Auckland

Pictures:

Me trying to look tough after abseiling.
View of the canyon while descending

View of Taranaki from the window of the bus. It seemed to come out of the clouds.

Taranaki at sunset

Didn't mean to upload this one - but this is the countryside around Taranaki

From Wellington, we drove more or less directly to Auckland where we'll be spending the night. We go north of Auckland for the next three days. Yesterday, we drove through Taranaki, named after the massive volcano that dominates the horizon throughout the area. To the locals, it is known simply as "the mountain" because there are none other in sight. It's absolutely amazing to see, and the countryside around it is beautiful as well (farms spotted with white dots - sheep that is). The new guide is quite good and is from the Taranaki region of the North Island, so he had some very interesting things to say. Taranaki is believed to be the biggest threat to Auckland of any volcano in the vicinity. We spent the night along the Tasman Sea and had a nice fire which was great. The place is so nice that I've decided to change my itinerary once I get off the bus in Auckland in 4 days. I've booked a bus down to New Plymouth and from they're I'll climb Taranaki. It's a five day trip that goes around the mountain and summiting is very feasible in the summer as long as the weather is okay. From there I'll head east to Tongariro and do the hike there as well before catching a train to Wellington.

Today was mostly driving, but we did visit Waitamo caves. I didn't go into the caves and instead opted to rappell (or abseil as everyone seems to call it here) down a massive canyon nearby. The canyon was limestone (there's a huge amount of limestone in NZ) and formed when caves formed by a river running underneath itself collapsed. The guides were great and we had a really small group so it was good fun. We were able to control our descent and stop to take pictures when we wanted. It's very difficult to capture what it was like with a camera though. Tomorrow we're off to subtropical Northland and the Bay of Islands.

-Brian