We woke up at 7am to get breakfast and pack up our tent in time for the bus from Rotorua to the small village of Waitomo. The nice woman from the campsite offered to give us a lift to the station, which saved us a 15 minute walk with all our bags. The bus to Waitomo only took 2 hours and the bus driver even dropped us off at our hostel, saving us another walk. They're really helpful these NewZealanders . Once the light rain had stopped we went outside and pitched our tent in the garden, before taking the short walk into town for a look around. The village is famous as the location of several cave networks that are home to glow worms, and there are several tours available so we went straight to the information centre to arrange something. After looking at the options, we decided to go 'Black Water Rafting', which involves paddling through the caves in wetsuits and a rubber ring. The woman at the caving office said that they had a slot for that afternoon, and we still had a few hours before the trip began, so we decided to do that. We had initially arrived inWaitomo planning to stay for a couple of days then move on, as our time in New Zealand was coming to an end and we still had several places we wanted to see. This way we could leave the next day and gain a day somewhere else. On the way back to get our stuff for the caves, as we had some time to wait, we decided we couldn't miss the free daily rabbit-shearing display at a local wool shop. Yes you did read that correctly. These are no ordinary rabbits though, as they are the size of a small dog and look like a pair of novelty slippers. One woman tied the rabbits legs to a device like a medieval rack to "Stretch out the wrinkles", and proceeded to shave the thing with some clippers, as her accomplice gave a running commentary. In fairness, the commentary was quite funny, and they say that their business is fully supported by the animal rights bods. The rabbit didn't look too bothered by it either. One he was half shaved the woman stopped so we could all get photos and have a feel of the fur (which was really soft), then they took him off the rack to finish the job in private. Another (unshaven) rabbit was available for photographs, so we got one before heading back to the tent feeling amused and confused all at once. After a quick lunch, we went back down to the caving office to start our trip at 3pm, and found that we were the only ones on the tour. Our guide was a young local lad, who took us down the road to get into our wetsuits, before driving us up to the cave entrance. There were no lights in the cave, and we only had small headlights on our helmets, but most of the time we had the lights off so that we could see the glow worms above our heads. At points there were hundreds of them that look like stars in the sky, and sometimes they were low enough that we could actually see the worms crawling around in their pouches. At first we only had to walk along through the tunnels, but soon enough we reached the underground rivers and had to get into the rubber rings. During the hour or so that we had in the cave, we got to jump off a waterfall and go down a water slide. The water was freezing, but the wetsuits did help. Our had guide warned us that there were eels in the water in case we wondered what was stroking us, but we didn't actually see any in the end. We were also warned aboutWetas , which are like giant locusts that live in the cave. They aren't dangerous, but apparently they can jump up to 2m and will try and extinguish any source of light, which means you could have one on your face if they see your headlamp. Again, we were thankful that we didn't see any. Soon we left the cave near where we had entered, then went back to get out of our wetsuits and warm up with some free soup. As we were in the water for much of the time I couldn't take my camera, but the guide had been snapping away, and we bought his photos for a pretty reasonable price.

Back at the hostel, we found the place packed with people. When we arrived earlier it had been pretty quiet, but we found out that someone from Auckland had brought loads of friends and family down for their 30th birthday. As they had taken over the whole hostel, including the kitchen and lounge (where we couldn't watch 'The Incredibles' properly because of the noise), they were kind enough to invite us for some food and drinks. After a while Amy went to bed, but I stayed up for a while helping the party goers finish there endless supply of booze.

In the morning, nursing a slight hangover, we were up to check out and take down the tent. We were meant to walk into town to catch the bus to Auckland, but someone must have told the driver where we were staying as he turned up at the hostel to pick us up. It's easy this traveling lark!