Another cave and on to Auckland

I visited the waitomo glow worm caves today...this is probably the busiest and most established of caves in the waitomo area, hence the name I suppose! It is very accessible, and has the best collection of glow worms. The guides show around large groups pretty much none stop one after another. It was a spectacular trip beneath the ground. We were lead through a sequence of caves down to a lake, where we boarded a boat. We were all asked to be quiet, so I was wondering how they were planning to quietly move a boat full of about thirty people, without asking us to row (which probably wouldn't have been all that quiet anyway!). The solution was that our guide stayed standing, and pulled us along on a network of ropes webbed across the ceiling. Very clever I thought, though I do wonder if any guide has ever fallen in ( I wish I'd thought of this question soon enough to ask!) it was very peaceful down there, and was nice that everyone was quiet to take in the many thousands of lights glowing above us. It could feel a little stressful to be rammed into a cave with so many other people, but that bit was very calm and relaxing.

Like many of these attractions, they take photos of you to try and sell at the end. Mine was awful, my eyes were closed. So I didn't fork out for that one! Hehe. I met a couple of nice Australian ladies on the way out of the caves who were in New Zealand for a felting craft week, so I told them about my WOW adventures in return and we had a nice chat :-)

Then onto the coach from outside the caves, and on to Auckland. I'm only staying here one night, then going further north. But I will be back here after my travels to further places! This is where I fly home from, in less than a week! How time flies! So I've done a little exploring this evening along the harbour, where I had fish and chips. Nice, but not like Yorkshire ones. There was a random crazy golf course inside some disused silo chimneys on the dock (very peculiar!) which I had a nosey at, and was most interested to see inside. Didn't play though, thought perhaps the novelty would wear off if playing an 18 hole course solo, haha! 

I've arranged a hostel for my return to Auckland, as it's very busy here, and for the first time on my travels there was almost no room at the inn! It's getting near summer, it's the school holidays and apparently there's a band playing tonight (maroon 5) which has brought the crowds to town. This is quite a hilly city, with lots of tall buildings. I'd say it easily feels as big as Wellington, the capital, but I could be mistaken. There are lots of nearby islands to explore though, which I shall do when I'm back!