Today we've driven to waitomo on the way to Taupo for a one night stop over. On the Journey we did a few stops, first to the Redwood forrest for a walk which was so pretty but a bit eerie and very Lord of the Rings! Then we walked around a collapsed cave that had formed a gorge which was pretty good.

Unfortunately our previous driver hadn't warned us that on good friday nothing at all would be open and we should have done shopping in advance, we therefore had no breakfast or lunch and got to the hostel in the evening starving and had to pay out for the most over priced, nasty pizza I've ever had- which took nearly 2 hours to order!

Woke up early in the morning to go black water rafting underground. This is basically a mixture of caving, climbing and rafting all done in the dark and underground (and in water). Got our wet suits on with helmets and the full works then had to practice jumping backwards off a platform into a rubber inner tube so we knew what we were doing in the cave. the trip was so fantastic, we were about 100 metres underground, and there were some tight squeezes, one where everybody had to get down on their stomaches and was pretty cramped. Also had 3 waterfalls we jumped off which is terrifying in the dark and I was convinced I'd hit my head on a rock-but luckily I lived to tell the tale.

Saw loads of glow worms when we turned our torches off, they were lining the whole inside of the cave which was awesome. It did get really cold floating in the water though and I was relieved when we finally found the cave exit and got in some boiling hot showers, warm clothes and sat down for hot soup and bagels! Not sure I'd want to get that cold again, I couldn't even grip anything my hands were so frozen but it was definately a fantastic experience.

We then got on the road for the 3 hour drive to Taupo, famous for its giant lake and being one of the best places in the world to skydive. Stopped off once to see a great fast flowing river, the Huka Falls I've never seen anything like it. apparently people used to raft there but it was so dangerous it was banned. Crazy Kiwi's!!