Raglan - Waitomo - New Plymouth

This is the view from our dorm window at Raglan. Not bad eh?

On Tuesday night I managed to find myself another cold. This one just seems to knacker me out and give me sore limbs, head and throat. I can hear the sympathy from here. I've still got it 3 days later.

Jamie's fine though and on Wednesday he went off for some surfing lessons which he seemed to enjoy, managing to take a wave or two. Anyway Thursday morning we headed to Waitomo Caves where we were going to go caving/abseiling etc but my cold meant we had to put it off until next week when we'll be heading back north past Waitomo again. The drive from Raglan to Waitomo was very nice though despite the numerous land slides and rockfalls as you can see below.

We passed through the seaside fishing village of Kawhia where one of the original Maori Waka (canoes) landed after the journey from Hawaiki in the 14th century. The waka is buried near the village and the pohutkawa tree to which the original sailors tied their waka remains today.

On then to Waitomo via a cracking waterfall which included a rainbow in the spray at the bottom. I was knackered by this point and spent most of the afternoon in bed but Jamie went off for a look around. We had also visited the Angora Rabbits just outside Waitomo where they have daily shearing shows and make various woollen garmets from the fuzzball bunnies.

When it was dark and before the torrential rain we popped down to the nearby river to see the glow worms lining the river banks. What a sight and nothing compared to what we should see inside the caves when we come back next week.

Speaking of the rain. They've had some serious rain here. Floods down south in Otago (where they had been suffering from drought), in Auckland, Hauraki and Northland. 2ft of snow in the southern high country too, closing the Lindis Pass road route from east to west. It's still mild up here though, 20c most days down to maybe 10c at the very minimum at night. The trees are changing colour though and the reds, oranges and yellows really bring another feature to the countryside.

Today we drove down the coast to New Plymouth and the region called Taranaki after the huge cone shaped mountain which dominates the area. It is snow topped and if the cloud clears enough it should make and even more impressive sight. We were considering climbing it but if the snow is there it's just too dangerous for a couple of ringers like us. Still it looks great.

Jamie's off to get us some new tyres as the miles seem to have caught up with the originals and they must be well short of legal never mind safe.

There seems to be plenty to do round here so hopefully I can get this cold/virus rubbish out the way and do something interesting.