The past few days have been a whirlwind. I will start with one of the coolest things I have ever done: my exploration into the Waitomo Caves.
Prior to my departure from the good ol' US of A, I had researched these caves, and moved touring them up to the top of my New Zealand "To Do" list. Needless to say, I could barely sleep the night before (also partially due to the fact that we had toured the Shire the day before, which I am still reeling from). Anyway, we woke up a bit early the morning of the 9th and drove about two hours from Rotorua to Waitomo. It's a dinky little town, built solely because of the tourism surrounding the caves. We arrived at the main offices of the Blackwater Rafting company right on time, which is when my excitement really started to build. There were awesome pictures of the caving tours everywhere, and I couldn't wait to get started. We were led outside by our guides, Alex and Pirate (his real name, a good sign), to get geared up. This involved full body wetsuits, socks, "goofy boots," and helmets with heavy duty headlamps on them. It was about this point that I became very confident that I was going to have a good time.
This is our whole group just before we entered the caves. A bit further along than my story, but you can see how fabulous we looked in our wetsuits. Note: I had never worn a wetsuit before. They are heavy, constricting, and extremely difficult to put on. I felt like a penguin (and probably walked like one too).
Anyway, once we struggled into our gear, we hopped into a van and drove out to the actual cave site. We were greeted by a giant pile of heavy duty inner tubes. Pirate then explained to us that we had to find one big enough to sit in comfortably, and that the best way to do this was to "be honest with ourselves." Hilarious. So we all walked around like idiots for about ten minutes, partially sitting in tubes and asking people to look at our butts to make sure it fit right.
In case you are unable to identify me merely by staring at my hindquarters (which is just fine, might I add), I am directly in the middle, left of the giant tube.
Once we had been honest with ourselves and secured our tubes, Alex suddenly dropped us with "Okay, so you all know that the main part of this tour is jumping off of waterfalls, right?" Silence. Elise piped in with "We do now!" So then we practiced the technique of jumping off of underground waterfalls. I assumed this would be similar to cliff jumping, and we would just jump holding our tubes and figure it out at the bottom. But oh no. This technique instead involves standing on the edge, turning around, holding your tube tight to your butt and throwing yourself backwards. Naturally. We practiced this on a dinky little dock, and it was hilarious.
My ravishing expression as I landed into the practice pool. That water was coooold!
Anyway, after the suicide practice was over, we finally headed off for our descent into the caves. The tour we chose, called the Black Labyrinth Tour, took us into Ruakuri cave, which means two dogs (of course). Alex told us the story of how the cave received its name, which involved the death of a Maori chief, and told us to beware of an invisible icy hand on our shoulder. Comforting. We then finally made our way into the cave, and it was SO. COOL. We crawled, ducked, trudged, and tubed through, stopping periodically to learn more facts about what we were seeing from our guides (we also made two waterfall jumps, which were only mildly terrifying. They weren't tall, but you had to jump completely blind, so that's what made it frightening). As we went, we began to see small clusters of glow worms, which was incredible. They looked like little tiny stars dotting the ceiling. Alex then told us that the worms were actually maggots, and that the glowing part is actually their feces. So, in summary: I paid $100 to crawl through a tunnel of glowing maggot shit. Yes, I had this realization. BUT. It was incredible. No regrets. My favorite part of the experience was in the middle, when we shut all of our lamps off, and floated through this giant part of the cave. This was where we saw the most glow worms; there were hundreds of them grouped up on the ceiling of the cave, and I was able to just lay back and take it all in. There are no pictures of this moment, but that's probably for the best, because no picture could do it justice. It was so magical, and I am so happy to have experienced it.
We paused for a teaching moment.
The view from...WITHINNNN! Lolz. Also all of these photos were taken by our guides, because we couldn't bring cameras into the cave with us. A shameless ploy to make us pay for photos, but also nice because then I could just focus on the experience.
We made it out alive!
After the caving adventure of a lifetime, we were all pretty wiped. We drove to New Plymouth, to sort of reset for the next day, which involved visiting Mount Taranaki, a large volcano on the North Island. We had a lovely day for it (as we've had for pretty much everything), and were able to do a short hike to a viewing spot to snap a few photos before the long haul drive to Auckland.
The "Goblin Forest" that we hiked through. I am not making that up, that is what the guide said. Sadly, I did not spot any goblins.
Mount Taranaki! Officially on the Bucket List: Climb to the top of this baby. I can't even imagine the views!
We've been in Auckland for the past two days, and it's been a much needed change of pace. We're at the point in the trip where everyone is starting to wear on each other (understandably), so that's been a bit difficult. Yesterday, everyone wanted to go shopping downtown, so I was able to snag some alone time at our beautiful house. I soaked up some rays, went for a stroll along the beach, and, most importantly, was able to talk to some wonderful family and friends from back home. I am always so thankful for the perspective, laughs, and support that those conversations give me, so it was awesome to have three in one day!
The amazing view from the deck of our house.
I feel like P. Diddy.
Life is a beautiful thing.
The capper on the day was that we were graced with the most stunning rainbow I have ever seen. I love rainbows. They are totally a sign that good things are coming. It made me very, very happy to see it arching over the Auckland water.
So hard to capture on film, but the rainbow was so bright--and it even turned into a double rainbow after awhile!
Love.
Fun Facts/Updates:
-Alex taught us what Waitomo means! "Wai" means water, and "Tomo" means hole in the ground. Hence: Waitomo caves.
-We watched Argo last night, and it was SO GOOD. Highly recommend it if you have yet to see it. However, we were all a little distracted, and one person asked questions through the whole thing, so I am anxious to watch it again when I get home.
-Only 37 days until I meet my Aunt Susan in Sydney, and only 42 days until Mark and Nancy arrive in Christchurch. I CAN'T WAIT!
-Tomorrow we leave for our IES fieldtrip to Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands. I'm super excited. It promises to be hot (Hawaii style), and, best of all, it is ALREADY PAID FOR. Anything free is like a gift from heaven at this point. However, I won't have internet, so get ready for a super long summary of the week when I get back to Christchurch!
Cheers!
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