By Annabelle Booth

I have had a few exciting trips around the North Island with my friend Ashley.

Last week-end was a national holiday so we took a trip to Waitomo Caves which is a natural limestone cave complex.   The latent geographer in me was very excited by the caves!  We donned wetsuits, helmets and abseiling gear and then took a 4 hour caving trip.  I have never abseiled before so it was interesting doing it in the dark, through gushing rainfalls and against rock wall, which sometimes seemed to disappear from under my feet….   There are lots of glow worms in the caves- they are very cool creatures who burn more brightly they hungrier they are.  I enjoyed it but it was pretty scared at times.  We also managed to get lost down there!  The guides directed us and said they would meet us further on and  we missed the blindingly obvious turn and continued merrily through the cave!  Luckily, we soon realised we had made a massive wrong turn and retraced our steps…. 

I have all my fingers and toes crossed that we will not get lost this week-end- rather unexpectedly I have a ticket to walk the Milford Trek, a four day walk which involves 3 nights staying in a mountain hut!  It is meant to be an absolutely beautiful walk but it is going to be hard  walking plus it will be very wet and cold and we have to carry all our stuff.  We are flying down to Queenstown and then taking a bus to the start of the walk.  I am excited but also a little nervous especially as the weather has been terrible on the South Island.  They have had 2 earthquakes in the last 4 weeks, avalanches, gale force wind- it is certainly going to be an interesting trip! The huts also have rangers who help you along the way and ensure everyone is ok. 

After the trek, we are going to travel back to Queenstown and drive to Christchurch.  Along the way we will visit Milford Sound, the glaciers, Mount Cook and Geraldine (a small Canterbury village).   i can’t wait to hit the South Island as everyone says that it is really beautiful and is the real NZ.