, stopping in some places for some “choice bombs” (cannonballs) and awesome photo opportunities. Chris and Allan were excellent photographers, capturing our shenanigans in low light and even managing to get some great shots of the glowworms! Those are the main attractions in Waitomo and we were lucky to spend a half hour or so staring up at the cave ceiling towards the end of our slug. After six hours of fighting the current, Carly and I were stumbling all over the place and we definitely had some bumps and bruises to show for it.

Our guides treated us to a lovely BBQ dinner, Kiwi style  after returning from the caves – the perfect end to a wonderful day. Allan and Chris – if you’re reading this, thanks so much for the best cave adventure!

Some crazy cave locations along the underground river: The Cauldron, The Impassable Waterway, The Turbine, etc.