Today is Sunday, March 8th, and I'm writing this post at 7pm. Reflecting on this past week, there were a lot of ups and downs as this was the first week of going to classes and the true start of trying to get into a comfortable routine here. The main thing that got me through this week was thinking of all the plans we made for this weekend, and they didn't disappoint! On Saturday we got up early and headed to a tour of the Waitomo Caves. The tour started just walking through these underground cave systems, and I thought it was so cool seeing all the different rock formations and how the river underground carved out huge tunnels that we were able to walk through. I learned that it takes 100 years for one cubic centimeter of limestone to form, so we weren't allowed to touch/break any of the rocks so as to preserve them. Even knowing we were safe down there it was still funny that the tourguide kept pointing out these giant boulders and saying about how recently they fell from the ceiling of the cave and also pointing to boulders still on the ceiling and saying which ones would fall soon. The next part of the tour was the main attraction, and it was a boat ride through the section of the caves that were covered in gloworms. This canoe took us through a completely black section of the cave, and you had to be silent because if the worms heard too much sound they would stop glowing. Moving along in the canoe, you'd look up at the ceiling of the cave and it was almost like looking at the stars except they were blue and very small. No photos were permitted to be taken in these tours, however I have a few that some of my group members took, even though they don't really do the caves justice.
Another part of our day was going to two different hiking trails. Honestly, I can't remember what they were called but the first was close to the Waitomo Caves and we saw some other small cave areas that we could walk through. The other walking trail we stopped at on the way home and it had a lot of super cool rock formations that I have also included pictures of.
The highlight of this day by far was the Marokopa Falls. It was about a 15 minute walk down this trail which led to a scenic overlook. Us smart Americans decided to go against the signs warning to stay on the overlook and hike as close to the waterfall as possible. It was a steep, muddy, and slippery trail but we all made it (with only one person falling lol). I have so many pictures from all different angles because it felt like from every spot you looked at the waterfall it was more beautiful than the last. It was also really funny how quickly you just got completely soaking wet because of all the water flying in all directions the closer you got. These falls were absolutely gorgeous, and inspired us to visit more places like them when we travel both on the North and South islands.
Finally, today, we visited this mall called the Base, which is apparently the largest mall in New Zealand. The inside portion of the mall wasn't even that big, but there were a ton of stores on the outside. The only thing I got was a pair of hiking boots (as we have a 12 mile mountain hike coming up in April) and a lunch of McDonalds (which I am disgusted to say that I have missed fast food). This weekend in New Zealand has been pretty perfect and I'm excited for the rest of our plans to fall into place as nicely as these did!