Christmas Travels

To show our visitors more of the volcanic scenery of the North Island, we decided to take a trip down to Rotorua. First stop was the Polynesian Spa, an obligatory relaxation stop, which allowed Alice and Nik to redeem their gift vouchers (a Christmas gift from H and G) for a therapy.



A tasty meal accompanied by live music in the Pig and Whistle followed that evening.



The main focus of our visit to Rotorua was a trip to Te Puia, a large thermal reserve on the outskirts of the city. The site has a number of attractions, including the 30m high Pohutu Geyser, a model Maori village, and a Maori concert.




Model Village






Pohutu Geyser



Traditional Maori Greeting - with a spear


Our return to Auckland was made via the Waitomo Caves, a group of caves sheltering a huge quantity of Glowworms. These small worms live on the ceiling of caves, and catch prey by excreting fluorescent poo and using the light to attract and catch unwitting prey.

This shining sh*t attracts more than just flies - with millions of tourists visiting each year to experience the sight. Kiwis love to make an extreme sport out of any possible attraction, and Waitomo is no exception. We opted to embrace this through a 3 hour Black Water Rafting trip.

This essentially involves floating through a cave in a car tyre inner tube under the light of glowworm poo, with a few backside first jumps off waterfalls. Excellent.





Practising for the Waterfall jumps



Practising the "Eel" - a way of connecting our rafts



Cave dwellers

The wiser members of our party were Spellbound, by taking a walking tour through a couple of caves to experience the glowworms and other cave features sans wetsuit.



The weather has been awesome here the past few days, making xmas and winter seem two incongruous concepts. Two weeks off work in the best part of the year seems far more sensible to us! Heading North on the 2nd Jan. Happy New Year from the country that sees it first!