I haven’t seen the sun since I did the crossing on Saturday. New Zealand is currently getting pounded with rain to the point where Didi told me to come to Bali for her birthday and I googled flights to see if I could escape for a week. Problem is they’re really expensive and it’s raining in Bali too.

After Turangi, I spent a night in Waitomo. There is nothing in Waitomo other than the caves. In fact, I think there are more businesses that run cave tours than there are of anything else in the town.

While walking to the hostel from the bus stop, I noticed a general store. The sign said, “Beer, wine, groceries, souvenirs, cafe.” I needed a new pair of headphones, so after I checked into the hostel I asked the receptionist if they might have them there. She said, “Yea, they might.” So, I walked the mile or so back to the store, in the rain. On the way, I decided I’d buy a steak and actually have a nice meal for dinner. I hadn’t even walked through the doors yet and I knew they didn’t have headphones. When I actually entered the store, they had a single shelf of souvenirs and a bookcase of non-perishable foods.

My steak dinner turned into a can of soup and a bag of chips. The nearest actual grocery store was 5-miles away. Back to the hostel, in the rain, I went.

Over the course of the next 20 hrs or so, I used 7 gigs of data streaming Wrestlemania, a couple of movies and the Sox opener. If you ever get to New Zealand and want to see the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, do a day trip from Rotorua or Auckland. You don’t need to see what Waitomo has to offer above ground.

The morning after I got to Waitomo, I had my tour of the 3 main caves. First up was the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. There was no photography allowed in this cave system, but we took a short walk through the caves. When we reached the Cathedral area of the cave, the guide asked if anyone wanted to sing. At this point, I was a bit annoyed with Waitomo and humans in general, so I thought to myself, “I would love to sing, if you’d all just go away.” They stayed and I didn’t sing. This same situation would repeat itself on the 3rd tour.

The best part of the glowworm caves tour was the 10 minute boat ride on the river in total darkness besides the light from the worms.

The next tour was the Ruakuri Cave. This cave also had glowworms, but we were allowed to take pictures this time.

Hard not to be disappointed in the glowworms when postcards look like this…..

But the glowworms actually look like this….(probably want to click on those pictures, hahaha).

I don’t know how to take pictures in the dark or maybe I need a better camera.

Turns out the postcard pictures are a 30 minute exposure. It was still cool, but not what I was expecting.

There was a French couple on the tour with their 2 little girls and they were smart enough to let them wear light up shoes to a place where we want total darkness. They did not help my annoyance with people for the day.

We explored more of the cave formations and saw some scallop fossils.

Before the last tour, I had some time to kill so I went on a 30 minute bushwalk near the carpark.

The 3rd cave tour was the Aranui Cave. The cave ceilings were pretty high, but the cave wasn’t very deep so it was a pretty short tour.

The group split up at one point and while we were waiting for the rest of the group, one of the guides was off by himself and started singing, “You are my sunshine.” I need more sunshine in my life. I miss that song. I miss bedtime.

After the last tour, I went back to the hostel and had a little over an hour to kill until I had to catch my bus to New Plymouth. I ended up waiting at the bus stop for an hour and 15 minutes because my bus was late.

I spent 2 nights in New Plymouth and it poured pretty much the whole time. Today I took a 7 hr bus ride to Wellington, where it is still raining, yayyyyyy!!! The rain is finally supposed to stop tomorrow, so hopefully I can actually go do some exploring. I’m only here 2 nights and then I take the ferry over to the South Island.

The South Island is completely different from the North Island, mostly due to the Southern Alps that run pretty much down the middle of the island. Many people say it is much more beautiful than the North Island.

I hope it wasn’t too painfully obvious that I wasn’t really interested in writing this post. I think the weather has had me in a bit of a funk the last 4 or 5 days. I’m workin on it though!

Here are some animals that were at my hostel in Waitomo, because who doesn’t like animals?