Our last few days were approaching of our travels and there was no better place to spend it in Rio then Ipanema. We checked into a room at a really great hostel with a perfect location. We hit the beach, pounded the streets and chilled out...

The final day came and we checked into a really nice hotel to celebrate our travels together - it was reaaallllly nice to have a massive bed, a nice bath and dressing gowns!

View from our hotel over Ipanema beach

We were hoping for great weather and thankfully it came because we had a lot to do! This inclduded walking over to Sugar Loaf Mountain, having a last meal and packing our bags for the last time!

Our way up to Sugar Loaf Mountain

Looking away from Rio (not the most publicised sight seen!)

Looking towards Ipanema, Copacabana and Christ Redeemer just after sunset

Our last meal.......

The end of our last meal after several drinks!!!!

So that was it....travels over with. Now its time to read all through this again, check out our 7000+ photos and let the stories begin!

Until next time !!!!!

Rio de Janerio remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Within an hour of arriving we headed straight out to a football game and the Macarana Stadium. The atmosphere was intense - the passion every person has for their team is a beautiful sight. We were surrounded by all ages and everyone of them had an opinion!

Enjoying the Brazilian past time

Kick off! The crowds were crazy!

With all that excitment out of the way, the following couple of days we tramped the streets of Centro and Santa Teresa. Ultimatley, Centro is like any other big city's financial hub, we only really ventured there beacuse of the food offerings and a few national sites...

Nic getting spiritual with one if many Cathedrals

We stayed the first 5 nights in Santa Teresa, surrounded by beautiful architechual charm and stunning streets paved with the orignal splender that once graced this area. Nowadays it's pretty run down, bar a few places, but it nicely ties in with Lapa, the Samba heart of Rio. We rode the rumbling tram a few times and hung off the edge when it was too busy - even over the aquaduct! Both of these areas are the bohemien centres with plenty of arts and crafts and random street parties to boot.

The scarey Aquaduct

The rickity old tram that trundles along!

The multi-coloured steps in Lapa

Our hostel way up in Santa Tereasa

When the weather was right we took a bus over to an icon for Rio!

The little chap known as Christ Redeemer!

He's actually quite small!!!!

Nic admiring the view...

Looking over Rio from Christ Redeemer

We packed our bags and said our goodbyes to the area by getting jiggy at one of the samba clubs in Lapa before heading over to Copacabana beach. Here we played football and chilled out on the beach and in the sea - the waves were fantastic!

A bit of football!

An awesome Samba club - the dancers were incredible. Like they didn't even think what they were doing it was so fluid..

For another day we headed over to the Favelas. This was exciting as whilst there the poilce decided to raid the area. Guns shots in the area = us high-tailing it out of there. When they go in they have the intention to kill. Not us please! We still managed to visit another area which was drug free due to its location. We got a real feel for what it would be like to live in these conditions (which have been greatly improved within the last year). Still if you thought arguing with your neighbours was annoying - I wouldn't like to try and get along with 50-75 others within a 20 metres radius!!

One of hundreds of Favelas in Rio

Armed police whilst visting the Favelas

After Copacabana we moved acorss to Ipanema....

Where girl from Ipanema was written

Rio de Janerio remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

On our way to the Island

We weren't disappointed!

David on top of the Island

The beach you can see below is often rated as one of the top 5 beaches in the world... it took David 3 hours to get up to the height above for a decent view! Not realising it before he set off, it was actually higher than Snowdon back in England. Adding to this we were walking in tropical rainforest for most of it - the humidity was intense. One of the hardest climbs - we had minimal water, two cookies and a third of banana each!

There are no cars on this Island and Lopes Mendes beach was a 2 hour walk away - this added to the pristene condition and miles away feel!

Lopes Mendes beach in the distant

Nic on Lopes Mendes

We joined a boat party and drank courtesy caiparinias all day...yum yum yummy.

BBQ on board with free caiparinias!

We came across this thing and knew we were still far away from home!!!

A huge bug and a classy way to show the scale!

Ilha Grande remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

The devils throat - from a helicopter

It was massive. Hundreds of waterfalls making one huge noise and a lot of spray!

Where all this water comes from!

There was a real end of the world feeling to this place. Both Argentina and Brazil share this impressive site and they've made it so accessible you can get right up close and personal with it.

Us getting very wet!

The second day in and around the falls we crossed the border into Argentina to get a better overview of the thing. Even though the water was deafening, in volume terms it was pretty low. We walked along the walkway so we could practically hang over the edge, our guide then pointed out how high the water is normally and how high it can get. Scarey. We would have been nearly underwater.... it must be breathtaking when that amount of water is rushing under your feet and cascading over the edge. It rammed home the devastating effect water can have when it gets a move on.

