Waitomo (April 15)

Had a wonderful sleep last night, actually slept through the whole night, it was great. After we stopped at a Black Water Cafe we headed to an old gold mine at the Karangahake Scenic Reserve to explore the stunning bush-land gorge. We walked aroud following the river, crossed over 2 swing bridges, and went through a long railway tunnel where we saw glow worms. The river was very calming. It reminded me of he times we used to go to Yosemite when I was younger. It was a great beak to stretch our legs and see some beautiful scenery.

Swinging bridge

One of the tunnels we walked through

View from one of the lookouts

Amanda and Me

Our next stop was the hostel and then we were off to explore some more caves and some people did some black water rafting. Instead of the black water rafting Amanda and I went on a 2 hr hike through the mountains. It was a gorgeous and very scenic walk. We had some starring competitions with cows and tried avoidig all the cow pies. We went at such a perfect time beacuse the light on the mountains made the views that much more enjoyable. By the time we reached the other end it was quite late and it was gettig dark. We started walking back and realized it was going to take way too long and we were on a road where it was very unlikely we would see a car. We knew we needed to hitch hike a ride back but with the population of the town being 55 people and it being a Sunday we weren't to sure if we'd even see a car. One van passed but it was for the black eternal rafting so Amanda and I thought for some reason that they wouldn't give us a ride. After the van passed we really regreted not trying to ask for a ride. I said a little prayer to grandpa D and GG Mary and about 10 minutes later a car drove by that ended up giving us a ride. It wa a family of 5 from New Zealand that was on holiday. We very much appreciated the ride back.

Cows!

One of my favorite pictures

One of the cows we had a staring competition with

Fallen tree

A cave we found

After the boys got back fom black water rafting we cooked pasta with a bacon peas and onions carbonara sauce. The sauce had so much flavor, we were very proud of ourselves.

Hostel we stayed at