New Zealand (3) - Waitomo & Taupo - Black Water Rafting and Other Unnatural Activities...

After leaving Rotorua, we headed to the nearby zorbing centre and agrodome. Zorbing is a New Zealand made activity where by you sit in a beach ball and get pushed down a hill; Me and Sam were up for doing it, but looked at it and saw that it was pathetically small for the amount of money that was being asked. The Agrodome is an agricultural centre where sheep shearing and cow milking is all part of a show, a bit rubbish so we did not go to that. The next stop was Agroventures, an activity  park, with some very unique rides. The Shweeb (top pic) is a racing track that you cycle around; I did the 3 laps in a respectable 1min 3secs, Sam in a very good 1min 11secs, she beat the national best times for Korea, Japan and Italy. Well done Moore! The other activity we did was the power boat which has the same engine as a Ferrari and can do 0-100kmph in 4.5 seconds; oh the power!!! That was a lot of fun, seeing that we were going round a lake the size of someones pond and could hit rocks an second; the guy was in charge of driving, not us. After finishing at Agroventures we headed for the sleepy town of Waitomo (population 48).

That evening, I went Black Water Rafting with a group of lads, Sam went with some other people. This was a lot of fun. It started off with a 110ft abseil descent in to a cave, then a 30ft zip line over to ledge. We then jumped in to a underwater river and floated on tubes down to cavern which was filled with glow worms. These are maggots that have glowing poo, cool in a weird way. We then did some belly flopping into the river, jumped off a waterfall and then climbed back up it. A lot of fun and exhilirating, we had to climb up some other waterfalls and some gaps. Was a lot of fun and gave me a huge sense of achievement; highly recommended to those looking for some distinct experience. As the pictures show, a wet suit is really flattering for me, brings out all my curves!!! We stayed in Waitomo for one night, it had one pub and one convienence shop (the nearest hospital was 100km away). The next day we headed for Taupo...

 Taupo is activity centre of the North Island and is home to the Huka Falls. The water here is amazingly blue and clear. Activities on offer include sky dive, bunjee jumping, canyon swing, kayaking (not through the Huka falls, they are grade 6, therefore making it illegal), and hiking. We are hoping to do the Tungario Crossing hike; which is supposed to be one of the worlds most amazing one day hikes. Should be good. We are staying in Taupo for 4 nights...