Tongariro (Not) and Waitomo Glowworm Caves

(Visited March 17-20, 2011.) Tongariro starred as Mordor in the Lord of the Rings, and we definitely wanted to say that we "simply walked into Mordor" despite Boromir's dire warnings. This might have been funnier in 2011, but still, the scenery on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing looked amazing.

I was super depressed that we didn't get to do it. The weather was terrible, and apparently the pass is dangerous in high winds, and therefore closed to all hikers. We should have allocated a couple more days to wait for the clouds to pass by, but instead, we decided to head to Taupo. Hopefully we go back to New Zealand and try Tongariro National Park again someday!

Taupo turned out to be a fun, if touristy choice. We signed up for a "blackwater rafting" trip through Waitomo's glowworm caves. We chose the Legendary Black Water Rafting Company, and I believe I bought a CD of pictures from them, but...we'll need to look around for that, oops. (I didn't attempt to use my already water-logged camera here.)

Anyways, we (unexpectedly) had a blast, because:

• The glowworms were really cool, like a starry sky inside a pitch black cave.
• We rappelled down a 200-foot hole, even though we've never done anything like that before (they gave us lessons and a couple practice runs before we did the real one).
• We jumped off a big cliff into the underground river (we had inner tubes).
• We rode a short zip-line in the light of the glowworms (otherwise totally dark).
• We climbed up a waterfall to exit the caves.

Climbing up the waterfall was one of my best memories, simply because I was so completely terrified when I first looked at it. I thought there was no way I could do it, but the guides talked me through exactly where to put my hands and feet, and underground caves, which have no sunlight, also have no algae, so nothing was slippery. I was so thrilled that I did it!

Sorry for the text-heavy post, but hopefully I'll eventually find the CD and share some pictures.

The one picture we do have is from driving through Taupo. We stopped by the Honey Hive, a honey store, and bought some of New Zealand's famous Manuka honey (as well as some honey whisky and honey mead).