It was on early start on Thursday from Hot Water Beach with the bus leaving at 7.30am for Waitomo. We jumped on the bus and stopped in a small town just past Hamilton to stock up on some supplies for the day ahead. Whilst there I got talking to an old New Zealand couple who recognised my Geordie accent because of Robson Green's fishing show! After the supermarket stop we drove for another 5 minutes before we all jumped off the bus for a small walk around an old gold mining area from the 1800's which was interesting.

We then headed to Big Az Ice Creams which pretty much do exactly what they say on the tin! We got a kiddies ice cream each which was massive. Somehow the double ice creams were actually seven scoops and impossible to eat before they melted. After this, we had the short drive to Waitomo and made it there for about 2pm. We checked into our hostel where we had a four bed dorm which was pretty good. We were booked into the Black Labyrinth underground cave tour at 4.15pm do we got our swimming stuff together before we were picked up. The tour consisted of entering the underground caves with a rubber ring (tube) and jumping into deep pools, off waterfalls into freezing water. The trip was excellent and we also got to see thousands of glow worms which look like stars in the pitch black of the caves. We both had a brilliant time and really enjoyed getting soaking wet jumping around in wet suits and rubber rings. After the tour we were treated to some welcome hot tomato soup and bagels to help us recover the feeling in our hands.

After getting back from the tour, we went to the bar in the hostel for a quick drink before everyone on the Kiwi Experience went for a candlelit walk which was pretty good apart from the candles dripping all over our hands and feet. After this, we went back to the hostel bar and had a few more drinks before we headed to we around 11.30pm.