Stupid Weather

Well I'm supposed to be hiking the Tongiriro Crossing right now, which is one of the best hikes in New Zealand, but it's started raining and snowing up there so sadly I'll have to skip it, which doesn't make me too happy.
So I left Charles' on Wednesday around noon and he drove me down to Otorohunga, where the have a bird sanctuary. I finally saw some Kiwis, but they don't let you take pictures because the flash frightens them, and they live in the dark, so sadly I have no evidence of the trip. I got some good pictures of other birds though, and hopefully I'll be able to upload those in a couple of days. After that I caught the shuttle to a Waitomo Caves Hostel, and chilled the rest of the day.
The next day was the epic caving adventure. I got up early and then we absielled 30 meters down into the cave, and then hiked up to see some glow worms. They really are quite impressive, and really like up the cave when you make loud noises. They're excretions are actually what glows, and they have a whole bunch of sticky webs that hang from the ceiling that you have to watch out for. After that we explored through the caves for a couple of hours, and rafted on big inner tubes which was all really cool. Then it was a rock climb out again, and five hours had passed by! I went for a hike after that, but didn't get too far and ended up napping in a really cool orchard beside the river. Life is tough sometimes!
Yesterday I hitched from Waitomo down to National Park with this really nice couple who actually took me out to lunch on the way down. They were going to the Chateau, so I ended up going up the mountain a bit too, but as soon as we got on the slopes it started to pour. I had been planning on spending the night camping there, but once the forecast came in and it said the rain and wind was supposed to last for 2 more days I just decided to get out of there. So sadly no Tongiriro Crossing, and no pictures of Mount Doom :(. I caught a ride with a Belgium couple down to Turangi and stayed the night in this Samurii hostel which was almost empty except for a Dutch guy who I talked to extensively about all sorts of things!
Today I got picked up right away when hitching and got into Taupo around 11. I checked into my hostel, then did a little shopping and it really wasn't too exciting. I did take a picture of the clouds covering the Tongiriro Crossing.. sigh. I ended up doing a nice little three hour hike to this really impressive waterfall, which absolutely races through a canyon. There was also a hot water stream which was pretty cool; there is craploads of thermal activity here. If only the volcanoes would erupt!
Tomorrow I'm going to hitch to Napier and see if I can get a day or two's work there, and then head down to the Wairarapa. I haven't yet got a hold of Dennis, but I'm going to try again tonight. Cheers!