Further down the river we hoped on board a speed boat and crusied towards the falls. Only wearing pants and a rain jacket, we roared into the mist and white water above us. The pounding water knocked us about and we froze as the cold water soaked us in seconds...

You can just make out the boat - we got soaked!!!

Very end of the world feeling!

Iguazu Falls remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

The start of the river

Lots of fish....

....they got bigger....

...when they got bigger they had teeth!

David in and out of water...

Peaceful waters

A fish eating...that's all!

Bonito remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

With formalities out of the way we headed straight for the Pantanal, the largest freshwater wetland in the world. We were immediatley surrounded by wildlife...

Daddy Kayman

...these boys were everywhere. We trundled along a few dirt roads getting further and further into the bush until we found our home for the following two nights.

Nic hanging out

Still knackered from the night before, we unpacked and tested the hammocks. After a snooze we went on a boat ride checking out water pigs, huge birds, more kaymans and lots of parrots as the sun set.

Beer and cigar - great combo

Camp fire in full flow, out came the beer and a few smokes. The following day we headed to a huge lake where piranhas live! Fresh meat in hand we tempted these snappy chappies out, licking our lips as each one made it to the bank - these lucky fish were going to be our dinner that night!

It had big teeth - My Pirahana

Biggest catch of the day by the smallest person there!

Yum yum - dinner that night

That afternoon, for the first time whilst travelling, we swung our legs over a couple of horses and hit the ranch. Great fun, they galloped on there own accord and pretty much didn't pay any attention to us!

Clip clip cliperty clop

Pantanal remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Santa Cruz remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

You can just make them out - sort of

We quickly jumped onboard a dinotruck which whisked us away to a cement factory....Mmmm this wasn´t what we were expecting. Ahhh but after a quick BBC Walking With Dinosaurs episode (good old BBC!) all was clear and we were taken around the corner to a rock face covered with the big boys tracks! This area is a World Heritage Site because these marks are the largest recorded dinosaur tracks in the world.... how random!?

Ladies first

The next day we were up early, again, mmm. We were heading to the surrounding hills with a big bag in the back of the truck. We arrived at a cliff edge and mentally prepared oursleves for what we had let ourselves in for! We were going to paraglide off this hill.... all 600 metres of it! Nic went first to make sure it was safe for David! (It was done in weight order because the wind got higher as the day went on! Honest!) Before we knew it she was up in the air gracefully falling to the valley below. She landed with the biggest grin on her face, this was the best thing ever! By the time David had a go the wind was rampant and turbulent. The equpment was a little tight, so most of the journey felt out of control and with a testicle wedgy to boot, he was relieved to touch the ground.... Awesome but bum squelching experience.

Sucre remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Potosi was once the richest city in the world because of the silver mine here. An extinct volcano that dominates the the city is where all the action was to be had! We were very lucky to be here in the 1st of August as this day was the only time of the year when the miners pay sacrifice to Pachamama (Mother Earth) for all the wealth the land has given them.

Not a good combo

We quickly booked up a tour through the mines and bought gifts for the guys who work in its dingy depths. This was bizarre - it would probably be David´s only chance to ever buy dynamite! With a fuse and stick of TNT in hand we ventured down into the merky depths of the mines and witnessed what these guys had to do....it was all by chisel, hammer and brute force. We were shaken by at least 15 blasts of dynamite from the above and below tunnels. Needless to say this made us feel very exposed! We handed over our gifts (reluctantly!) and made our way outside to the party! There were two llamas at the entrance to our tunnel, looking rather edgy as you´d probably expect. They were dosed up with alcohol and coca leaves before being bundled to the ground. The manager came out sharpening his knife and proceeded to cut each head off. Blood spurting in all direction they gathered the red stuff and began spraying the walls, themselves, us and all the equipment with the warm fresh blood. With the llamas still jerking in the background we declined the offer to a BBQ and made our way back into the town with several explosions around us marking the annual celebration we had just witnessed!

We´ll never forget that! Meat was off the menu for a few hours at least!

The rest of the evening was full of explosions and as you probably expect, alcohol (96% - lethal stuff!) and TNT don´t really mix. It turned into riots and rocks being thrown....a bit scarey as it all seemed to be outside our hostel, which proved rather tricky when we wanted to get inside!

Potosi remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

David´s new teddy bear

Squeezeeeeeed a gooden out that morning!

