Caves and deep abysses

After our hike, we barely had time to catch our breath, because the day after we set off on the Forgotten World Highway to Taupo. The Forgotten World Highway is actually an official highway, although it consists of about 17km of gravel road. You drive through the hinterland and have beautiful views of the infinitely green hills. Taupo is a small town on Lake Taupo, and a few weeks ago we booked a bungee jump here. At that time, we thought it was a funny and good idea, and now we were almost scared and asked ourselves what had gotten into us. Well, we had already paid for the jump, so there was no turning back. And when the moment actually came, we did it. Thanks to the crew on site, who didn't give us a second to think about the daredevil stunt, and we ourselves somehow radiated on the platform in a trance, it was easier than expected. And afterwards, of course, we were both proud. An experience that we will probably never forget in our lives and something we definitely want to do again. After all the adrenaline in the early morning, we took the rest of the day more calmly and visited the Huka Falls and took a walk through the city. In the evening, we continued our journey, because another highlight of our trip was coming up: a visit to Hobbiton. We booked the first tour in the morning, because it should still be possible to take some pictures without a horde of Asians or other tourists in front of the lens. And even though these tours are quite rushed and the groups are relatively large, it was still a really cool experience to stroll through the Shire and pass by Sam and Bilbo's hobbit holes. In the end, we got a beer or cider at the Green Dragon and were more than happy with our trip to Hobbiton.

Our next destination in our travel marathon was the Waitomo Caves. A huge cave system where you can do the craziest things in different caves, such as a black water rafting tour or abseiling into a cave gorge. However, this time we opted for a less spectacular and more refined visit and only visited a glowworm cave. To round off our tour through the underground world of glowworms, we were served tea made from Kawa-Kawa leaves, which is said to have a pain-relieving effect. And so we ended our nice tour through the underground world of glowworms and continued our journey.

For those who think that we would slowly take a break, they are wrong, because we had already planned a 2-day surf course in Raglan for the day after tomorrow.