Caves

Last night we were treated to an amazing lightning storm on the way to our hostel.  One we arrived, the rain and the wind were shaking the whole place!  Luckily this morning we woke up to a beautiful day.

We had a bit of time, so we did a tour of the Ruakuri Cave here in Waitomo.  There are other tours that sound amazing (Black Water Rafting) but the rain last night flooded some of the caves so the tour options were limited.

An impressive circular staircase takes us to the entrance of the cave.

The lighting made everything look amazing.  (Especially Chris!)

This is looking up at a hole over 40m deep.

Glowworms create these "fishing lines" to catch food.

Some glowworms on the roof.  There is another tour that has much better glowworms.  Still not sure if we made the right choice... the other one looked very impressive!

Stalactites.

Homage to the cave explorers.

Pointy!

This is our new rental... Mazda Clavia.  Great little car!

On our way to our next host in Taupo.  Almost looks like Canada!

...I don't think we have these in Canada though.

Our home for the next week or so, here in Taupo.  Our host left for work an hour after we arrived, so we've had the run of the house all day! 

Luxurious accomodations!  King size bed, our own courtyard, all in a separate wing of the house.

Awesome bathroom.  After working in the garden for a bit, I hopped in the tub for a soak.

We finally broke down and bought some slippers.  I guess the winters here don't get cold enough to warrant central heating, so tonight we stayed close to the fire.