The next morning we were on the move again, this time to Waitomo where there are famous gloworm caves you can explore. We all picked the most adventurous tour option so mid afternoon 9 of us pulled on a full wetsuit (some with more difficulty than others (Lise was given the wrong size and had a 10 minute struggle getting it off again)) and set off for stage 1 - a 35m abseil down into the cave! It was good fun but a bit scary when the hole got very narrow and rocky about halfway down. Everyone made it down though for the next part - an underground zipline in pitch black... Lise had been quite nervous before the abseil but elected herself to go first! Very brave.There was an echoey scream as she disappeared down the tunnel haha. The zipline brought us to a ledge a few metres above the eel-infested water below where we were warmed up with hot choc and flapjacks before being handed a tube and told to jump! I (somehow) pulled off a front flip after peer pressure from Tim and Henry, Vicky did one too and Lise (more fearless every second) and the others all jumped without hesitation. The water was freeeezing though!!
We all grouped together and switched our headtorches off so the only light came from the thousands of gloworms giving off a strange green light in the cave ceiling whilst the group leaders Anna and Jar gave us a brief history of the caves. It turns out the light actually comes from the gloworm poo, strange but true. And all those shiny faeces actually make for a pretty impressive sight. We linked tubes and floated along the water in the dark whilst Jar sang songs from Aladdin and The Lion King much to Lise's (and everyone else's) enjoyment. It was the relaxing part of the tour before we ditched the tubes and began a mixture of stumbling, swimming and scrambling in the dark for several hundred metres to a water slide after which we had to decide which route out of the caves to take - a rocky staircase (easy option) or through two waterfalls which we had to climb. I say we had to decide but Anna & Jar had already set off in the direction of the falls without consulting anyone! It was more challenging than we thought it would be but we emerged soaked out of the caves into the moonlit forest and the adventure was over. Best activity of the trip so far!! Everyone was shattered so after some food it was time for bed. Rotorua tomorrow...