6 hours may sound like a long way to drive to visit some caves and, well, it is. But when they're the famous Waitomo caves the trip feels justified. We set out in Sean and Lauren's now functioning car after work and drove into the night. We arrived at our campsite nearing midnight and the owners had left a cheery letter of welcome directing us to our 'deluxe' cabin complete with sink and our personal troop of insect concierge.

We rose bright and early for our day of exploring the cave. Because we'd booked on a particularly early trip we were the only members of the group and so we set off with our private guide. Harnessed up the tour began with a vertical abseil down into the depths. Greg was volunteered to go first and as Claire watched him lower himself into the darkness her heart quivered with emotion and pride at what a truly brave fiancé she had. Unfortunately this thought was interrupted by a high-pitched squeal that escaped from Greg's mouth. Greg touched down in the shallow water below and felt as Neil Armstrong must have felt when the crew forced him out of the Apollo 11 doors first, a lone soldier in a brave new world. He took a deep calming breath as he surveyed the terrain around him. After careful consideration he signalled up to the rest of the team that the descent was safe. He sat back and watched Claire, Sean and Lauren descend with the same fearful look he remembered from his youth.

Our guide led us up river into the pitch black and we all slowly became aware of hundreds of tiny lights on the roof of the cave we were exploring. Suddenly out of the darkness a terrifying crashing sound rung in our ears. As our pupils dilated in fight or flight response the hundreds of tiny lights on the cave ceiling became thousands, resembling the night sky. Our guide had deliberately given us a fright to allow us to see the thousands of glow-worms that called these caves home.

We then mounted our trusty steeds (large rubber rings) and rafted our way back down the river through mini rapids, surrounded by the light provided by glow-worms overhead and eels brushing past our welly clad feet. The trip was completed with an introduction to caving, squeezing through the tiny tunnels and holes naturally occurring in the cave. We exited the caves with a quick climb up a sheer rock face and re-emerged into the blazing midday sun.

Having escaped the clutches of the glow-worms, we made a hasty retreat to Rotorua where celebrations were in order; it was a Saturday after all. While Claire and Lauren put their faces on, Greg and Sean frequented the liquor store. By the time the girls emerged a game of drinking Monopoly Deal had been invented. Needless to say the rules were sketchy and the emphasis was on the drinking. It wasn't long before they were the loudest table in the hostel dining room, it was at this stage that it was decided a light meal rather than a large meal was more preferable before our night out. In retrospect this decision may have been an error. Having devoured their Japanese platter for two between four and shared a bottle of sake, they were ready to hit Lava Bar. Excitement had been building as Claire had been bigging this place up since her last visit in 2008. Due to the light drizzle, we all went in our raincoats, unfortunately Lauren's primark number was only splashproof. On arrival Lauren was so disgusted at being 'sopping wet' that she shoved her raincoat in the bin much to Sean's protestations that it only ever claimed to be splashproof. To prevent a major domestic Claire fetched the coat from the bin and Greg checked it into the cloakroom to allow Lauren and Sean time to decide its fate. On entering Lava Bar excitement overcame us and the rest of the evening became a bit of a blur. There were drinks, pool, santa's blow jobs (sans cream for the girls), Cossack dancing, re-enactments of dirty dancing scenes and reconciliation with raincoats. We awoke the next morning 10 minutes before check out, Lauren wrapped in only a sheet, with only a highlights reel of the previous night playing in our heads.

A hasty turn around by the suspiciously sober Greg, ensured we checked out on time. The girls requested a lie down on the nearest patch of grass before the day's activities could continue. Add this to an ice pop and they were ready to go. It was OGO time. What's OGO I hear you cry?!? OGO is the original name for what is now known as Zorbing. On arrival we checked in and booked our two rides but we all felt we needed another lie down in the sun before the activity could be undertaken. Finally we felt up to the challenge and we headed up for the first turn. This consisted of two identical tracks side by side. Lauren and Sean in one 'OGO' and us in the other. Warm water was thrown in with us and the starter set us off...it was a race to the finish!. Claire and Lauren immediately collapsed to the rotational force in their respective OGO's, however the competition took hold of Greg and Sean as they powered on until top speed at which point they were thrown from their feet and succumbed to the limb tangling hilarity. We don't want to brag but it was a clear victory for the Davies-Evans OGO.