July 3rd-5th: Days 7-9 - Trip to Waitomo Caves

WAITOMO CAVES

So Friday and Saturday we went black water rafting...it was so fun, but the water was freezing. We woke up Friday morning and headed down to sky city bus stop, where a charter bus took us to Waitomo and dropped us off in front of our hostel. We went to the black water rafting company and they said the next tour wasn't until 3 pm...so we had about 4 hours to waste. We took the 15 min walk into town and found a little pizzeria and then took a tour of the cave museum. We learned all about glowworms which are worms that live in the top of the Waitomo caves and light the way down the twisted pathways. I couldn't wait to start our rafting tour. At 3 we showed back up to the rafting company where we proceeded to put on our wet wet suits. They were already freezing and soaked from the last tour. As we put them on we all looked like penguins and it was pretty hard to move. To top it off, literally, we had bright blue and yellow helmets with lights on them. We headed down into the caves which was a creepy experience because we were actually standing in a creek that was headed down into the ground. Inside it was freezing and so extremely cold. There were a few parts where we could just float down the river, turn our lights off on our helmets, and just sit back and watch the glowworms on the ceiling…it was a pretty awesome experience. Afterwards we got a hot shower, soup, and a bagel…kind of random I know but there isn’t really a reason for anything they do in New Zealand. We stayed at a hostel named Juno Hall that night, woke up the next morning and took a walking tour up this mountain and we were able to look at the entire Waitomo area. We were so lucky that it wasn't foggy for probably the first time ever!! We headed back to Auckland about 12 and got there about 2:30pm. It was the fourth of July so all of the other interns were going to dinner and then out to celebrate. We ate at this really nice Asian food place right up the street and then headed out to a few different places where all they played was Michael Jackson music. (We danced to thriller back at the apartment just to remember...and we weren't so bad. So far Michael Jackson seems to be the theme of my entire trip to New Zealand.) The FIBA U19 basketball tournament is going on in Auckland and Hannah, Laura, and I meet a few players from Canada. They were really nice, funny guys….but its really late so I better get to bed.