Waitomo Caves and Mount DOOM!!!

Another busy day today - yesterday we hopped in Hyacinth and drove from Rotorua to Whakapapa village (and ski resort). We had a battery problem with Hyacinth so we had to go to a garage for an hour or two so our fridge would work for more than a day - it all worked out fine though and it seems to be functioning properly. Waitomo caves is the home of glow worms in New Zealand. To be honest I had reservation about how interested I would be about seeing Glow worms in their natural habitat but I must admit they were spectacular - like seeing the night sky right up close (that's about as lyrical as I wax I'm afraid). Su wasn't impressed with the post-larval stage of the glow worms which looked like big spiders but at least I got a good laugh at her being at the edge of the boat cringing at the sight of them. We couldn't take any photographs of them so no photos for this part unfortunately.

Next we drove to Tongariro National Park as I had a bee in my bonnet that we were in New Zealand and I still hadn't seen one Lord of the Rings site. We made our way to Whakapapa Village, which is a big skiing area, to see Mount Ngauruhoe which is Mount Doom for all you Lord Of the Rings fans. The clouds were pretty low so it's barely recognisable but if I get a better photo tomorrow I will update:

 

On our way to our campsite for the night (more steak and spuds!) we saw a sign for a trek - being the energetic sorts that we are we decided that after a lunch of noodles (25 cents!) we would hike out to Tawhai falls. It nearly killed us - I wouldn't advice mere mortals to take this walk but myself and Su managed it and it was well worth it in the end:

I tell you - 20 minutes hike is far too much. We were in need of a stiff drink afterwards.

Great!