North Island, Fall Break!

Hi everyone, I know its been awhile so let me catch you up! So Last I had a week long break for mid semester (holy crap the time is flying!) and I took an 8 day trip to the North Island. I flew out of Dunedin with 3 friends to Wellington, We rented a car there, looked around the city for a few hours and then started our way north. We drove to the Snowy waters lodge just outside of Togariro National park. The lodge was a cute little ski lodge with a beautiful view of the mountains. The next morning we woke up at 5am so we could start our day early. We did the Tongariro alpine crossing, a 19 km hike up the devils staricase, past mount doom and the red crater and then to the blue lakes. It was a tough but amazing hike. Mount doom from lord of the rings was so awesome to see. The entire Tongariro national park is a volcanically active area, and was where all scenes from mordor were filmed (I was totally geeking out about that). Once we finished the hike we were totally beat and had an early night. The next day we drove up to Taupo. We were supposed to go sky diving that day but the weather was terrible so we had to cancel. Don't worry I will be skydiving sometime before I leave, I am determined! Instead we walked around the town and the lake, had coffee, and did the craters of the moon walking trail. The next day we drove out to Waiatomo. There is an amazing cave system there that has the famous glow worms! I did the Haggas Honking Holes caving adventure. We drove out into the middle of nowhere to some rolling sheep pastures, stopped off at a shed, put on our wetsuits, helmets and head lamps and filed outside. The caving trip we did required us to know how to absail so we had to do a little training before because most of the people including myself had never done it before! Once we had all perfected (not really we all did it once) absailing it was time to begin out caving adventure. Somehow I ended up going first and so I marched on fearlessly after our guide, watched him disappear into a black hole in the ground, prayed to the cave gods and jumped in after him. I squeezed into small tunnels and around corners until all the light had disappeared behind me. I finally caught up to the guide  and he was waiting to hook me up to the ropes for my first ever absail! After I was strapped in I was looking down a huge cave shaft It was pitch black down there so I had no idea where the bottom was, then he said alright swing out over the hole and start absailing down. I gave him a "you are actually psycho if you think I am swinging out into nothingness" took a deep breath and took the plunge! It was incredible! I slowly came into a huge cavern with glow worms on the walls and huge stalactites on either side of me! And I was absailing down a waterfall! In a cave!!!! Once I got to the bottom the other guide asked me how it was and I was speechless. Incredible was the only word I think I got out. I waited at the bottom of the cave for the rest of the group, occasionally wandering off to explore and then hearing the guide call to me to not wander so far away or I might get lost... Opps, it was just so awesome! We then moved on to the next absail. I lowered down into a huge pool of water that came up to my waist. This time at the bottom there was no one there to direct me. All I hear was the guy up above me yelling "Follow the direction of the water" all I saw was cave walls and water disappearing down a small chute. I yelled back up that I didn't understand where I was supposed to go so he told me to sit on my butt and go down this little chute like a slide. Alright I was gonna do it, but I did inform him that if I died it was his fault. Eventually I emerged from this little water slide and had one more absail to do. Once everyone gathered we went off. We had just come down 100m under ground and had some exploring to do. It was so amazing. We laid on the floor of the cave looking up at what looked like a clear sky full of stars. We were so close to the glow worms I could get my face right up next to them. We then squeezed through a small squeeze that I had to get down and army crawl through because it was so small. We then all had to do some major rock climbing up cave walls and expertly positioned ladders to climb back out. All in all that was one of the most exciting 2 hours of my life! The next day we drove to Rotorua and walked by the lake and looked at the many geothermal vents and pools they have there. It was a really cute town except for the rotting egg smell from all of the geothermal activity. The next day we then took a bus to the Coromandel to stay at my friend Adele's house. There were beautiful beaches there. We spent our day riding bikes, sitting at the beach, getting a ride on the party barge and having a few barbaques. I did eat mussels for the first time ever so I was quite proud that day. The next day we took a trip up the coast to see hot water beach, which is a beach that has a hot spring so at low tide you can dig a hole and sit in it and wait for the hot water to seep in. We also took a trip to cathedral cove, where scenes from the Chronicles of Narnia were filmed. We then stopped off at sting ray bay to go snorkeling. The water was a bit cloudy due to high surf but I did see a bunch of sting rays and the water was warm for swimming. The next day was the day we flew home. We drove to Auckland and went to Adele's Dad's house which is on the bay and took a few sea kayaks out for a spin and had an amazing view of the Auckland skyline. After a quick flight home I was back in Dunedin. The North Island was amazing and I had such a good time there! Cheers!