New Zealand- Waitomo

our last stop on the trip was waitomo. it's approximately 

1/2 way between wanganui and auckland. we had a mid day flight to catch, so the stop over seemed appropriate.  but waitomo has a bit more going for it then that. it's got caves!

there were many splendid caving options. given our time and our resources, john and i opted for black water rafting! what is black water rafting you ask? it's essentially tubing inside a cave with nothing but a headlamp. too cool.

we geared up in full wetsuits- overalls, jackets, booties and ever stylish shorts. we were bussed over to the start area, which honestly looked like nothing more then a small crevasse in a rockface. it felt like we were discovering an entrance to narnia or something. 

we spent just over an hour weaving and bobbing through the cave on our inner tubes. we stopped a few times to get some education from our uber cool guides. we jumped off some small ledges, paddled our way out in the dark and mostly had a ball.

the coolest part was the gloworms. which, in fact, should be called glow-larvae because that's what they are. with all of our headlamps turned off, the glowthings were emitting a light bright enough for us to see each other. if felt like hundreds of little LED christmas lights had been strung in the cave (we were assured this was not the case)

unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take our cameras in with us. apparently the glow worms respond poorly to the flash. also, i think it's a nice ploy for them to sell us our trip pics at an amped up cost. *sigh*. 

i would highly recommend the tour and if you want to see what the glow worms look like, check out the website below.

xo

http://www.waitomo.com/waitomo-glowworm-caves.aspx