Waitomo Caves

   We've left Auckland for good and are heading down to Wellington with some stops along the way of course. We've been in Waitomo, which is famous for its caves and gloworms, since yesterday afternoon. We went on a forest walk in the evening and got to see the gloworms light up the forest canopy. The worms are actually larvae of flies which have incandesant poop that they use to attract bugs who get tangelled up in webs they hang from the cave walls.

   Today we got all suited up to go blackwater rafting in the caves. The first thing we had to do is rappelle 110 ft. into a tiny hole in the rocks and from there a zip line took us to where the underground river was. Then a big jump into the freezing water with an inner tube and we were off!

The rafting is more like drifting seeing as the current isn't very strong. But the views of the gloworms on the roof of the cave were amazing, it was like looking up at the night sky. Once we ditched the tubes we where stuck walking through the water, sometimes up to our armpits, and crawling through passages in the rocks. The final event was climbing up two waterfalls before breaking into the light and coming to a calm pool of water in the middle of the forest.

   This trip is opening up so many amazing opportunities and I'm feeling more adventurous than I ever have. I may have caught the travel bug!