Taupo (Day 5)

Day 4. Woke up for a swim in the river. The we met Aaron who lives on his own boat in the River Thames, and Vaughn who lives in Auckland they had got dropped off in Taupo and got to the camp by floating in their rubber canoe, two paddles food and beer bottles in the middle. But one thing they forgot though was water, so we dropped them off in town whilst we ventured around. It was a beautiful sunny day so we went back to camp for a swim, and saw the guys floating down the river on their way back (from town) in the canoe, it’s the perfect way to get home if you’re having a night out! Later on we trekked to Huka Falls as we heard there’s a cave behind the Waterfall, so we followed a path to a fishing spot, then abseiled down a rocky wall and climbed around the rocks to get down to the falls, Mikko and Aaron walked ahead, then I saw Vaughn climbing round a tree and onto a rock, I saw him looking into the water about to jump, I said ‘mate u jumping in?’ but he was in the zone, Mikko came out of the cave filming on his camera, saw Vaughn and pulled him out, the current was so strong. For some reason Vaughn thought Aaron and Mikko had jumped in to the falls to get to the cave! HaHa a big Powerful waterfall and he jumped in! He’s a legend, he isn’t scared of anything he jumped from a huge waterfall the day before and broke two ribs. Eventually…we took a narrow path which led us around the waterfall to get into the cave, it was awesome! We got fairly wet getting there but it was amazing, being inside a cave behind such a well-known waterfall. It wasn’t something you do every day. Then we took the footpath past the top of the falls, through the bushwalk and made it to the hot springs just before sunset. Whilst the boys took their turn to pump up the canoe, we relaxed in the hot springs looking up at a perfect clear sky, full of glistening stars, overlooking the beautiful river… what more could I ask for! It was the best thing ever! Eventually we got ourselves together and all four of us jumped in the canoe and paddled downs stream back to camp for an open fire. We all pitched in to make delicious meals of fresh fish, steak (for the men), veg, potatoes and a perfect white sauce. We had a few drinks whilst we let it cook in the hot embers of the fire.