The hallucinogenic salt flats are unlike anything we had ever experienced. The undisturbed horizon was a sight to behold and we took advantage of the crazy tricks on the mind to be had! Our driver was insane..there are no roads to follow so it´s each driver for his own. Our guy knew this whole region like the back of his hand after doing these trips for 15 years. He was getting out of the car, pretending to be asleep and even driving within arms reach to the car next to us...all at 70mph!

We were staying in very basic accomodation and the temperatures at night reportadbly got down to outside... we were chilly! Not forgetting the fact that we stayed at the highest point on our travels, 4350m above sea level (we only managed a few hours sleep!)

Nic in an old lava field from the still smoking volcano in the background

David´s feet were warm for the first time in days...

Llama!!

The trip also included a large amount of dirt, rumble, sand and mud driving passing bright pink flamingos, hundreds of llamas and awesome views of the many surrounding volcanoes. We took many stops for pictures of a still smoking volcano, vivid coloured red and green lakes and barmy rock formations scattered around empty plains (some areas were so surreal they looked like Dahli paintings!) We were walking amongst thermal mud pools and gesyers without any marked barriers to hold us back... it stunk and so did we by this point so opted for a natural hot bath, 4300m above sea level at 7am in the morning. David´s trunks truned to ice within minutes of getting out of the water! We also managed to have a go at ice skating, with a twist. Now 5000m above sea level, on a frozen magnesuim green lake and a volcano in the background marking the Chilean/Bolivian border, I don´t think we´ll be skating anywhere else like it!

We were cream crackered by the end and needed a shower - these four days were a definate highlight of our travels so far!

Salt Flats remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

After a very interesting bus journey which involved the bus getting on its own boat to cross the lake, we arrived in La Paz!! Whopppee! This place has to take the prize of the most craziest. There are no traffic lights and even when there are a few scattered in the modern parts of the city, they pay no attention. Instead the horn is the best form of communicating which direction you intend to go. Which is pretty hard when the drivers don´t even know where they are going in the first place!!!

We slowly pounded the streets taking deep breaths due to the altitude and took in as many sites as possible...We visited he renowned Coca Museum which couldn´t be missed after receiving the benefits of the fine leaf on many occassions! We also checked out the Witches Market which included the sale of Llama feotues (a bargain for souveniers back home!) and the black market where you could get all the Yves Faint Laplonk shirts and Armanki jeans you could want!

We finished off our stay in the World´s highest oxygen bar... we enjoyed a variety of flavours for 20 minutes including strawberry, peach and vanilla all whilst playing the playstation and Nic reading Cosmo!

La Paz remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We left early doors from Cusco to Puno after an eventual 40 minute delay! We had to return to the hotel after forgetting our passports...we were doing so well!! We passed through the Inca gates which orginally guarded the entrance to the valley and then brefly stopped at the largest remaining Inca roof - it was big, not much else to say about that!!!

The landscape was fantastic, it included towering snow capped peaks and high saddles to pass over. We eventually arrived in Puno for a quick wonder and re-pack of bags for the homestay the following night.

On the way out through the reeds

Another early start saw us hop onto a boat and enjoy a 3 hour journey on the world´s highest navigable lake (it´s about the size of belguim but at 3850m above sea level!) We island hopped for most of the day and eventually arrived at the island where we´d meet our family.

Outside our bedroom for the night

Gooooaaaaalllll....!!!

After all the welcoming formalities we got onto the serious activity of the island - FOOTBALL! Now at 4000m above sea level this was an opportunity not to be missed. Team GAP, (as we called ourselves) cheered on by our faithful female supporters made quite an impression... winner stays on...so we did! Our hearts were jumping out of our chests but we still gave the locals a good match! David managed to score two goals until we eventually succumed to the darkness that fell and finally called it a day!

We made our way back to the house where our new Mum made us dinner using very traditional techniques. After being nearly smoked to death and an entertaining few hours playing with our new Bothers and Sisters it was time for a disco, well, sort of....all dressed up we danced the night away! We looked well fit, David had to fight the locals off Nic for a chance to dance with her!

We stopped off on the way back to the main land via the floating reed islands.

Lake Titicaca remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

It could have jumped out at any time!!!!

This was a big as David´s hand!

Boys and their toys!

After a hot and sticky night we woke and began a pre-dawn walk. With David armed with a machete we headed to a lake and on the way saw squirrel monkeys playing high up in the trees. We climbed into a rickety canoe and had a calm trip on the lake, on the way back to our lodge we passed banana trees, saw fire ants climbing trees and caught a glimpse of macaws that were squawking loudly!

A quiet start

Nic finally had enough!

Our trip to the jungle was already over and we began to make our way back to Cusco. We had a fantastic time and without a doubt had seen some brilliant wildlife.

