waitomo to taupo

hello everyone,

we've done quite a lot since we last posted.

before leaving waitomo we stopped off nearby to go black water rafting in the waitomo caves. amy was a bit scared at first as the way into the caves was through this tiny little gap in the rock. there was also quite a tight squeeze in one place. but after that it was amazing. we saw eels and glow worms and jumped backwards off waterfalls. it was really fun but very cold!

from waitomo we headed down to taupo.... where amy jumped out of a plane at 15,000 feet! it was absolutely amazing, just like flying! i wasn't nervous at all, the scary bit was once we'd jumped out and i looked down and for a split second thought i was going to go shooting down like a canon and hit the floor... once i didn't it was amazing. i can't begin to explain what it was like. but i've got a video and some pictures for you all to see.

after the skydive we made our way to the hostel and had an early night in preparation for the long walk the next day.

so on tuesday morning at about 5am we were picked up and taken to the tongariro national park. the walk is just over 18km long and very hard work! about an hour in we had to climb up the devil's staircase... and we can assure you it's not called that for nothing. it took about 45mins but once we had made it to the top, the views of mount ngauruhoe (mount doom) and the surroundings were incredible so it was well worth the climb. it was amazing to see a volcano so big from so close. you could see where the lava had flowed down the mountain, and devils staircase itself is where the lava came down. it's hard to explain how amazing it was up there.

anyway, we walked through a 1km crater and up another huge climb before skidding down the other side. you can see how high up we were on this picture.

as we made our way back down we got to see the emerald lakes, which are an emerald colour due to the sulphur and other chemicals in them. once we had passed them and the blue lake we had another few hours walk back down to the end.

in all it took us about 6 hours and by the end we were both knackered. both of us are feeling it in our legs today! because of the big walk yesterday we have spent today, enjoying a lie in and relaxing in the sun by the side of lake taupo, the biggest lake in new zealand.

tomorrow we make our way to river valley for one night then onto the capital, wellington for another three nights.

just before we go, here's a few pictures from the first few days in new zealand.

this is the gold mining tunnels on the walk we did a few days ago.

this is the village where hobbiton from lord of the rings was filmed. the actual hobbiton was built in a local farm and left there for a year so that when they started filming it looked lived in. amy really wanted to go to the farm but we couldn't stop as we had to get back on the bus :(

this is the maori village we visited when we were in rotorua.

this is a geyser in the geothermal park we visited in rotorua.

we have loads and loads of amazing pictures but it's just way too hard and time consuming to upload even a small amount of them so you'll have to wait til we get back to see the rest!

see you in 4 weeks! x x x

ps. hi dave, thanks for the big emails, we can't really reply at the moment, because as you guessed we are pushed for time in internet cafe's.