Hey everyone

Today we explored the glowworm caves.

We had a little lie-in before getting up, getting ready and walking just down the road to the entrance to the glowworm caves. Firstly, we had a guided tour of the huge caves, and in the cave cathedral we were treated to a short Maori song by the tour guide. Every year the local choir performs down in the huge cathedral - the tour guide happened to be a member.

After an interesting tour and learning about how the caves were formed and how they were discovered, it was time to board a small boat deep in the caves to see the glowworms. We had to be absolutely silent (we think just to make it more atmospheric) as we slowly and silently glided through the pitch black caves. We turned a corner and were greeted by the unusual sight of millions of glowworms above our heads. They looked like stars in the sky, and it was a beautiful sight. We glided along underneath them for a few minutes, before emerging out of the cave and finishing our tour.

We were then picked up by our Kiwi coach and taken down the road to wait for others on the bus to finish their activities. We had free reign of the bus for half an hour whilst we waited, and made of use the time by taking photos of each other pretending to drive the bus... err we mean actually driving the bus...

Anyway, it was soon time to leave and head to Taupo. We only stopped once and that was just outside Taupo, to see the Huka Falls. The waterfall may only be 11 metres high, but the channel leading it up it had water blasting down it. An earthquake had caused the huge wide river to be forced down a narrow channel, causing the water to shoot down the channel and crash into the rocks at the waterfall. It was really noisy and we could hardly get over how quickly the water was flowing (just wait until you see the video).

Taupo is home to the largest lake in Australasia, and at 616 square kilometres, it's large enough to fit the island of Singapore in it. It was formed when water filled the crater left from a huge volcanic eruption in 186 AD. When we arrived, we decided to go to the natural spa park. It was a long and cold walk away, though we did see someone do a bungee jump on the way. When we eventually arrived we found three waterfalls feeding pools which then fed into the river. Being so cold, we were in two minds over whether to get wet. The water, however, was extremely hot. We decided to have a little dip, and though Alex was happy just to put his feet in, Christina decided to get completely in and sit in the pool. It took a while to get used to the heat, and when we first put our toes in felt like they were being scalded, but Christina very slowly lowered herself in. She sat in the pool for a while but had to get out when it became difficult to breathe and she felt like she was going to pass out. After the painfully cold and long walk back to the hostel, we turned up the heating and after dinner we were soon wrapped up in bed with a much-needed cup of tea. We did our best to get to bed early as tomorrow we would take on one of the most popular day hikes in NZ, the Tongariro Crossing, and it was a very early start... Xxx