The Road trip: Day 1 Waitomo Caves and Taupo

Today we embarked on our two week long road trip around the North Island. Our first destination was the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, approximately 3 hours drive from Auckland. The day was very hot (I think both Blair and I got a bit sun burned without even leaving the car!) so we were glad to enter the cool caves! Initially the caves looked like any other, indeed I started to think that as nice as they were they couldn’t compare to the Lake Caves from where I came from in Greece.

However, after we had a look at the stalactites and the stalagmite formations we were taken to a lower level where the river runs through the caves and boarded a little boat. The boat sailed through some of the darker caves where glowworms were attached to the ceiling and emitted a faint blue light from the end of their strings (to attract their food!). This was an unbelievable sight that resembled the Milky Way. Absolutely amazing!

Our next port of call, where we will base ourselves for the next two days, was Taupo, the skydiving capital of New Zealand! Well, as I am not brave enough to skydive I had to content myself with the beautiful lake Taupo, the largest in NZ.

The lake was formed thousands of years ago after the eruption of a volcano. It has crystal clear waters and attracts a lot of tourism, either for the swimming or the trout fishing.

Blair: Today was my second visit to Waitomo Caves as I first discovered it on a family holiday when I was twelve, so I knew Grigoria would really love it and of course I enjoyed it again too.

Taupo on the other hand is a must see for any tourist to New Zealand and a perfect point to see how this land has changed over time due to the earth’s plate movement. Not only can you fish or swim but annually there is the "Great Lake Cycle Challenge" which covers 160km’s around the perimeter.