Jungle time! remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

At the start!

End of the first day

We woke early with a suprised knock on our tent door - it was the porters offering fresh warm coca tea (we could get used to this!!!). After filling our tums and mouths with fresh coca leaves, we chewed our way all the way up to the dizzying heights of 4215m/13,820ft! It was hard to breath at points, with us having to take farily regular rests and plenty of water. We had climbed 1300m today, at altitude, and the only way down was the other side of the mountain - a knee crushing 600m!

Our picnic spot!

Just about to finish the big hike up

At the highest point

The next day was the most beautiful. High alpine traversing of the rocky mountains, looming glaciers still high above us with some parts of the track unrestored from the Inca period - including tunnel sections! We camped only a 2 hour walk from the Sun Gate.

The morning came, well, 4am to be precise and we started walking in the dark towards Macchu Picchu. We arrived at the sun gate as the sun peaked over the mountains and we were offered the first sight of the ruins - wow! We quickly walked down towards the first terraces and had views of an almost empty site from the classic angle.... Incredible. We spent the next six hours walking around one of the New wonders of the world before heading down to the train station. We chugged along a fantastic track all the way back through the valley to Cusco....

View from the Sun Gate

We made it!

At Macchu Picchu

Nic being at one with the ruins!

Macchu Picchu

Inka Trail and Macchu Picchu remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

A cobbled Cusco streets

Getting ready for a night out

Nic and some Inca foundations

Chilling out at Inca ruins

Cusco and the Sacred Valley remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We couldn´t have timed it better...as we arrived these huge birds (3m wingspan) were all over the place. We counted 16 at one point and were starting to get worried that they might try and pick Nic off and feed her to their young!!! After spending an hour with the birds, we took a stroll along the canyon´s edge and admired the massive drop down, down, down into the valley!

Condor!

Us at the top of the canyon

After a fantastic two days, we caught the bus back into Arequipa, however, this wasn´t going to be as easy as we hoped.....

A transport strike was under way making it impossable to pass certain points. Huge rocks had been dropped from the mountainsides onto the road, with a few protestors remaining behind to throw more down if anyone dared pass..... We managed to avoid rocks through the windows with some very careful driving. A point was then reached where we simply could not go any further. We waited and waited to see what would happen until eventually we strapped everything to our backs and headed towards the commotion. It was starting to get dark as we walked gingerly through all the boulders and broken glass. Lots of people were high up either side of us looking very amused at this group of confident tourists. With smoke billowing from burnt tyres and hoards of locals discussing the days events, we emerged the other side greeted by fellow tourists who were taking pictures of us!!! They were trying to get to the side we just came from!!!

Makeshift roadblock!

The bit we had to walk through...

After a quick regroup and an hour of trying to bribe police and locals alike, we managed to get an escort through all the back roads. This involved crossing train lines, through extremely bumpy dirt roads, crossing dry river beds and even more protestors who at one point surrounded the van!! We did sustain a puncture from one of the metal bars these people were proding the van with, but we eventually made it to the hotel safe and sound if not a little shaken!!!!

Colca Canyon remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Arequipa main square

David chilling in Santa Catalina

Nic finding her way in Santa Catalina

For the rest of the day we pottered around the beautiful city centre and watched the protesters from the first of many strikes to come. We tried to get to bed early that evening because we had to leave early (2am) the following morning to get to the Colca Canyon and avoid more protestors!

Arequipa remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We could see lots of lines and patterns on the ground below us and then we started to see more. We spotted the monkey, humming bird and astronaut to name a few. It was quite surreal seeing these huge carvings in the ground below us. By the time the plane landed our stomachs were all over the place but what an experience!

We finished of another busy day by eating raw fish and chilling out beside the pool before catching a night bus to Arequipa....

Nasca remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Juan pouring our piscos!

The following day we climbed aboard the bus and set off to an Oasis via Paracus national park. Despite his delicate state, David opted to go sandboarding and dune buggying - Nic still can´t believe he wasn´t ill! To be amongst huge sand dunes (infact the hightest in the world is reportably located there!) was incredible. The fact you could admire the scenery from two different perspectives added to the experience - namely hurtling yourself, head first, at some serious speed, down these dunes on a very shiny wooden boards! This was just a tad(!) quicker than in NZ!

This was generally a relaxing place where we could have lunch and chill out infront of water in an extremely dry environment.

We also visited a winery that produces the now dreaded Pisco (David kept well back from the tasting!). Unfortunatley we didn´t get the chance to see around the factory so it was similiar to the other wineries we´ve visited - except of course this was quite picturesque being in Peru and all!

