good day all weve moved on again this time to the caves at Waitomo, a 6 hour drive south from Whangarei, we arrived about 10 pm after a long drive so have an early 1, the next day we didnt know what caves to explore as their is hundreads with all levels of adrenalin levels and prices (we payed about $75 each which is 30 quid). We decided to go with a black water raft which is sitting yourself in a big rubber ring connected to whoever possible then floating to whatever lies ahead (scary stuff), we started with cramming ourselves into a wetsuit, slipping on some funky boots the a nice blue helmet to top it all off, from there onto the cave where we entered a small opening and told to swith our lights off, from that moment its pitch black and our tour guide dropping 1-liners as they do, we stared to drift down stream listening to the waterfall getting closer and our minds thinking all sorts of crazy stuff, we where told to stop and put our lights on and listen to our guide, he then said watch him as he faces us then just falls backwards off this waterfall, we listen for a massive splash that seemed to take ages, then we heard him laughing his white-gumboots off, so off we went 1 by 1, i must admit i was having second thoughts but managed to back-flop off , its a quality buzz and i just wanted to do it again but we where told a bigger 1 lies ahead, so off we go again and the next one was a man made slide about 5-6 metres so again 1 by 1 we flung our clod asses off and that was the end to our cave experience well for that day that is ???,

2 nd adventure of the day:

ok so another thrill awaited us, this time we decided to try a 150 metre abseil down a canyon, it only cost us $75 each, we where picked up shortly after finishing our cave trip but this time there was just me and ell been driven to some remote hillside, strapped tightly (thank goodness), then instructed on how to abseil correctly, after the briefing we where told to step out of this man made cradle and dangle 150 metres above the canyon floor, it was some scary stuff i was bricking it !!, after we had started to slowly lower ourselves down it was cool and we really enjoyed it, after reaching the bottom we used ladders about 10 to get back to the top from there we done it once more, the views going down are amazing, iv been told that night abseils get to see thousands of glow worms, so we reached the bottom and i asked if i could climb the top, the instructor was cool and said crack on, so off i went alone as ellie and the guide used the stairs, its hard graft climbling back up i was to find, after about 110 metres up i seemed to just stop and couldnt carry on, i thought the equipment had stopped working (now i was totally bricking it as i was 110 metres from the ground and alone, i shouted for the guide who abseiled down and it was really a basic error but a scary 1 i must say, he carried on with me from that point, after reaching the top we de-rigged all the gear and headed back to base, so a cool day and some good pics for ya's to browse at, enjoy.