New Zealand: Waitomo (Friday Jan 10)

The real Kiwi's weren't quite this big1

The morning that the tour was going to start I was really nervous about it. I was travelling by myself and was really worried that everyone else on the tour was going to be travelling with a friend or a group of friends and I would be alone. I got up that morning and had breakfast at the hotel and then headed down with my luggage to the coach parked outside the hotel. I got on and sat opposite two girls (both Aussies) who quickly became friends and ended up being two of my best friends on the tour (Steph and Liz). The bus left for Waitomo and on the way there we had to pick all the optional activities that we wanted to do on the North Island. I chatted with Steph and Liz about what they were doing and we all decided and (gulp) paid that night. We stopped at the Otorohanga Kiwi House on the way to Waitomo and saw real Kiwi birds! They're really cute and actually a lot bigger than I expected. We got back on the bus and picked room assignments and luckily I ended up sharing with Steph, Liz, and Jodi (another really nice girl from the US). All of us were travelling by ourselves and became instant friends.

New friends: Steph (left), and Jodi (right)

That afternoon we had all chosen to do an optional activity called Blackwater Rafting. Waitomo is known for their glow worm caves and the activity was basically getting into wetsuits and going through the caves in big rubber inflatable tubes while admiring the glowing worms above. What we learned was that the "glow worms" actually aren't worms at all, they're maggots, and the glowing part that we see is actually their poo. So we basically spent a lot of money to go through caves and look at glowing maggot shit. It was definitely the most beautiful poo I've ever seen though! The activity was really fun although a bit terrifying at times when we were forced to jump backwards off of 3 m waterfalls to land in a tube below. But we all survived so no complaints here.

When we got back from rafting we all showered and changed and then had a BBQ dinner at the hotel restaurant and some delicious ciders at a local brewery afterwards. It was an awesome start to the trip and we all slept very well that night!