waitomo caves

i recently took one of those quizzes on facebook calculating the number of places i've been out of the top 100 places to go.  honestly, i was expecting to do better than i did so i won't be bragging about my score, but even more disappointingly, i noticed that i had hit only 1 out of 3 places in NZ that made the list.  one of those being the waitomo glowworm caves, which since became a priority.

now, want to know one of the best things about living in a country for a long period of time and technically still being a "tourist?" even if you said no, i'm going to tell you.  staying here for a long period of time has allowed me to not only spread out my touristy activities in a financially responsible manner, but i've also had the time to take advantage of all tourist activities posted on groupon out of season.  double financial responsibility. boom!  so when a groupon appeared for a tubing trip down at the waitomo caves, i naturally emailed/imed everyone i knew and peer pressured a group into going.

since the caves were on the way back to auckland from our ill-fated tongariro trip, we decided to make it a sunday activity for the weekend.  two friends who didn't come for the tongariro trip even met us halfway from auckland for the adventure.  and an adventure it was.  

honestly, we really had no idea what we were getting into when we arrived.  i think most of us were sort of thinking we simply got in tubes lazy river style and floated through the caves (particularly the hungover ones who arrived), but it was much more interesting than that.  during one part of our journey through the caves, we literally got down on our hands and knees gorilla style to crawl through a tiny paths in the cave to a waterfall.  at another point, we dropped down a 7 meter slide into a raging rapid of freezing cold water.  and yet again, i had the opportunity to showcase my fear of heights with a mini panic attack falling backwards off a 2 meter waterfall (please don't google how many feet that is - totally embarrassing...)

the best part? when the guide asked us what we thought was the part of the glowworm that shined, and we childlishly answered "the ass," we were kind of right.  "it's what comes OUT of the ass actually," our decorous guide responded.  so what we were ooh-ing and ah-ing about all afternoon, was really just glowworm poo.

we weren't even posing.

in the van on the way to the caves.

i don't think you're ready...

group artsy tube photo. standard.

believe it or not, these were the photographers fade filters. no instagram necessary.

SO glad the two girls we didn't know got in front for this one.

tourist photo in the glowworms.

glowworm poop.  really, i'm not just being immature.

post mini panic attack caused by jumping backwards off a 2 meter waterfall. some things never change.

side note - this past week there was also a groupon for a shark dive at an aquatic center here in auckland.  thought about it, but unfortunately for you/the blog, that was the extent of my actions. maybe next time...but probably not.