Adventurous New Zealand Day 1

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Waitomo Caves
January 17th 2016

Published: January 17th 2016

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globaltrekker

Mel Caveing

Em and I arrived safely in Auckland and were met by Mary...I had managed to snag myself an upgrade to business class for $50 (everyone should bid on getting an upgrade with Air New Zealand...it was worth it). Unfortunately due to the flight being late we were behind schedule so after a classy and quick change in the carpark at the airport we were dressed to the nines and ready to hit the town. We got to meet up with some of our APBA family in Auckland - my apologies to G for our excitable spontaneous karaoke session as he was chauffeuring us from location to location...but I am sure it was highly entertaining at the very least! The night ended with a fluro light glove wearing karaoke weilding cab driver - those gloves had to be seen to be believed.

So we dragged ourselves home in the early hours of the morning and 2 hours later we were in the car heading to the Waitomo Caves...because what is the best cure for a hangover? That right lets go caving!

We made it to the caving and donned our flattering wetsuit combinations and climbed down

Mel heading down to the caves

a ladder into the pitch black caves. It was an awesome adventure crawling over rocks and neck high water - there was a few moments I felt I would become Winnie the Pooh with my hips caught between rocks but I managed to pull myself through. We made it to a deep river in the cave and jumped off the ledge into the water on a tube and the floated down the river with our headlamps off until we hit more rocks. With our headlamps off the ceiling lit up with glow-worms! I learned glow worms are not worms they are maggots and it is a chemical in their poo the glows...either way they were pretty cool! Unfortunately it was all over too soon and we were back on the surface in the sunshine - a well earned lunch was had at HuHu then we road-tripped it to Raglan Whale Bay stopping on the way to look at the Bridal veil Falls.

After a nap this afternoon we are headed out to the local Sunday Session...the locals won't know what hit them!!

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