It's the beginning! Headed off on my backpacking adventure this morning bright and early at 8am. I am now at the Waitomo Caves and in under 2 hours I'll be abseilling down into caves riding the rapids down there and then rock climbing out of there... I must be mad! I just hope I survive to tell the tale tomorrow. lol I already made the stupid decision to walk to Waitomo Village in search of food and internet only to realise it was actually about a 7km walk..... luckily, a nice English couple took pity on me and stopped to give me a lift the rest of the way after about 2km..... sometimes I could swear I should have been blonde! There's not much here in Waitomo apart from Caves and Glowworms so somehow have to kill another hour until I get picked up by hostel people to take me back to get ready for my adventure... there's no restaurant or food places anywhere near my hostel so have bought myself some trusty instant noodles for my dinner tonight - yum

My last day/night in New Plymouth for a few weeks was very relaxing and enjoyable. After finally deciding at 3pm that we had better go and collect Jo's car, we called in at Back Beach, a beautiful volcanic sand beach close to where Jo lives. There is amazing sand dune there where I had heaps of fun back in July running down, so of course wanted to do it again.... it was just as fun although this time I managed to burn my feet in the process as the sand was red hot! I then decided to climb some rocks and resorted to acting like a crab as the alcohol from the night before was still affecting my balance!

We finished off the day with a nice curry in town with a friend of Jo's and also met up with Rob for a beer, who despite the fact he's from New Plymouth I have only ever previously seen him in Perth, which seems to be the second home for a numerous people from New Plymouth... We then went to the festival of lights in Pukekara Park which was actually pretty impressive.

Tomorrow's stop is Rotorua, so I am preparing myself for the smell which I've heard is not pleasant at all.... wish me luck in the caves, think I'm going to need it!