You know I said I'd give my right arm for a bit of straight road? I take it back, slightly. Got up reasonably early and left Auckland by just after 8ish to head down to Waitomo Caves, which are slightly out of the way to Rotorua, but most definitely worth it!!

The road was actually pretty good and the scenery was awesome, so it was a pleasant drive for a couple of hours. Got tickets for the Gloworm Cave and the Aranui cave, would have very much liked to have done the "blackwater rafting", where you float down the river inside the cave complex on a rubber ring to see the caves and the gloworms, but it would have taken far too long and was pretty expensive. (Actually New Zealand is turning out a bit more expensive than I had anticipated, especially as fuel is the same price as the UK and I'm filling up every other day at the moment!!) But all in all, I think I did the right thing, as I got to take photos and pretty much go at my own pace, which I think I wouldn't have been able to do on the rafting thing.

The Gloworm caves are awesome, though you can't take any pictures. It takes a little while to actually get to the Gloworms, but the other bits of the cave are spectacular, though you get dripped on a lot and need a fleece, because it's a steady 14 degrees there. The stalagmites and stalactites are impressive and they have one large cavern they call the cathedral, where they hold concerts (Dame Kiri has recorded there) and a Christmas carol service every year. Our guide turned out the lights and asked us to sing - no one was forthcoming so I started a quick rendition of Swing Low. (So me and Dame Kiri have sung on the same stage!!) Then she got all the kids to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The acoustics are good, but not necessarily amazing, but as they are not man made, you have to be impressed.

When we actually got to the Gloworms, it was impressive, they are like tiny little pinpricks of light, glowing blue and green. The final bit of the tour was a boat ride along the river in the bottom of the cave under the section where most of the Gloworms live and that was definitely cool!

Next bit was the Aranui cave, where we could take pictures. Though not the largest cave in the area, it's still pretty big and impressive. The interior was interesting as the effect in the cave of the crystallisation was either really smooth, almost dribbled candle like, effects, or else the surface was almost furry - obviously not to the touch, but that's what it looked like. Some of the 'tites were absolutely huge (takes between 80 and 100 years to grow one cubic centimetre) and the largest stalactite in the cave was estimated to weigh over 2 tonnes! There were some nice colourations, due to the minerals in the earth above - apparently the whiter it is, the purer limestone it is. The really pure ones are translucent, but we didn't see any of those, though they do have one very lovely pure white column.

Done with Waitomo by 2pm, so drove onto Rotorua, which was only another couple of hours. Have decided that arriving somewhere around 4pm is a mixed blessing. Although it means I'm not driving in the dark, street lighting not being very prevalent in NZ, it does mean that there is normally very little do once you've checked in, as most stuff shuts at 5pm. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that something in Rotorua stays open until 11pm. My hotel room brochure very handily informed me that the Polynesian Spa , one of the hot springs complexes in town, stayed open until 11pm. So, got my cossie out and made my way up to the Spa.

If you can cope with the smell, this is a great place to be - though actually most of Rotorua smells, as it is all on geothermal springs, so everywhere smells of sulphur. But the Spa was awesome, really. I went in the Adult only side, though they have a family section and you can book private pools as well, where they have around 7 pools, all filled from hot springs and all between 30 and 41 degrees. It was fabulous, just floating in all that lovely warm water. All your aches and pains are soaked away. You do have to be a little bit careful, as it's easy to overdo it and get dehydrated and overheated, but I sloshed around from pool to pool for a couple of hours (just to get my money's worth) and even though the it's getting pretty cold here at nights, just being sat by the pool in the spa, you were still warm and actually any cool breeze was quite pleasant.