Taupo and the Waitomo Caves

We are stuck in Taupo at the moment. Our great car made it 1000km before tunring into a not so great car. Pressing the gas to hard blew the line out of the power steering pump. We then lost the belt and have been without PS for the past 24 hours, all fine and good really, except now it just won't start. Even after Aaron yelled at it and kicked it.

on a good note we did a short hike to the Huka falls today. they were really cool. The water was so pure it was this light blue colour with the white foam of too much water crashing and rushing through a small space. really beautiful.
At the beginning of the hike just as you go over this bridge you notice the water going under is steaming, it turns our that it is a free thermal pool area right where the hot water meets the river. There were tons of people there all day, but we decided not to go in.

We spent the afternoon kayaking lake Taupo. The last stretch of 400m or so got really windy and we got to play in the white caps fighting the waves and getting splashed! it was so much fun!
We paddled the coast some 3km to the Mauri rock carvings done on a small cliff. The carvings are extensive depictions of different local and national Mauri myth, and the main large face depics a cheif that is watching over the people on the water to keep them from drowning.
You can see Mt. DOOM from there as well as a good portion of the rest of Tongariro national park and several other smaller closer volcanoes. The lake was formed by a series of volcanic eruptions the most recent being 1800 years ago. the closest one looks like a pregnant woman on her back with her son floating behind her. In Mouri legend she is said to be the lady of the lake, a princess who escaped a masacre on one side of the lake by swimming the 4 miles or so across to the other side with her son tied to her back.
Our guide was brittish so naturally we had high tea and the end in a nice park/ launching site.

yesterday we spent the day in Waitomo where some of the most extensive caves in New Zealand have been made safe for tourists. the first cave we did was called glow worm cave and rightfully so. First after a short walk through stalagtites and mites you get to a cathedral with wonderful acoustics where many choirs and local artists have performed. Then as you get deeper and closer to the river everyone piles into a boat and you start to see little twinkling stars everywhere. There are so many in the main chamber that the first people to go through the caves there actually thought it was the night sky, but it was really thousands of glow worms. They glow darker as they get older and bigger and before the become insects. Another really cool thing was that they hang tons of silk strands from their nests like spider webs to help them catch insects. The strands are so pritty and they glisten in the little amount of light you do get in the cave. it was just awesome. The second cave had both glow worms and crazy formations. My favorite part about it was the curtain formations formed like stalagtites but flowing down such a line that they actually start to look like fabric coming of the walls. There were also tons of fossils and other crazy formations caused by the river that flows through. The second cave was called Ruakuri or two dogs in Mauri after the wild dogs that were found living in the cave entrance when it was first discovered in the 1800's by a lost Mauri hunter.

The next thing on the list is to do the Tongariro crossing as soon as we get the car situation settled. Send us your happy thoughts.