David sat out the wine tasting!

Pisco remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Plaza de Armes

We walked around for a while before having a tour around Catedral San Francisco. The paintings and architecture were just fantastic and the history was very interesting. We got to walk down into the depths of the catedral into the catacoombs, where and estimated 75,000 bodies lay in huge underground vaults. A large amount of bones are on display and there are some areas they cannot excavate as they have almost become the foundations of the building.

Catedral San Francisco

We met our group that night and went out for a meal. The Leader is Pervian and full of information and local knowledge, he explained the ephasise of using local companies and produces for anything we do... The following day, having met our group we caught the bus to Pisco....and so the journey in Peru begins....

Lima remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

On our way up

Nic preparing for the red run

Obviously she wasn´t prepared enough....

The views from the top (3350m high) were amazing. We were in the heart of huge Andes mountain range with Santiago now a distant "village" (!) in the background. We had beautiful sunshine, clear blue skies and crisp lovely snow. We were in heaven!

David after one of his falls!

We´d had a couple of spectacular falls and ended our first day tired but very happy. We returned to a cosy hostel thanks to the log fire and chilled out playing pool, chess and chatted to fellow skiiers!

The second day was more skiing, though as we were still getting over our jet lag it was a lot more relaxed. We basically had the slopes to ourselves, it was bliss.

Checking out the slopes

We made our way back down, down, down into Santiago and finished off our two days of skiing with a few Pisco Sours!!

The sunset over the Andes just as we were leaving

Trying out pisco sours for the first time...

Farellones remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Preparing to land

Inside the Cathedral

During our stay in the city we also caught a furnicular railway up to the tops of Parque Metropolitano where a huge statue stood. From high up we could clearly see the Andes and the thick layer of smog which seemed to constantly hang over Santiago. We took in a dose of culture at the Precolumbian musuem. This was really interesting as they had artefacts dating from 100 to 400BC and mummies which were created 2000 years before the Egyptian versions!

View of the Andes from Parque Metropolitano

We sampled some local street food including the renowed "hot dog" with gucamole, tomato, mayo and if you´re daring some mustard!

Santiago city is a modern place and allowed us a gentle introduction to South America. Tring hard to get our spanish right, we even managed to have conversations that involved football! Having said that, this wasn´t too hard as the Copa America is currently on and the whole place is crazy for it. A real treat to see the likes of Brasil and Argentina thrash it out! (That comment was obviously from David!)

Still, with the draws of a modern citry at our fingertips, the Andes mountain range was looming overhead and we needed to get out of the city.....

Santiago remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Back to Auckland - Goodbye New Zealand remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

There were no surfers to be spotted....

We then drove to the Coromandel Peninsula the following day and explored. We had fantastic weather for this - A lovely crisp sunny day and we made the most of it. Off to the beach we went.....OH...but this wasn't any old beach this was Hot Water Beach! You can dig a hole in the sand and enjoy an thermal treatment! Even though the tide was on its way in, we could still bury our feet in the sand and in doing so nearly burning our soles...

The beach has other powers toooo

We also took a stroll to Cathredral Cove a huge archway on a beach.

David with a little energy

David liked jumping that day...!?

Raglan and Coromandel Peninsula remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Well 100m to be precise. We opted for a full days caving and it was awesome! The entrance to the cave was called "Lost World" which was a jaw dropping abseil down. We were greated by eels in the river and a hot brew - we were going to be underground scambling through the nooks and crannies for the next 5 hours..!

The view from the abseil platform

Nervous smiles!

We clambered over huge boulders and waded through ankle deep water. It gradually became knee deep and before we knew it our feet couldn't touch the floor. We were clinging onto the jagged rock edges to keep our heads above the water. The current was getting extremely strong and the water levels high, especially when the cave narrowed down to shoulder width (it was touch and go as to whether the trip would go ahead due to the amount of water). There were water ripping waterfalls to climb up and naturally, eventually jump off, but all the time trying not to get sucked under by the current.

Nic was mostly dragged though the river with her harness by one of our guides so she wouldn't get washed down stream!! In the meantime David stayed close behind just in case the guides let go!!!

The big finale was seeing glowworms. Just before daylight crept into the cave we took a breather on a huge boulder, switched our head lamps off and were gobsmacked. All above us, on the ceiling for as far as the eye could see were a galaxy of glowworms. It was just a magnificent site and the perfect way to finish our underground adventure.

That night, feeling battered and bruised we stayed in a plane. A Bristol Freighter to be exact! We stayed in the cockpit and it was really comfy if not a little odd....

Our room for the night!

Waitomo Caves remains copyright of the author nicdavid, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs