Lake Taupo and the Waitomo Caves

Waitomo Caves - Black Water Rafting, originally uploaded by Frickley.

Lake Taupo is New Zealand's largest lake (measuring 606 sq km in area), formed by a massive volcanic eruption about 26, 500 years ago. Today, it is proclaimed as the trout fishing capital of NZ - apparently the lake is home to absolute monster size fish all descended from a single batch off eggs once introduced to the lake. However, we decided not to try our hand at fishing, but instead made the 2.5 hour drive to the Waitomo Caves. There are apparently over 300 caves in the area, many of them providing a home to glo worms. Most sane people choose to view these glo worms by entering the large Aranui Cave - we however, chose to check them out by signing up to a 'black water rafting' excursion.

The name of trip is misleading as it turned out there are no rapids in the caves - it's was really just a caving activity. James had a fantastic time - he was really in his element. Me....I have to say I hated every moment of it - we had to put on wetsuits and welly boots, then trek for ages to get to the entrance of the cave. It was cold, dark and freezing cold - we waded through some of it, crawled through other bits as the cave got extremely narrow, swam some of it (brrrr, freezing), and climb other bits - not easy with welly boots full of water! Don't be fooled by the rather demonic photo of me smiling whilst in the cave - that's my face for 'get me out of here!' Still, it was an adventure...