We stayed in a deadly hostel in Waitomo. It had a pool and a hot tub!! The pool was artic so we didn't spend long in there but the hot tub was lovely!! Just took it easy the first day we got in becaue we had to get up early the next day to go black water rafting in the caves. The day started off with us getting all kitted out, took about 20 minutes to get the wetsuit on! Then we had to practice abseiling becuase that was how we had to get into the caves. 37m down a really dark narrow hole. Kinda scary but exciting as well. You have to go down on your own and you're in control of your speed so you can go down fast or down. As per usual I took the slower option!! When we got into the caves we walked a little bit to a really dark area and we had to zip line across a drop. It was so strange. It was pitch black so you didn't know hen you were going to hit the other side. Brilliant fun though!! After that it was time for a warm up cup of coffee and some sugar before we all had to line up and jump into the absolutely freexing cold water. We had to jump feet first holding a rubber tube on your bum so you landed in it. The jump was about 4 metres and the shock of hitting the freexing water was something else!! We them paddled up to the part of the caves where you can see all the glow worms (that's what the caves are famous for). It's so beautiful. The ceiling of the caves is like looking up at the night sky. The glow worms look just like stars. No phots of these because they're very sensitive to light. It makes their lights go out but it was so amazing, then we floated back down stream and got out of the rubber and started walking/wading through the underground river. Again it was freezing. There were a few tight spots but none so bad as the practice one we did so it was fine! To get out of the caves we had to climb up 3 waterfalls! Pretty tricky. You jsut had to hoost yourself up on the rocks and be careful where you put your feet so you wouldn't be washed dow, the current was fairly strong, then when you got nearly the top you had to crawl forward on your
knees and elbows. It was challenging but absolutely brilliant. It was nice to get up in the frest air though after being in cold darkness for so long. Definately one of the best day in NZ so far!