Through Limestone Tubes to the All Blacks

Quite tired! It is 2:30 in the morning and we woke at 4:30am to make the drive to Waitomo Caves for our "Haggas" adventure. The Waitomo caves are a series of water-carved tunnels in which little worms dangle and glow in the dark. In the pitch black they look like the starry sky above you. After donning our gear of wetsuits, helmet and headlamp, gummy boots and climbing harness, the group of 12 of us were trained in on how to abseil, or in our terminology, repel, using a specially designed abseil. We then went single-file down into the fern encircled hole, repelled some 60ft down a shaft and began our exploration of the caves. We repelled through waterfalls and slid and slithered through shafts. Sometimes you found yourself on your stomach, and sometimes we were climbing up slick walls. At one point we had to tuck up and drop down a shaft into a roaring pool and then pass through a waterfall. The most challenging part was being told to duck down into the water underneath a low ledge, not knowing when you would surface in the tube ahead of you. It was cold, wet, slimey, roaring water (at times) and could be quite clausterphobic, but I was having a great time while I was doing it. Anyone could really do it and it helped having a group along. It had a Rambo rating of 8/10 and a glow worm rating of 6/10. It was very cool! You can see some dorky pics of me.

The next stop was back to Hamilton to watch the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team trounce the Canadians. It was quite an experience. A beautiful stadium and entertaining show. The country loves its rugby like a religion and the fans were very involved but not fanatical.

I will include some pictures. I apologize for the jumbled sentences. Sleep is calling but I really wanted to get this out to people before I left town. Tomorrow we head to see the Dalai Lama speak and then to Poor Knights for some diving at a location Jacques Cousteau marked as one of his top 5 in the world. I'm doing well though it is chilly and humid here and have yet to be significantly warm. Looking forward to returning to the heat I am missing so much! I will try to check back in two days or so. I'll give my regards to the fishies for you!