After staying in the jungle retreat in Raglan overnight we set off to Waitomo for some adrenaline-pumping adventure. The activity we had chosen was called 'Haggas Honking Holes' and involved 3 abseils, (2 over waterfalls), 1 climb and some caving in between. Having only ever abseiled on Year 7 camp I was pretty nervous but Jonny was raring to go! After getting suited and booted (or should I say wet-suited and gum-booted) it was time for the first abseil - which was straight in at the deep end with a 20m down a narrow shaft into the cave. I was much more scared than I thought I would be and it seemed to take me forever to get down to the bottom (which Jonny delighted in confirming later).

Once in the caves we could see the main attraction which was the glow worms!! They were amazing to look at with your head torch off, even if we were slightly grossed out later when we found out that the 'worms' are actually gnat larvae and the 'glow' is their poo! We were interested to learn that the larvae lives for 9 months, where all it does is eat, but the adult gnat only lives for 3 days because it doesn't have a mouth (my worst nightmare). So all it can do is reproduce. So that's 9 months of eating followed by 3 days of rampant sex. Not a bad life!

Next there were two shorter descents down waterfalls, which for me basically involved flailing my arms and legs around and swinging down to the bottom more than abseiling! After that there was much paddling and walking through the caves which were really narrow, we regretted having the big bbq the night before. At one point we were told to get down flat under the water and squeeze under a rock to get to the next part to which both of our independent reactions was "are you f****** kidding me?!" and another time when Jonny just said point blank to the guide "there is NO way I can fit through there!!". Surprisingly though the guides know their stuff and we made it through although I got my bum stuck a few times - no surprises there!! There were several metal ladders we had to climb which were pretty hairy and one hole which we were lowered down by the guides to drop us into a pool of water at the bottom which was freezing!! Needless to say the guides found this hilarious!!

All in all it was a pretty strenuous morning (not least because of the extra 5kg on each leg when the gum boot filled with water) and we were so glad to get a free glass of lemonade and chocolate bar 3/4 of the way round (food always makes things more bearable for us) and to see daylight at the end!!

After our caving trip we were nakkered and smelt of stinky wetsuit but back on the bus we headed to Maketu where we were staying with local Maori. On the journey over we learnt the words to the Haka which would come in useful later on. This was still in our heads days later! At the 'cultural retreat' we had a 'Hangi' meal and learned about Maori traditions and all slept overnight in the marae (meeting house). The Chief went by the name of Uncle Boy who was a really nice (if a little straight talking) maori guy who has backpackers staying there several times a week. He nominated a chief from our 'tribe' and we reenacted a scenario where two tribes meet and make peace with each other. During this time we were absolutely NOT to laugh... So I had to pretty much stare at my feet the whole time because parts of it were pretty funny! After that we greeted all the members of their tribe and our own tribe by touching noses with each other and saying 'Kia Ora.' Again, very funny!

Then girls were taught Poi dancing whilst the blokes learned the Haka. The less said about Poi dancing the better as it basically involved flailing a rope with a ball on the end around, think the boys got the better deal! Needless to say Jonny relished the opportunity to put a skirt on and fully entered into the Haka spirit and scared the girls on the front row with his 'game face' (luckily with nothing else too- he later admitted that his boxers have a tendency to pop open). The rest of the evening was spent watching a cultural performance by the Maoris, with some of the cutest little boys and a cute old woman called 'nana babs' who was giving it 200%, and listening to bedtime stories from Uncle Boy. He showed us various carvings and pictures and invited us to say what we thought they meant only to shoot us down when he didn't agree! Still v entertaining though, but unfortunately not everyone found the show as interesting as we did and one girl actually went and made up her bed in the corner of the room in the middle of the show and went to sleep! For the rest of us though it was a brilliant way to settle down for the night with 35 of us sleeping on the floor in the marae - it was like Santiago airport all over again!