A must do activity for anyone visiting the North Island is a trip into the Waitomo Caves.  We chose to do the longest trip possible with lots of variety - the Lost World Epic 7-hour trip - run by Waitomo Adventures.  Wetsuits, hard hats and specially designed gum boots had to be worn.  Once geared up, our journey into the Lost World began with a 100m abseil into the cave entrance.  The difference in temparatures meant we were lowering ourselves into a misty crevace, decorated with shrubs, moss and other greenery that truly made it feel like we were entering a lost world (I guess that's how the name came about).  After a relaxed 30 minute descent we perched in the cave entrance, by the river that runs through it, and tucked into our picnic lunch.   A large eel poked his head out of the river, so we obliged and fed it some ham from our sandwiches and petted it. (We subsequently tried to forget that lots of eels live in this river, as we spent a lot of time in it up to our necks...)

After lunch, the caving began.  The first 30 minutes involved rock hopping into the cave, squeezing through a couple of tight spots to get through.  We then began following the river up stream, walking, crawling, swimming and at points pulling ourselves through the water against its flow.  To get our adreneling going, we turned out our lights and jumped one by one through a small black hole into a pool of water below.  We climbed up waterfalls, traversed rock edges and jumped from high ledges into more deep pools.  We were treated to a galaxy of glow worms in some of the huge caverns we travelled through and saw oyster fossils and whale bones embedded into the limestone walls.  After 4-5 hours underground we made it out and went back to base for a well desrved bbq.  Loads of fun!  The guides were great throughout.

Next stop Auckland then the Bay of Islands...    Tom & Elle x